45. Prince, "Sign O’ the Times"

 


This is widely regarded as Prince's greatest album (just check out any of the Prince albums ranked lists), and it is truly a monumental achievement, but I have a bone to pick with The List.  Sure, this album is great, and maybe 5 of Prince's albums could probably be on here, but no 1999?  I mean, how can you say 1999 is not one of the greatest 500 albums of all time?  There are a lot of notable omissions on here (many of which I plan to discuss in a post at the end of This Journey), but leaving that album off is just criminally negligent.

[EDIT: I realized much later that 1999 is, in fact, on the list, at number 130, and I had just written about it a few months prior, WHOOPS.]

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.  This double album emerged from the ashes of two discarded projects, an album with longtime supporting band the Revolution called Dream Factory and a project called Camille in which Prince pitch-shifted his vocals up to a female register and gave that voice the eponymous name of the album.  Prince ultimately assembled this album from the remains of both of those projects, ditched the Revolution, and spun this out as what some critics think is the best record of the 80s.

It starts quietly, introspectively, with the title track, which unspools over the Linn LM-1 drum machine and keyboard and bass samples from a Fairlight.  From there, the album explodes into a tour of all of Prince's sounds, from the booty funk of "Housequake," in which Prince appears as a latter-day James Brown, laying down a serious jam over the flat taps of the drum machine's kick sound, to the quiet storm-esque "Slow Love."  This is a portrait of an artist totally comfortable with his gift and working at the top of his powers.  (Probably a lot of the albums we have left will fit that description.)

"U Got the Look," the third single, is as good a Prince song as there is.  Propelled by the splashy faux-snare of the Linn and an indelibly catchy vocal hook shared by Prince and guest Sheena Easton, the song got to number 2 on the Hot 100, the highest-charting single from the album.  It's a great ride, from Prince's highly-processed vocals to the wild, screeching guitar.  "Starfish and Coffee" is a great contrast, a Beatlesesque psych-pop jam with "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"-reminiscent lyrics:

Starfish and coffee
Maple syrup and jam
Butterscotch clouds, a tangerine
And a side order of ham
If you set your mind free, baby
Maybe you'd understand
Starfish and coffee
Maple syrup and jam, oh-oh

Although my loyalty will always lie with my formative Prince album, 1999, I have come to appreciate this sprawling, massive tour de force for what it is, an incredible look at a singular talent.

Is this album in my personal Top 100? No.

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