After reading some "Favorite Prince Album" threads, I have come to the conclusion that most (not all..) Prince fans consider Sign to be his best work.

For me, even though I find Sign to be a cohesive and solid album, I have always found Purple Rain, and Parade superior musically. I feel the latter albums tell a story. Especially Parade, its his best album IMO, from start to end its incredible. I'm not trying to discredit Sign, as I said its a solid album musically but its also safe for Prince's standards, Parade is far more innovative, even Purple Rain is more innovative.

I would like to read your opinions on this, do you guys consider Parade to be undderated, while Sign O The Times to be overrated by fans?
[Edited 3/20/10 6:43am]

i must admit that i always have a hard time deciding which one is my
all time favorite prince album, Sign o The Times or Parade.

it is likely Parade, because that's just a superb album and i enjoy
every single note on that disc.

the reason i start doubting it is probably simply because sign has a
couple more songs and they're all good so the sheer volume of songs
makes me want to say Sign.

yet, Parade is a single album, cohesive, to the point and fresh with
an otherworldly tone. so yes, today, once again, i am convinced that
Parade is the best Prince album

I wouldn't say Sign "O" The Times is overrated, because it truly is a perfect album. Still, I do prefer Parade.

I prefer Parade because it's too short to get tedius.

SOTT is brilliant but I just can't get into "Slow Love" and "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night".




But I'm not a good judge of Prince albums. I mean, I love Emancipation and think it's highly underrated for fucks sake.

Sign o the times is a great album, its in my top 10 of Prince albums. However i also prefer Parade, its an album i return to on a regular basis...2 me it still sounds as fresh and innovative as it did back in 86. As a result it makes my top 5 of prince albums.
Mountains is still 1 of my favourite tracks from that period.

TheVoid said:

exactly the same here. those two songs are the only flaws on it.
i got used to "slow love" over the years but i still feel that
"it's gonna be a beautiful night" doesn't fit too well and it's
just dragging on too long and it's too happy poppy. my gripe on
it is only enhanced by the thought that it could have been cut
off the album in favor of TWO other, better songs.

ha ha parade

i wish he made three of them instead of one

because i like evry single parade song thrice

I don't particularly like Play In The Sunshine and Housequake but I rate SOTT over Parade even if it's a less cohesive record.

You never see Parade or ATWIAD make 'best of' lists like SOTT and Purple Rain

I think parade is very underrated along with ATWIAD, but SOTT is better because it covers a wide genere of music. Parade was to me, straight up funk and can only be fully appreciated by true prince followers

i like ofcourse prince other work like purple snail and sign of the swines

but ha ha ( joke ) parade hey ? is so full with gothic and the in combination with french candy and coffee

i compare this album always with : eden from everything but the girl

a treu original and very rare to find in this world we live in

The reason why SOTT is considered the best album is because Prince gives you the best of every genre. Lets include the B-side with this too. There's funk, pop, R&B, rock, sappy, alternative, you name it, it's on there. If it was the original Crystal Ball it would have been even more greatness. Prince gave us the best of him with this effort and it still wasn't his original vision.

they are both amazing
i don't see anyone anywhere outside of this forum who serisouly narrows down and over/underrates those albums
[Edited 3/20/10 9:22am]

later when i am a milionair a am gonne sue prince for not making three parade albums ha ha

Not a big Parade fan. In my opinion Parade is a solid album and Sign is an excellent album, with the exception of a few songs . But if you're talking about underrated, Around The World In A Day is genious, one of my faves.
Don't get me started on Emancipation though, now that's what you call perfection
[Edited 3/20/10 10:45am]
[Edited 3/20/10 10:45am]

GOD love em both

but.....

if im honest-back when it first came out-i had my sony walkman-and i wore sott out 3 times-i paid for it 3 times for my walkman alone-i had it on all the time-and to say it took me away is an understatment. So much variation-P was on all the screens in every pub/club with the vids of the period-and man he was god back then to the world-there was even talk of moving Paisley Park to Birmingham-lol-happy days

love Parade too-but im a guitar player-and sott is a guitar album-ish

ps-i should add-i had the valium gig on tape then too-so coupled with sott-man i had them on all the time for months

only on Prince org.....

SOTT usually gets the honour being the "magnum opus", for me that title should go to Parade (or even 1999).

Parade is amazing though - each track is individual, but the whole thing hangs together perfectly, it sounds complete. I personally find it much more interesting that SOTT, which I don't often return to a lot, as an album, though individual songs are of course superb.

I'm the kinda person that likes to see the sketches rather than the finished painting though - so Parade over SOTT and Controversy over 1999.

They're both underrated (Joshua Tree won Best Album Grammy over SOTT). Parade is criminally underrated.

polkadotbliss said:

OMG. Gotta love that Valium!! Prince live is priceless.

Elle85n09 said:

thank you goodnight!

'Sign O the times = overrated?'



you can't overrate SOTT, imo.

16 brilliant songs on 1 album.

IstenSzek said:

For me it's "U Got The Look" and "Beautiful Night" that drag SOTT down. So...I made my own:

SOTT
Play In the Sunshine
Housequake
Dorothy Parker
It
Starfish and Coffee
-Rock Hard In A Funky Place-
Slow Love
Hot Thing
Forever In My Life
If I Was Your Girlfiend
Strange Relationship
I Could Never...
-Joy In Repetition-
The Cross
Adore

Starfish and Rock Hard segue perfect. Omitting "U Got the Look" blends "Forever In My Life" with the intro to "Girlfriend"...it works, with the wedding march playing after him professing his Forever Love. ICNTTPOYM also segues perfect into Joy in Repetition (using Cakewalk) But still...

SOTT is rightly rated his best. As someone stated earlier though, Parade is CRIMINALLY underated.

Ranks third on my list, after SOTT and 1999.
[Edited 3/20/10 22:23pm]

Kind of agree, to me Parade is a better listen and I never got into "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night" either...

I think if you would do a survey among fans about his 80's albums, four albums would be considered his "best":

1999, Purple Rain, Parade and Sign O' the Times.

Notwithstanding the greatness of his other 80's albums and my personal fondness of an album such as LoveSexy for example, I agree that looking at it as objectively as possible, these four albums can be considered his "best" in terms of quality of songwriting and performance, creativity and innovation, impact and longevity.

However, determining which one of these four is the "very best", becomes indeed too much an excercise in comparing apples with oranges. I believe that this ultimately depends on your personal taste and what you find most important. If you find "impact" the most important, Purple Rain would probably be "the best", but if you find "creativity and innovation" more important 1999 would perhabs be a better candidate. But if you love all the songs and performances on Parade and not all on SOTT you would find Parade better, yet SOTT would probably do better on "impact and longevity".


--spelling disaster
[Edited 3/21/10 5:48am]

Tremolina said:

No Dirty Mind?

(not a personal favorite, though)

Back to Parade...it's so romantic and gentle. Relaxing. It may be the one Prince album I can listen to and not feel provoked in some way.

SOTT has many superior songs, but it sometimes feels so...clinical...distant...or something. But considering its history and the breadth of its music, I suppose it can feel many ways to different people.

I'm not sure that SOTT is overrated, but I do feel that Parade is underrated.
[Edited 3/21/10 6:05am]

PurpleHigh said:

I think it would get less votes than these four.

remember P saying words to the effect that he was not keen on Parade as they didn't have enough strong material, as we all now well know that was bullshit!.
Parade was a great CD and unlike anythink else around but for me it would have reached classic status with the obvious inclusion of the killer outtakes i.e. all my dreams, OFFS etc.