#45 Prince, 'Sign O' the Times' (1987)
Previously #93
True to form, in 1986 Prince was working on multiple projects at the same time; ‘Dream Factory,’ an album with his band, the Revolution, and ‘Camille,’ a solo project that saw Prince take on an androgynous character, which had him singing the songs in a higher, female-sounding voice. And once again, true to form, Prince decided to spontaneously disband The Revolution. He consolidated the two projects into one album, threw in some new songs and decided to call the triple album ‘Crystal Ball.’ The label were not keen on the idea of trying to sell a triple album, and so they comprised. Prince cut some songs, rejigged the tracklisting and the final result was ‘Sign O’ The Times.’
As with previous records, Prince played the bulk of the instruments. He also incorporated the use of drum machine and synthesizers and a lot of the songs. Opening with the title track, it’s one of his most socially conscious, addressing things such as AIDS (“a skinny man died of a big disease with a little name”), heroine/drug use (“By chance his girlfriend came across a needle and soon she did the same”), gang violence (“there are seventeen-year-old boys and their idea of fun/Is being in a gang called 'The Disciples'/High on crack and totin' a machine gun”) and natural disaster. All of the sounds on the song, and indeed most of the record, were created with the stock sounds on the Fairlight CMI synthesizer (incidentally, the same synth used by Kate Bush on ‘Hounds Of Love [#68]). Across the 4 sides of the record, Prince spans genres from pop to funk to rock to electro. And in only the way Prince can, he brings it all together to make a cohesive album. Besides for the singles, the aforementioned title track, ‘U Got The Look,’ ‘If I Was Your Girlfriend’ and ‘I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man,’ the song ‘The Cross’ absolutely floored me. Also loved ‘Starfish and Coffee,’ ‘It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night,’ and ‘The Balad Of Dorothy Parker.’ Once again, it’s a true cover to cover album that only gets better on each listen. Prince takes us on a journey, and like the true puppet master that he was, manages to control our emotions, making us feel the way he wanted us to and at the exact moments too. Truly one of the greatest Prince records amongst a discography of great records.
#rs500albums