Album: Sign "☮" the Times
Artist: Prince
Artist: Prince
Born: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Released: March 1987
Genre: Minneapolis Sound
Influenced: TLC, Nas, Beck, OutKast, Tricky, Daft Punk, Beyoncé
Prince and Madonna were the two performers that straddled the pop landscape in the late 80s (and, in both their cases, it's appropriate to use a sexual metaphor). MTV made them both stars and film roles (Desperately Seeking Susan, Purple Rain) enhanced their status to superstars. In an era where image and marketing had become just as important as the music, they were both visual icons. Prince also had an acute awareness of pop music history, creating his own unique brand of funk, rock and dance music, and it was disco that inspired his first major hit, I Wanna Be Your Lover (1979), introducing his marvellous falsetto singing voice to a wider public. As with most Prince songs, the lyrics were explicitly sexual ("There ain't no other / that can do the things I'll do to you"), and the 80s would become a highly fertile period of songwriting for him, with great singles like Little Red Corvette (1983), which fuses Sly & The Family Stone (black funk) with the Beach Boys (white rock). His fifth album, 1999, would be Prince's breakthrough and he'd reach even further heights with Purple Rain (1984); however, in the latter half of the decade, as his songwriting and musical approach became more experimental, his success started to wane. How Sign "☮" the Times came into being is a story in itself (see DanceMusicSexRomance), but suffice to say that record label nerves and Prince's decision to ditch his band (The Revolution) and attempt to release a triple album meant compromises were needed, and this brilliantly diverse and sprawling double LP was the result.
Prince has been, without doubt, one of the most influential figures in modern pop, across so many genres, testament to the fact his music knew no boundaries (Minneapolis Sound was all I could think of as a justifiable genre tag). His own influences were equally diverse, ranging from Joni Mitchell to Sly Stone. Of all his albums, this LP is the most genre-bending of the lot and the songwriting expresses a wide range of interests and concerns. The opening title track sees Prince railing at the modern world ("There are 17-year old boys / and their idea of fun is being in a gang called the Disciples / high on crack and totin' a machine gun"); he used the Fairlight synthesizer (much beloved of Kate Bush) to create the funky backing track, one of many instruments he learned to play over the years. Like many of the best double LPs (Exile On Main St, Physical Graffiti, etc), there are dud moments -- notably Housequake, which sounds like the inspiration for Do The Bartman -- but there are so many sublime songs, notably the jazz poetry of The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker, the bonkers but catchy Starfish & Coffee and the dirty funk of Hot Thing. Side 2 is even better, in my opinion, starting with two of Prince's best singles, U Got The Look ("Boy vs girl in the World Series of love", "your face is jammin' / your body's heck-a-slammin'") and the odd and entrancing If I Was Your Girlfriend. After the catchy 80s pop of I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, Prince goes into evangelical mode with The Cross, then nonsense mode with the recital of an Edward Lear poem on live track, It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night. Perhaps the best moment is saved until last, with Adore the most quintessential Prince song on the album (Beck would mimic this sound shamelessly on Midnight Vultures). For me, few other albums in the 80s were pushing boundaries as much as this one.
Prince and Madonna were the two performers that straddled the pop landscape in the late 80s (and, in both their cases, it's appropriate to use a sexual metaphor). MTV made them both stars and film roles (Desperately Seeking Susan, Purple Rain) enhanced their status to superstars. In an era where image and marketing had become just as important as the music, they were both visual icons. Prince also had an acute awareness of pop music history, creating his own unique brand of funk, rock and dance music, and it was disco that inspired his first major hit, I Wanna Be Your Lover (1979), introducing his marvellous falsetto singing voice to a wider public. As with most Prince songs, the lyrics were explicitly sexual ("There ain't no other / that can do the things I'll do to you"), and the 80s would become a highly fertile period of songwriting for him, with great singles like Little Red Corvette (1983), which fuses Sly & The Family Stone (black funk) with the Beach Boys (white rock). His fifth album, 1999, would be Prince's breakthrough and he'd reach even further heights with Purple Rain (1984); however, in the latter half of the decade, as his songwriting and musical approach became more experimental, his success started to wane. How Sign "☮" the Times came into being is a story in itself (see DanceMusicSexRomance), but suffice to say that record label nerves and Prince's decision to ditch his band (The Revolution) and attempt to release a triple album meant compromises were needed, and this brilliantly diverse and sprawling double LP was the result.
Prince has been, without doubt, one of the most influential figures in modern pop, across so many genres, testament to the fact his music knew no boundaries (Minneapolis Sound was all I could think of as a justifiable genre tag). His own influences were equally diverse, ranging from Joni Mitchell to Sly Stone. Of all his albums, this LP is the most genre-bending of the lot and the songwriting expresses a wide range of interests and concerns. The opening title track sees Prince railing at the modern world ("There are 17-year old boys / and their idea of fun is being in a gang called the Disciples / high on crack and totin' a machine gun"); he used the Fairlight synthesizer (much beloved of Kate Bush) to create the funky backing track, one of many instruments he learned to play over the years. Like many of the best double LPs (Exile On Main St, Physical Graffiti, etc), there are dud moments -- notably Housequake, which sounds like the inspiration for Do The Bartman -- but there are so many sublime songs, notably the jazz poetry of The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker, the bonkers but catchy Starfish & Coffee and the dirty funk of Hot Thing. Side 2 is even better, in my opinion, starting with two of Prince's best singles, U Got The Look ("Boy vs girl in the World Series of love", "your face is jammin' / your body's heck-a-slammin'") and the odd and entrancing If I Was Your Girlfriend. After the catchy 80s pop of I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, Prince goes into evangelical mode with The Cross, then nonsense mode with the recital of an Edward Lear poem on live track, It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night. Perhaps the best moment is saved until last, with Adore the most quintessential Prince song on the album (Beck would mimic this sound shamelessly on Midnight Vultures). For me, few other albums in the 80s were pushing boundaries as much as this one.
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