Purple Rain and Sign O' the Times are generally referred to as Prince's two greatest studio LP releases, a view I completely agree with.

Sign O' the Times was a double-vinyl album and remains a 2-CD release.

My question is: If you stack Purple Rain up against disc 1 (only) of Sign, and then stack it up against disc 2 (only) of Sign, which do you think makes a better recording?

For reference, Sign O' the Times on separate discs goes like this:

1. Sign O' the Times

2. Play in the Sunshine

3. Housequake

4. The Ballad of Dorothy Parker

5. It

6. Starfish and Coffee

7. Slowlove

8. Hot Thing

9. Forever in my Life

And:

1. U Got the Look

2. If I was your Girlfriend

3. Strange Relationship

4. I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

5. The Cross

6. It's Gonna be a Beautiful Night

7. Adore

[Edited 3/9/17 20:42pm]

Let's Go Crazy | Sign O' the Times
Take Me With U | Play in the Sunshine
The Beautiful Ones | Housequake
Computer Blue | The Ballad of Dorothy Parker
Darling Nikki | It
When Doves Cry | Starfish and Coffee
I Would Die 4 U | Slowlove
Baby I'm A Star | Hot Thing
Purple Rain | Forever in my Life

Not sure what the hell I'm supposed to do now?

Interesting take on this subject matter. I think Purple Rain as a collection of songs is a stronger one than either of the discs that make up SOTT when those two discs are judged individually against Purple rain, but I still think that as a two-disc set SOTT ("as it is") is the better album.

Disc one

Let's Go Crazy | Sign O' the Times
Take Me With U | Play in the Sunshine
The Beautiful Ones | Housequake
Computer Blue | The Ballad of Dorothy Parker
Darling Nikki | It (diffuclt, i love it, but darling nikki is more impressive)
When Doves Cry | Starfish and Coffee
I Would Die 4 U | Slowlove
Baby I'm A Star | Hot Thing
Purple Rain | Forever in my Life (yes i think FIML is a fantastic song)

Disc two

Let's go crazy | U Got the Look

Take me with U | If I was your Girlfriend

The beautiful ones | Strange Relationship

Computer blue | I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

Darlin Nikki | The Cross

When doves cry | It's Gonna be a Beautiful Night

Purple Rain | Adore

Well 2 track missing from PR.

As guessed I like Purple Rain more, i dont consider Sign of the times one of his best as an album.

But there a some song on their that are absolute my favourite Prince songs ever.

[Edited 3/10/17 2:29am]

Let's Go Crazy | Sign O' the Times
Take Me With U | Play in the Sunshine
The Beautiful Ones | Housequake
Computer Blue | The Ballad of Dorothy Parker
Darling Nikki | It
When Doves Cry | Starfish and Coffee
I Would Die 4 U | Slowlove
Baby I'm A Star | Hot Thing
Purple Rain | Forever in my Life

Let's go crazy | U Got the Look

Take me with U | If I was your Girlfriend

The beautiful ones | Strange Relationship

Computer blue | I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

Darlin Nikki | The Cross

When doves cry | It's Gonna be a Beautiful Night

Purple Rain | Adore

nextedition said:

Disc one

Let's Go Crazy | Sign O' the Times
Take Me With U | Play in the Sunshine
The Beautiful Ones | Housequake
Computer Blue | The Ballad of Dorothy Parker
Darling Nikki | It (diffuclt, i love it, but darling nikki is more impressive)
When Doves Cry | Starfish and Coffee
I Would Die 4 U | Slowlove
Baby I'm A Star | Hot Thing
Purple Rain | Forever in my Life (yes i think FIML is a fantastic song)

Disc two

Let's go crazy | U Got the Look

Take me with U | If I was your Girlfriend

The beautiful ones | Strange Relationship

Computer blue | I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

Darlin Nikki | The Cross

When doves cry | It's Gonna be a Beautiful Night

Purple Rain | Adore

Well 2 track missing from PR.

As guessed I like Purple Rain more, i dont consider Sign of the times one of his best as an album.

But there a some song on their that are absolute my favourite Prince songs ever.

[Edited 3/10/17 2:29am]

Is regarded as his best or at least one of his very best, why don't you regard it as such?

Disc one

Let's Go Crazy | Sign O' the Times
Take Me With U | Play in the Sunshine
The Beautiful Ones | Housequake
Computer Blue | The Ballad of Dorothy Parker (This is tough!! Ballad is one of my Top5, but so hard to vote against Computer Blue)
Darling Nikki | It
When Doves Cry | Starfish and Coffee
I Would Die 4 U | Slowlove
Baby I'm A Star | Hot Thing
Purple Rain | Forever in my Life

Disc two

Let's go crazy | U Got the Look

Take me with U | If I was your Girlfriend

The beautiful ones | Strange Relationship

Computer blue | I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

Darlin Nikki | The Cross

When doves cry | It's Gonna be a Beautiful Night

Purple Rain | Adore

Kind of all incredible stuff! Who else has anything this good in their whole careers!!

Thanks. I wasn't really looking for a track-by-track comparison, rather just your sense of which of the 3 individual discs is strongest.

My feeling is that disc 2, by itself, of Sign O' the Times would probably be seen by many as Prince's 2-greatest album, and disc 1 as his 3rd-greatest.

I guess another point of interest here is, do you find disc 1 or disc 2 of SOTT to be stronger?

Disc 1

Let's Go Crazy - SOTT (the extended mix of Crazy would've killed)

Take Me With U - Play in the Sunshine

The Beautiful Ones - Housequake

Computer Blue - Ballad of Dorothy Parker (the hallway version of Computer Blue is clearly better)

Darling Nikki - It

When Doves Cry - Starfish and Coffee

I Would Die 4 U - Slow Love

Baby, I'm A Star - Hot Thing

Purple Rain - Forever in My Life

Disc 2

Let's Go Crazy - U Got the Look

Take Me With U - IIWYGF

The Beautiful Ones - Strange Relationship

Computer Blue - ICNTTPOYM

Darling Nikki - The Cross

When Doves Cry - Beautiful Night

I Would Die 4 U - Adore

HypnoBlue said:

SOTT (the extended mix of Crazy would've killed)

What's that?

Both Disc 1 and Disc 2 are better in my book. Disc 1 is the best of them all, in terms of eclecticism. Who could come up with SOTT, Forever In My Life and It on one disc? + I never liked the inclusion of Beautiful Night on Disc 2. Purple Rain is the ultimate singles collection, but that's not what I'm looking for.

214 said:

HypnoBlue said:

SOTT (the extended mix of Crazy would've killed)

What's that?

Meaning I prefer the Special Dance MIx of Let's Go Crazy over the single edit. That would've gotten the edge over SOTT, but instead I have to give it to the title track of SOTT.

ThePanther said:

Purple Rain and Sign O' the Times are generally referred to as Prince's two greatest studio LP releases, a view I completely agree with.

Sign O' the Times was a double-vinyl album and remains a 2-CD release.

My question is: If you stack Purple Rain up against disc 1 (only) of Sign, and then stack it up against disc 2 (only) of Sign, which do you think makes a better recording?

For reference, Sign O' the Times on separate discs goes like this:

1. Sign O' the Times

2. Play in the Sunshine

3. Housequake

4. The Ballad of Dorothy Parker

5. It

6. Starfish and Coffee

7. Slowlove

8. Hot Thing

9. Forever in my Life

And:

1. U Got the Look

2. If I was your Girlfriend

3. Strange Relationship

4. I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

5. The Cross

6. It's Gonna be a Beautiful Night

7. Adore

[Edited 3/9/17 20:42pm]

In terms of personal preference, I would take Purple Rain over either disc of SOTT. Overall, I like the songs on disc 2 of SOTT better than the ones on disc 1. I feel like this conversation is splitting hairs because both PR and SOTT showcase Prince at his very best. That said, it is interesting to compare and contrast his different albums.

This one's just too difficult.

bluegangsta said:

Let's Go Crazy | Sign O' the Times
Take Me With U | Play in the Sunshine
The Beautiful Ones | Housequake
Computer Blue | The Ballad of Dorothy Parker
Darling Nikki | It
When Doves Cry | Starfish and Coffee
I Would Die 4 U | Slowlove
Baby I'm A Star | Hot Thing
Purple Rain | Forever in my Life

Not sure what the hell I'm supposed to do now?

Heaven's probably keeping score,
but yawn too.

BT11 said:

Both Disc 1 and Disc 2 are better in my book. Disc 1 is the best of them all, in terms of eclecticism. Who could come up with SOTT, Forever In My Life and It on one disc? + I never liked the inclusion of Beautiful Night on Disc 2. Purple Rain is the ultimate singles collection, but that's not what I'm looking for.

Don't forget Starfish & Coffee.

206Michelle said:

BT11 said:

Both Disc 1 and Disc 2 are better in my book. Disc 1 is the best of them all, in terms of eclecticism. Who could come up with SOTT, Forever In My Life and It on one disc? + I never liked the inclusion of Beautiful Night on Disc 2. Purple Rain is the ultimate singles collection, but that's not what I'm looking for.

Don't forget Starfish & Coffee.

Wonderful, touching song.

daingermouz2020 said:

This is easy for me. Sign of the Times hands down. I honestly really liked one song off Purple Rain and that's When Doves Cry.

Let's Go Crazy / Sign o the Times

Take Me With You / Play in the Sunshine

The Beautiful Ones / Housequake

Computer Blue / The Ballad of Dorothy Parker

Darling Nikki / It

When Doves Cry / Starfish and Coffee

I Would Die 4 U / Slow Love

Baby I'm a Star / Hot Thing

Purple Rain / Forever in My Life

Let's Go Crazy / U Got the Look

Take Me With You / If I Was Your Girlfriend

The Beautiful Ones / Strange Relationship

Computer Blue / I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

Darling Nikki / The Cross

When Doves Cry / It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night

I Would Die 4 U /

Baby I'm a Star /

Purple Rain / Adore

Purple Rain is probably Prince's best album. That or Parade. Hell, I'd even place 'Prince' eponymous album above Sign.