Album #22 : Prince - Sign o' The Times

Prince

Sign o' the Times (1987)

Okay. Um.....look, in lieu of a written introduction to the artist and album, I'm just gonna put this here for you to watch.

I don't think anymore needs to be said.

The Album

Stylistically, the album covers so much musical ground it isn't funny. The overarching mood of the album though is a funky one. Prince spends a great deal of time proving why he was the ultimate successor to funk leaders like James Brown and Parliament. There are moments on the album that serve as respectful homage to those legends of funk, while others are just straight up mimicry. However, there's also healthy dollops of R&B, soul, pop and even garage rock (yes, you read that correctly).

I also should note that, apart from a handful of tracks, Prince plays every instrument on this album.

Well.

Dude's a straight up musical genius.

Highlights of the album are numerous. Opener Sign o' The Times is a sparsely arranged song with a funky feel and heavily reverbed drums. Its somewhat downbeat tone is underlined by the cynical lyrics, where Prince bemoans the times he lives in; where a woman's poverty can cause her child to die despite exorbitant government spending on frivolities, where a 'big disease with a little name' is running rampant, spread by needle sharing (AIDS, obviously), and where drug addiction is a real issue of concern. Play In The Sunshine is catchy as all hell. 80s synthesised dance pop with some highly impressive guitar work from Prince. Housequake is a pure party dance tune, almost entirely electronic with a sped-up vocal. 

(Incidentally, the album features a number of songs with sped-up vocals. These were all intended for a project called Camille, where Prince would credit the album to a 'female' alter-ego. The project was incorporated into a triple album called Crystal Ball. When Prince's record company trashed the triple album, it was trimmed into a double album...this one.)

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, highlights. Starfish and Coffee is intriguing from a production point of view. The vocals, piano and main drums are running forwards normally; but the bass synth line, and a supporting percussion track, are played backwards underneath. It's also another catchy pop song. Hot Thing and Forever In My Life are extremely minimalist compositions; the former an extremely funky electronic song about Prince seducing a hot chick, and it features a kickass saxophone solo that SMASHES THE FUNK IN YOUR FACE, while the latter is remarkable - the drums and bass play the same beat and note for the whole song, while Prince trades vocals with himself. The vocals provide all the melody in this song, save for the last 20 seconds when there is an acoustic guitar break. It's compelling listening because of that amazing Prince vocal battle. And Slow Love is a smooth, sexy ballad in the style of 50s balladeers The Platters, but with a modern vibe with horns and synthesisers. 

And that's just Disc 1.

On Disc 2, the standout track is The Cross. Prince channels the spirit of Neil Young (stay with me here), giving us a dirty garage rock track. Acoustic guitar and vocals at the start, distorted guitar riff and lead guitar melody as the song closes, and a rough, gravelly, pure wail - it's absolutely positively 70s guitar music. BY PRINCE.

Other great songs on Disc 2 are album closer Adore, a burning slow R&B jam that is a soulful, yet powerful ballad; It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night, where Prince is joined by The Revolution (his early to mid 80s rock/funk band) in a live recording that basically acts as a testament to all that is good about P-Funk and James Brown. Everything from the groovy rhythm section to the punchy horns to the call and response with the backing vocalists simply screams 70s funk; and I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man, a surprisingly upbeat guitar pop song about Prince rejecting a one night stand because the woman would not be satisfied with that.

To be fair, there isn't a bad song on Disc 2. Not one. The only songs on Disc 1 that left me a bit cold were It and The Ballad of Dorothy Parker, and neither of those were particularly bad per se, they just pale in comparison.

It really is that good.

The Verdict

"Prince's best album", it has been called. "Arguably the best album of the 80s", somebody else claims. Don't know about the latter yet, but the former is absolutely undeniably true.

Sign o' The Times is an absolute belter. It is Prince as experimental songwriter, as daring arranger, as masterful musician. Its weaknesses are very few. You could argue that at 80 minutes, it goes on a bit too long; I personally disagree as almost all of the sixteen songs are so fantastic, its length is unimportant (it will be hard to narrow my Standout Tracks down to only three, let me put it that way). You could also argue that it doesn't have a killer single, like Purple Rain had; I would say that what it lacks in killer singles it more than makes up for in execution, experimentation and musicianship. 

Like The Soft Bulletin, I think this is an album everybody should listen to at least once. Marvel at the talents of a man whom I don't believe gets the recognition for his musical abilities that he deserves; witness Prince, more than just a songwriter, but a truly gifted musician.

GAME. BLOUSES.

My rating: *****

Standout Tracks

Forever In Your Life

The Cross

Adore

Tomorrow, the first of two slightly more modern releases; I take on an album released last year to widespread acclaim. It will either be a great listen or another chance to hang shit on Triple J for undeservedly wanking on about musicians who don't match their overblown hype.

WHICH WILL IT BE? Find out tomorrow!