SiGN O tHe timES
| Prince
SiGN O tHe timES
Sign o' the Times is the ninth studio album by American recording artist Prince, released on March 30, 1987, by Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records. The album is the follow-up to Parade (1986) and is Prince's first album following his disbanding of the Revolution. The songs were largely recorded during 1986 to 1987 in sessions for albums Prince ultimately aborted: Dream Factory, the pseudonymous Camille, and finally the triple album Crystal Ball.Prince eventually compromised with label executives and shortened the length of the release to a double album. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Sign o’ the Times surely stands as his most complex and varied statement
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BBC
when you listen again to Sign 'O' The Times, you realise why Prince was routinely labelled a genius in the late 80s
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AV Club
an overwhelming wealth of material
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Consequence of Sound
Prince plundered only the best ideas from a moment of creative tumult and worry and came out with something whole, unique, and truly special.
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Rolling Stone
Both discs are heavy with songs about hot sex (“Slow Love,” “Hot Thing”), but those songs are outweighed by the towering ballads about love and commitment.
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Billboard
there’s no denying the album’s brilliance
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All Music
Apocalyptic imagery of drugs, bombs, empty sex, abandoned babies and mothers, and AIDS pop up again and again, yet he balances the despair with hope, whether it's God, love, or just having a good time. In its own roundabout way
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Spin
it’s just more genius
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Slant Magazine
Sign ’O’ the Times is an almost too-convenient double-disc blowout of sweat, funk, and raw, concentrated talent
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Albumism
Some people overuse the term “genius,” but Sign O’ the Times alone provides indisputable evidence that Prince is worthy of the label.
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Hyperallergic
Sign o’ the Times includes more genres than ever, yet declines to mix them. Each song picks a distinct and usually preexisting genre, provides an exemplary model for how that genre should or at least can be performed, moves on to the next radically different genre, and repeats the cycle.
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The Young Folks
ign o’ the Times does have the traditional expert musicianship expected on Prince albums, but something about its production is harder, meaner, more confrontational.
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The Quietus
the best album of the eighties and, perhaps, the most complete double album in pop history
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Banded Box
This album is still relevant to this day.
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Roger Havarti
an absolute f*cking masterpiece
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New Music Ear
a creative masterpiece
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Spectrum Culture
it is the last testament to the fact that, for a significant part of his career, he was an unparalleled genius who consistently tested and warped pop’s parameters
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Pop Matters
A musical quilt work of dizzying versatility
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Rock NYC
80 minute masterpiece
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Hooks and Harmony
There’s something for everyone on this album
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Adrian's Album Reviews
t lacks enough stand-out cuts and if simply providing a quantity of music is enough to overcome quality
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Clash Music
It takes a truly great musician who can maintain the listener’s awestruck attention for more than an hour.
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GQ
the double album that confirmed Prince's greatness
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Stereogum
Sign “O” The Times is probably Prince’s most complete piece of self-presentation, the best possible example of how he wanted the world to see him. It’s an absolute essential, one of a handful in the man’s catalog.
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