FunkMistress said:

# cause when we do it girl it is so devine...


woohoo!

Almost all those who believe SOTT is his best album listened to it in 1987, when it came out. I was among those and was also blown away. But for someone getting into prince today, it is no surprise that it is not viewed as his best or even one of his best, for some of the reasons I have mentioned above (Actually a friend of mine aged 25 discovered -well, more precisely, really went into-Prince through my collection last year, and simply did not like Sign. He thought 1999, Purple Rain, TRC, Lovesexy, parade were better. Same thing for my brother, aged 22)

Times have changed, sone albums have aged fantastically (1999, which is at the root of modern house music), other remain amazing (Purple Rain, Parade), while others sound progressively out-dated (and to me Sign really falls into that catagory, although a little half of the songs on it remain fantastic)

Actually, not liking it on first listen seems to be quite common
for newer fans. Personally I think it's got more to do with
the really poor CD mastering on that album (it really is the
quietest and flatest CD transfer out of all his albums by a
long shot). It's the only album that I regularly still play on
vinyl cuz the CD is so bad!

I remember in 1987 being shocked at what some of the critics were saying about this album.The critic in my local newspaper (Harry Sumrall) described the album as "vapid",and Steve Ivory ( a well-known R&B music writer) referred to the album as "unbalanced".Of course,the negative reviews were in the minority.Most critics loved this album.

Okay let's compare it to Parade for example. What is it that makes S0TT so much better than Parade? I think Parade is vastly superior - it somehow manages to be hugely imaginative AND concise. And the songs are just... better! I listened to Strange Relationship on S0TT a minute ago and I ended up turning it off cos it was so weak!

i would put sott in my prince top 5 albums but it doesnt stand out as much as the people in here say. i still say 1999 was his best work.

LouieLaFunk said:

I'm with you on that Louie. I didn't get into Prince until the 90's even though I was coming of age in the early to mid 80's so production-wise it wasn't current. However, if you listen to 1999 it still sounds fresh.

It's obvious to me this thread was flame- bait because nobody who likes Prince would conceivably rate this as a bad album. I don't think it's his best-- top 5 or 10 certainly.