Sign o' the Times

Sign o' the Times
Studio album by Prince
Released March 30, 1987 (UK and Europe)
March 31, 1987 (US)
Recorded 1982; March 1986 – January 1987
Studio
Genre
Length 79:52
Label
Producer Prince
Prince chronology
Parade
(1986)Parade1986		 Sign o' the Times
(1987)		 Lovesexy
(1988)Lovesexy1988
Singles from Sign o' the Times
  1. "Sign o' the Times"
    Released: February 18, 1987
  2. "If I Was Your Girlfriend"
    Released: May 6, 1987
  3. "U Got the Look"
    Released: July 14, 1987
  4. "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man"
    Released: November 3, 1987

Sign o' the Times is the ninth studio album by American recording artist Prince, released on March 30, 1987,[2] by Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records. The album is the follow-up to Parade (1986) and is Prince's first album following his disbanding of the Revolution. The songs were largely recorded during 1986 to 1987 in sessions for albums Prince ultimately aborted: Dream Factory, the pseudonymous Camille, and finally the triple album Crystal Ball.[3] Prince eventually compromised with label executives and shortened the length of the release to a double album.

The album's music encompasses a varied range of styles, including funk, soul, psychedelic pop, electro, and rock.[4][5] Its release was supported by several singles, among them the socially conscious title track and "If I Was Your Girlfriend"; in addition to a well-received concert film of the same name. Sign o' the Times was Prince's most acclaimed record, being voted 1987's best album in the Pazz & Jop critics poll and since being ranked as one of the greatest albums ever by several publications.

Background

Prior to the disbanding of The Revolution, Prince was working on two separate projects: The Revolution album Dream Factory and a pseudonymous solo effort, Camille.[6] Unlike the three previous band albums, Dream Factory included input from the band members and lead vocals by Wendy & Lisa.[6] The Camille project saw Prince create an androgynous persona primarily singing in a sped-up, female-sounding voice. With the dismissal of The Revolution, Prince consolidated material from both shelved albums, along with some new songs, into a three-LP album to be titled Crystal Ball.[7] Warner Bros. balked at the idea of trying to sell a three-LP album and forced Prince to trim it down to a double album.[8]

Recording

As with many of Prince's early 1980s albums, this album features extensive use of the Linn LM-1 drum machine on most songs. In addition, many songs on the album (such as "If I Was Your Girlfriend") feature minimal instrumentation, and use of the Fairlight CMI, a then state-of-the-art digital sampler. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Prince used the stock sounds of the Fairlight to create the title track. Four of the album's standout songs, "Housequake", "Strange Relationship", "U Got the Look" with Sheena Easton, and "If I Was Your Girlfriend" offer sped-up vocals, ostensibly the voice of "Camille", Prince's alter ego of this era. Of the album's diverse and varied collection of styles, AllMusic stated that "Prince shows nearly all of his cards here, from bare-bones electro-funk and smooth soul to pseudo-psychedelic pop and crunching hard rock, touching on gospel, blues, and folk along the way."[4]

Prince was known for recording his vocals in the control room area of the studio. Typically, in the recording process, a vocalist records in the recording booth, separated from the control room by a window or soundproof door. To have privacy during the vocal recording process, Prince usually asked his engineer, Susan Rogers, to leave the room. Rogers recalls:

We'd get the track halfway or three-quarters of the way there and then set him up with a microphone in the control room. He'd have certain tracks on the multi-track that he would use and he'd do the vocal completely alone. I think that was the only way he could really get the performance.

On some occasions, Prince recorded vocals with his back to her. Rogers monitored the vocals with a pair of headphones so Prince's recording microphone would not pick up the speakers she would usually have used. Prince typically used a Sennheiser 441 dynamic microphone (recommended to him by Stevie Nicks) for recording vocals at this stage in his career.

Though Sign o' the Times was regarded as "less polished" than his earlier efforts, Rogers points out that "we spent more time and money on Sign o' the Times than anything he'd ever done. Much more work went into it."

Two of the album's songs were first recorded in 1982 and 1983: "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" and "Strange Relationship". Prince did additional work on both for their placement on the Dream Factory project and involved the "Wendy & Lisa" partnership of Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman on the former. When the project was canceled, "Strange Relationship" was further updated for Camille. The remaining tracks were recorded between March and December 1986. The surviving Camille tracks feature a playful sped-up vocal. "U Got the Look" was also recorded in this manner, though it was not intended for the Camille album.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Blender[9]
Chicago Sun-Times[10]
Christgau's Record GuideA+[11]
Entertainment WeeklyA[5]
The Guardian[12]
Pitchfork10/10[13]
Q[14]
Rolling Stone[15]
Spin Alternative Record Guide10/10[16]

Sign o' the Times produced three top-ten hit singles, the most from a Prince album since Purple Rain in 1984, although it sold modestly. It was his most critically acclaimed record.[17] Bart Bull, writing for Spin magazine in 1987, said that Prince's loosely organized songs are "genius" rather than indulgent and that, although there is no song as groundbreaking as "Girls & Boys", "nobody else's outtakes would sound so strong, rock so hard, swing so free."[18] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice said that the album is not a "formal breakthrough", but rather "the most gifted pop musician of his generation proving what a motherfucker he is for two discs start to finish." He particularly praised Prince's "one-man band tricks" and multi-tracked vocals, which he said "make Stevie Wonder sound like a struggling ventriloquist" and express real emotions: "The objects of his desire are also objects of interest, affection, and respect. Some of them he may not even fuck."[19] Sign o' the Times was voted as the best album of 1987 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll.[20] According to Christgau, the poll's creator, the album was "easily the biggest winner" in the poll's history and "established Prince as the greatest rock and roll musician of the era—as singer-guitarist-hooksmith-beatmaster, he has no peer."[21] The title track "Sign o' the Times" was named the best single of 1987 in the poll, while "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" and "U Got the Look" were also voted within the top 10.[20]

In a retrospective review, Keith Harris of Blender called Sign o' the Times a "masterpiece" and comments that "never has [Prince's] curiosity about women strayed into so many unpredictable corners."[9] Simon Price deemed it Prince's best album,[12] as did Michaelangelo Matos, who wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) that it was "the most complete example of his artistry's breadth, and arguably the finest album of the 1980s".[22] Matos also believed it was "the last classic R&B album prior to hip-hop's takeover of black music and the final four-sided blockbuster of the vinyl era". Music editor Mark Brown called it "the greatest album of all time. [23] Slant Magazine's Eric Henderson deemed it a "double-disc blowout of sweat, funk, and raw, concentrated talent".[24]

In 1989, Time Out magazine ranked it as the greatest album of all time. In December 1989, Robert Smith of The Cure cited Sign o' the Times amongst the best things about the eighties.[25] The album was ranked number 16 on the New Musical Express list of the All Time Top 100 Albums, 3rd in Hot Press magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of All Time, and number 35 on VH1's 100 Greatest Albums. The album was also placed 8th on Nieuwe Revu's Top 100 Albums of All Time. The Times listed Sign o' the Times as the 29th greatest album of all time.[26] In 2003, the album was ranked number 93 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[27] In 2006, Q magazine placed the album at number 12 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s".[28] In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at number 11 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s", calling it "Prince's most varied album and his most self-consciously auteurish".[29]

Legacy

Although the album sold modestly, Sign o' the Times was nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards. It is regularly ranked among Prince's greatest albums and generally considered his masterpiece alongside Purple Rain. The album produced three top-ten hit singles, "U Got the Look", "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man", and the title track "Sign o' the Times". Sign o' the Times was Prince's first solo album after the disbandment of The Revolution.

Sign o' the Times was voted the best album of 1987 by Pazz & Jop crtitics poll. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked the album at 93 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Track listing

All songs written by Prince, except where noted.

Disc one

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Sign o' the Times"4:57
2."Play in the Sunshine"5:05
3."Housequake"4:42
4."The Ballad of Dorothy Parker"4:01
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
5."It" 5:09
6."Starfish and Coffee"Susannah Melvoin, Prince2:50
7."Slow Love"Prince, Carole Davis4:22
8."Hot Thing" 5:39
9."Forever in My Life" 3:30

Disc two

Side three
No.TitleLength
10."U Got the Look" (Uncredited vocals by Sheena Easton)3:47
11."If I Was Your Girlfriend"5:01
12."Strange Relationship"4:01
13."I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man"6:29
Side four
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
14."The Cross" 4:48
15."It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"Doctor Fink, Eric Leeds, Prince9:01
16."Adore" 6:30

Personnel

The live audience on "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" is credited for backing vocals under the name of "6,000 wonderful Parisians".

Singles

  1. "Sign o' the Times"
  2. "La, La, La, He, He, Hee" lyrics jointly written by Sheena Easton
  1. "If I Was Your Girlfriend"
  2. "Shockadelica"
  1. "U Got the Look"
  2. "Housequake"
  1. "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man"
  2. "Hot Thing" (#63 US, #14 US R&B)
  • Hot Thing (promo)

Note: Except for the title track, all the singles' music videos are the scenes depicted in the concert film; however, the music video for "U Got the Look" was filmed separately. With that being said, Sign O The Times was soon performed live at the VMA and this video made it to VH1 soul, meaning all singles have videos depicted at a club and/or concert.

Charts

Certifications

Region CertificationCertified units/Sales
Australia (ARIA)[50] Gold 35,000^
France (SNEP)[51] 2× Gold 280,500[51]
Germany (BVMI)[52] Gold 250,000^
Netherlands (NVPI)[53] Platinum 100,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[54] Platinum 300,000^
United States (RIAA)[55] Platinum 1,000,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

  1. ↑ Grimstad, Paul. "What is Avant-Pop?". Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  2. ↑ Draper 2008, p. 135.
  3. ↑ Faust, Edwin C. (3 September 2003). "Playing God: Prince's "Sign O' The Times"". Stylus Magazine. Archived from the original on November 2, 2003. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Sign 'O' the Times – Prince". AllMusic. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
  5. 1 2 Browne, David (September 21, 1990). "Purple Products". Entertainment Weekly. New York (32). ISSN 1049-0434. Retrieved August 22, 2011.
  6. 1 2 Draper 2008, pp. 76–78.
  7. ↑ Draper 2008, p. 80.
  8. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Sign 'O' the Times". Billboard. Archived from the original on May 9, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2009.
  9. 1 2 Harris, Keith (June–July 2001). "Prince — Every Original CD Reviewed: Sign O' the Times". Blender. New York (1). Archived from the original on August 20, 2004. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  10. ↑ McLeese, Don (March 29, 1987). "Prince // Once again, a one-man band on 'Sign O the Times'". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved April 25, 2016. (Subscription required (help)).
  11. ↑ Christgau, Robert (1990). "Prince: Sign o' the Times". Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-73015-X. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
  12. 1 2 Price, Simon (April 22, 2016). "Prince: every album rated – and ranked". The Guardian. London. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
  13. ↑ George, Nelson (April 29, 2016). "Prince: Sign "O" the Times". Pitchfork. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  14. ↑ Murray, Charles Shaar (May 1987). "Prince: Sign o' the Times". Q. London (8).
  15. ↑ Touré (October 8, 2002). "Prince: Sign O' The Times". Rolling Stone. New York. ISSN 0035-791X. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
  16. ↑ Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). "Prince". Spin Alternative Record Guide. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  17. ↑ Dobuzinskis, Alex; Serjeant, Jill (April 22, 2016). "'Purple Rain' superstar Prince, 57, dies at US studio complex". Reuters. MSN.com. Scroll down to the slide show and reach 10/21 slides. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  18. ↑ Bull, Bart (May 1987). "Prince: Sign o' the Times". Spin. New York. 3 (2): 30. ISSN 0886-3032. Retrieved August 22, 2011.
  19. ↑ Christgau, Robert (May 5, 1987). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
  20. 1 2 "The 1987 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. New York. March 1, 1988. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
  21. ↑ Christgau, Robert (March 1, 1988). "Pazz & Jop 1987: Significance and Its Discontents in the Year of the Blip". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
  22. ↑ Matos, Michaelangelo (2004). "Prince". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 654–657. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
  23. ↑ Matos, Michaelangelo (July 2005). "100 Greatest Albums: 1985–2005". Spin. New York. 21 (7): 70. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
  24. ↑ Henderson, Eric (August 19, 2007). "Prince: Sign 'O' the Times". Slant Magazine. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
  25. ↑ "Robert Smith [interview]". Melody Maker. London: 23. December 23–30, 1989.
  26. ↑ "Prince: Sign 'O' the Times". acclaimedmusic.net. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
  27. ↑ "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time — 93 | Sign 'o' the Times – Prince". Rolling Stone. New York. December 11, 2003. Archived from the original on May 28, 2006. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
  28. ↑ "40 Best Albums of the '80s". Q. London (241). August 2006.
  29. ↑ "The 100 Best Albums of the 1980s". Slant Magazine. March 5, 2012. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  30. 1 2 Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  31. ↑ "austriancharts.at Prince - Sign o' the Times" (ASP). Hung Medien (in German). Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  32. ↑ "Top Albums/CDs - Volume 46, No. 7". RPM. May 23, 1987. Archived from the original (PHP) on April 29, 2014. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
  33. ↑ "dutchcharts.nl Prince - Sign o' the Times" (ASP). Hung Medien. MegaCharts. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  34. ↑ "InfoDisc : Tous les Albums classés par Artiste > Choisir Un Artiste Dans la Liste" (in French). infodisc.fr. Archived from the original on March 30, 2014. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  35. 1 2 "Hit Parade Italia - Gli album più venduti del 1987" (in Italian). hitparadeitalia.it. Retrieved 2014-04-03.
  36. ↑ Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005. Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
  37. ↑ "charts.org.nz Prince - Sign o' the Times" (ASP). Hung Medien. Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  38. ↑ "norwegiancharts.com Prince - Sign o' the Times" (ASP). Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  39. ↑ "swedishcharts.com Prince - Sign o' the Times" (ASP) (in Swedish). Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  40. ↑ "Prince - Sign o' the Times - hitparade.ch" (ASP). Hung Medien (in German). Swiss Music Charts. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  41. ↑ "Prince > Artists > Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  42. 1 2 "Allmusic: Sign o' the Times: Charts & Awards: Billboard Albums". AllMusic. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  43. ↑ "Album Search: Prince - Sign o' the Times" (in German). Media Control. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  44. ↑ "Album - Classifica settimanale WK 19 (dal 2016-05-06 al 2016-05-12)" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  45. ↑ "Dutch charts jaaroverzichten 1987" (in Dutch). Dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  46. ↑ "Les Albums (CD) de 1987 par InfoDisc" (in French). infodisc.fr. Archived from the original (PHP) on February 1, 2016. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  47. ↑ "Hitparade.ch - Schweizer Jahreshitparade 1987". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 7, 2011.
  48. ↑ "Complete UK Year-End Album Charts". Archived from the original on January 11, 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  49. ↑ "Top Pop Albums of 1987". billboard.biz. December 31, 1987. Archived from the original on August 2, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  50. ↑ "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 1999 Albums". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  51. 1 2 "Les Albums Double Or". infodisc.fr (in French). SNEP. Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
  52. ↑ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Prince; 'Sign o the Times')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
  53. ↑ "Dutch album certifications – Prince – Sign o' the Times" (in Dutch). Nederlandse Vereniging van Producenten en Importeurs van beeld- en geluidsdragers. Retrieved May 2, 2011. Enter Sign o' the Times in the "Artiest of titel" box.
  54. ↑ "British album certifications – Prince – Sign o' the Times". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved April 2, 2014. Select albums in the Format field. Select Platinum in the Certification field. Type Sign o' the Times in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  55. ↑ "American album certifications – Prince – The Times". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved May 2, 2013. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH. 
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