Sign O' the Times is my favorite album of all time

UncleGrandpa said:

Song does have a stripper sorta appeal, but I gotta go with Sdldawn to an extent, though i dislike it because the production is not fleshed out enough and sounds amateurish (sounds like a demo), lyrics are laughable even by Prince's standard, and the repeated riff is like a bullet to my brain. Every few seconds it shoots into my skull. Annoying. Also the oft repeated "hot thing" at the start of every line is fucking irritating.

While Sign 'o' the Times is an excellent album I would rank its three predecessors, Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day and Parade higher if only for their coherence. SOTT is more like a hodge-podge of songs, albeit great songs.

thesexofit said:

I was like 13 and when I saw that performed live in the movie.....I was floored! Hot Thing has such a WICKED beat and is NASTY without being "nasty". You say turn it up??? Well when that song is turned up, its hard to sit still..... I love every song on this album but I wish "Its gonna be a beautiful night" was the version in the movie. Love the fast version!!
[Edited 6/27/07 19:48pm]
[Edited 6/27/07 19:49pm]

thesexofit said:

Sorry, but nobody can deliver the raw passion and increasing intensity of "The Cross" like Prince can, especially live.

thesexofit said:

The thing is, all of these books are written by hardcore fans and music geeks, not critics.

They're more like gushing love letters to their favorite albums than they are dissertations by journos.

thesexofit said:

not your not alone, and NPS is his best work to date

jstar69 said:

What is this, masochists anonymous?

Moonbeam said:

"the cross" could work on some andrew lloyd webber show or something? Its just too heavy-handed and bombastic to work for me. Prince is some sort of prophet or something? I dont find it offensive, just ridiculous in its execution.

jstar69 said:

Oh yes, "NPS" is something i can agree with you on. Its fucking horrible. Every song pretty much reeks whilst the production is fucking shocking.

thesexofit said:

It's so simple and straight-forward and almost grungey though. It's along the lines of the Velvet Underground.

GangstaFam said:

Well, i have not heard any velvet underground properly, but that description probably helps me understand why i dislike the song so much. Grungey? I guess in a way. The only grunge i own is a few nirvana albums, but i think its a bold song and one with balls, but its ludicrous.

thesexofit said:

Oh well. Ya can't win 'em all. I think it's a contender for one of the best things he's ever done.

I really like SOTT, and LOVE some of the songs (Ballad of Dorothy Parker, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, Housequake, If I was Your Girlfriend).

But, I don't think it is Prince's greatest album and like a lot of albums (The Beatles Revolver, for example), critics praise of it is the result of there actually being a lot of excellent music on the album, but also it is the result of lot of people jumping on the bandwagon.

It's not that cohesive, but there aren't any really weak songs.

There's bound to be differences of opinion, but it really isn't unreasonable to find songs like Hot Thing, Slow Love, and It to be less than stellar.

SOTT seems to have gained this unearned mystique and I really think that is the result of the fact that it was the one album (at least until the Black album was released later) that resulted from one of Prince's most prolific and revered phases (Crystall Ball, Dream Factory, Black Album, etc.)

But, considering it came out of this phase and considering all the material that was available, it seems haphazard. It works well as a collection of songs, kind of like a Prince sampler platter, but it works less well as a main course.

Again, I can see why people think it's great, but I just don't agree that it is the greatest prince album ever.

Finally, while I do like You Got the Look and Adore, they may be the most overrated Prince songs.

You've GOT to be kidding?!

GangstaFam said:

Thats cool. But then iam not ur average Prince fan, so iam in the minority of about one when it comes to that particular song.

thesexofit said:

What Prince albums do you like?

thesexofit said:

you're totally right as far as what it seemed like at the time of it's release. Many, many, peeps were not into it, and when I first listened, I only liked Sign O' the times, housequake, and If I Was Your girlfriend... the rest didn't grab me on the first listen or sounded silly.

Now I like it all, but that's hindsight. Or is that hindhearing?

GangstaFam said:

As i love the newjack era (you know 1988-1993), and thus its inevitable i think "symbol" along with "1999" are my fav albums. I also like "graffiti bridge" alot aswell. Though the original versions of "latest fashion" and even "Love machine" are better then the released ones. For example I love "round and round", but no one else would, with its weedy drum programmin and all LOL

In truth, all albums bar "symbol" and "1999" have songs i hate. This is gonna sound strange, but iam pretty harsh on albums in general, and Prince albums often have filler on them, meaning a fav album list is hard to do.

Everything post "new power soul" seems redundant though. Barring the return to form that was "the rainbow children", Prince has been so-so for me.

Just when I thought I'd heard it all...

thesexofit said:

Hmmmm...so why do you visit this site if the music is just "so so" to you? Just curious!

thesexofit said:

you said awhile back that Horny Pony was one of your Prince songs, so..... I'm not surprised.


the phrase "blunt force trauma" springs to mind.

VonMarie said:

I visit this site for the non prince music mainly. I visit on average twice a week and read those threads on that part of the forum. A bit of GD aswell. I love Prince, but as i said, its only his music since "new power soul" have i thought he has been weak compared to his earlier work. "Rainbow children" was cool, then he did pop music again, and Prince should just give that up, or at least try and not be so contemporary anymore.

Raze said:

So i like "horny porny" so what? Music is subjective. Would you hate me if I said "the p" is one of my favs aswell? I do like a few serious artists, but Prince ain't one of them. I like his jams in general. He can leave the politics or social commentary to someone else.

thesexofit said:

I didn't say I hated you. I just said I wasn't surprised. And blunt force trauma.

thesexofit said:

Ohh..OK. This explains alot. Nothing wrong with you having your opinions about your distaste for a lot of his music. However you had to know that coming onto a Prince fan site, with a bunch of die hard fans and making a statement saying that you don't like one of his most classic albums would rub people the wrong way. Mabey that was the intent...to get people feathers all ruffled who knows. Anyway, more power to ya!

VonMarie said:

I was just thinking that "sign of the times" just isn't THAT good to me. And wondered if anyone else thought this? So far, no one has LOL

thesexofit said:

NOPE!!!

SOTT is a good album, but there's no way "U Got the Look" "Slow Love" "Play in the Sunshine" "It" are fantastic tracks. "It" is probably the worst song Prince has ever done.