If Prince hadn't released an album for the last 10 years and you were put in charge of compiling 'The next Sign of the Times', what tracks would you choose?

Trying to stick to the same sensibilites of the original album, would it be possible to create a good album from the last 10 years of material.

Sign O The Times was kind of an orphan album anyway, collecting stuff from various projects, so this should be the same sort of thing. And before anyone says anything, yes I know it'll never be as good as SOTT, it's just for fun!

I'll write up the track list so that people can think of what songs from the past ten years have the same flow, similar tempo, etc...

1 Sign O The Times
2 Play In the Sunshine
3 Housequake
4 The Ballad of Dorothy Parker
5 It
6 Starfish & Coffee
7 Slow Love
8 Hot Thing
9 Forever In My Life
10 U Got the Look
11 If I Was Your Girlfriend
12 Strange Relationship
13 I could Never Take The Place of Your Man
14 The Cross
15 It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night
16 Adore

I like this thread, but I also hate it because it's such a mindfuck,

The title track is the toughest one definitely.

Here's my attempt, it's a bit off the cuff:

When I Lay My Hands On U (yeah I know, odd choice)
Cause & Effect
The Daisy Chain
Love Like Jazz
Valentina
The Morning After
Satisfied
Black Sweat
Future Baby Mama
Guitar
What Do You Want Me To Do?
Love (just cause it's catchy synthpop)
Fury
Dreamer
The Everlasting Now
The Dance

novabrkr said:

Interesting choices. Not sure about some of them, but that's the whole point of the excercise.

It is a bit of a mind fuck, but it also gives newer songs a different perspective. I hate 'All the Midnights in the World' with a fiery vengeance, but put it in the position of 'Starfish & Coffee', and it suddenly seems to fit, because that's what you're expecting in that song's track position.

Here's mine. It really does throw up some tracks that you don't expect, doesn't it. I don't even like some of these songs, but they fit the theme, so would probably go up in my estimations in this configuration. Crazy!


1 Family Name (with the first half edited out)
2 The 1 U wanna C
3 Northside
4 Madrid 2 Chicago
5 Black Sweat
6 All The Midnights In the World
7 Satisfied
8 Vavoom
9 Mellow
10 1+1+1 = 3
11 Call my Name
12 $
13 Fury
14 Last December
15 Chelsea Rodgers
16 Underneath The Cream

ok

1.3121
2.No More Candy for U
3.Black Sweat
4.A Million Days
5.Crimson and Clover
6.A Case of You
7.Here
8.Guitar
9.Call My Name
10.Choc Box
11.One Night Alone
12.Dreamer
13.Colonized Mind
14.$
15.Planet Earth
16.Reflection

1 Colonized Mind
2 3121
3 The Work Pt 1
4 Chelsea Rodgers
5 (There'll Never B) Another Like Me
6 All the Midnights in the World
7 Te Amo Corazon
8 Black Sweat
9 Call My Name
10 Boom
11 Crimson and Clover
12 Musicology
13 Fury
14 The War
15 Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful
16 Somewhere Here on Earth

this composition doesn't flow the best. But I'd start with this off the top.