Prince - Sign O the Times
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Free Music Notes for Sign O the Times
Free Music Review: The Greatest Prince Album
Hit: 5 Stars
The album "Sign `o' the Times" by Prince is one of my ALL-TIME favorites. Not many people I encounter know anything about this CD and that is beyond shameful because they are missing out on one of the trippiest and most joyful musical experiences known to mankind. HOW'S THAT FOR HYPERBOLE?
Let's break it down....
01) SIGN `O' THE TIMES: This is a fantastic slow and spooky funk tune that waxes philosophical about such society ills as aids, gang violence, drugs, hurricanes, murders, poverty, war and even space shuttle explosions. Much like John Lennon's song "Imagine", this tune is just as relevant in 2006 as it was when originally released.
02) PLAY IN THE SUNSHINE: This is one of my fave Prince tunes ever. Musically, it sounds like a psychedelic gospel rave up and lyrically, it is all about trippin' on a natural high. FANTASTIC TRACK!
03) HOUSEQUAKE: Prince brings the fun big time with this tune. A mixture of James Brown, hip-hop and euro-dance-pop; HOUSEQUAKE is like nothing you've ever heard...and who else but Prince in his prime would toss out a "Green Eggs and Ham" reference in the middle of a mad-funky throw down?
04) THE BALLAD OF DOROTHY PARKER: This is a mellow funk groove that plays like a collaboration between Sly Stone and Joni Mitchell. I kid you not!
05) IT: After four fantastic tunes in a row, you'll be thinking "Man, this album is pure genius" but then comes this song. The only bleak spot on an otherwise exceptional album. "IT" is a meandering bit of danceable filler. Prince released a single b-side from this same period called "Shockadelica" that would have been much better in this position on the album.
06) STARFISH and COFFEE: This song begins with the sound of an alarm bell and proceeds to take us on a journey into the bizarre magic of childhood. Another one of my faves for it's sheer uniqueness.
07) SLOW LOVE: This is a sensual jazzy love ballad that features some magnificent trumpet solos.
08) HOT THING: What would a 1980's Prince album be without some blatant sexual innuendo? Well here it is furious and funky. The best part of this song is the saxophone work of Eric Leeds.
09) FOREVER IN MY LIFE: This is a slow romantic marriage proposal sung acapella with only the driving beat of a drum machine for accompaniment. Yet another one-of-a-kind song.
10) U GOT THE LOOK: A funk-rock masterpiece with some latin percussion driving the mix. This song is the "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" of dance music.
11) IF I WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND: On this song, Prince writes in a conversational style as if telling his girlfriend that he wants a closeness with her that she usually reserves for her best girlfriend. One of the most interesting and daring lyrics you're likely to ever come across.
12) STRANGE RELATIONSHIP: Another out-of-the-ordinary lyric about a couple with a love / hate relationship that neither one can put an end to. Features the great chorus..."Baby, I just can't stand to see you happy / More than that, I hate to see you sad / Honey if you left me I just might do something rash / What's this strange relationship?"
13) I COULD NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF YOUR MAN: This is guitar pop at it's best with a great lyric about actually turning down a woman's sexual advances. Features a terrific guitar solo / break down midway through the song.
14) THE CROSS: This is a song about overcoming the adversity in life through spiritual faith in but even if you're an atheist, you won't be able to deny the rhythmic and melodic power of this tune. It starts off slow, quiet and acoustic then builds to an all out rockin' climax.
15) IT'S GONNA BE A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT: This is a 9 minute jam-out track that was recorded live with Prince's unbelievable 80's band The Revolution...featuring Shelia E. on the drums. A truly remarkable funk experience that showcases Shelia E. rapping Edward Lear's classic poem "The Table and the Chair" in the middle of all the musical mayhem. Another one of my faver most faves!
16) ADORE: This amazing album comes to a end with this gorgeous classic-style r&b ballad.
WHAT A TRIP! If you've never heard this album, I strongly suggest that you check it out immediately and give your ears a sonic treat. Just skip song number 5!
Free Music Review: Prince's crowning acheivement? This one's got my vote!
Hit: 5 Stars
1984's PURPLE RAIN no doubt made Prince a pop music icon. Topping the album charts for 6 straight months, spawning 5 hit singles & winning an Oscar for Best Song Score, Prince had effectively become pop music royalty. But he was still a musician & just as PURPLE RAIN was falling off the charts, he returned automatically with 1985's AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY. The psychedelic experiments on that album were hard to stomach for most Prince fans, but it has since become a cult classic. 1986's PARADE was really the soundtrack for Prince's horrible film UNDER THE CHERRY MOON, but the music was still a sight for sore ears & it also has become a classic after the fact. While commercially, Prince was starting to fall from grace after PURPLE RAIN, creatively he was just getting started. To name Prince's best work would be like saying who's your favorite child, but my personal vote would go towards 1987's SIGN O' THE TIMES.Prince had already recorded a double album with 1982's 1999, so did a second one seem necessary? Well, with triple & quadruple albums in the future, 1999 & TIMES were rather mild in comparison. The difference is that those two albums were excellent all the way through, especially on TIMES.
Opening with the darkly magnificent title track, this musical account of poverty & other ills of society was just as effective as the hip-hop songs being made about it at the same time. A surprising top 5 hit, "Sign O' The Times" is just waiting to be sampled by a hip-hop act today. "U Got The Look" (a duet with Sheena Easton) was the album's biggest hit, peaking at #2. The hip-shaking rhythm of this tune is addictive as always.
Most of the album contains leftovers from an aborted project by a singer called Camille, which was really Prince singing in his highest register. Songs like the grooving "Housequake" & the eyebrow-raising "If I Was Your Girlfriend" (he was still breaking down barriers even in the mid-1980s) sound like they could have been on what would been, for its time, a truly daring album. The experiment itself was a drastic undertaking even for a risk-taker like Prince.
SIGN O' THE TIMES is also about variety, with Prince mastering a crazy quilt of various styles of pop music. The album's third top 10 hit "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" is my favorite & is certainly the poppiest track on the album, its bouncy sound should have helped the song reach higher than #10. The song would be covered by former New Kid On The Block Jordan Knight, but as a ballad, robbing the song of its original sprightliness.
The near bubblegum-sounding "Play In The Sunshine", the psychedelic "Starfish & Coffee", the religious-inspired "The Cross" (just a preparation for the onslaught of Prince's recent THE RAINBOW CHILDREN album), the stripped-bare funk of "Forever In My Life" (played at John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s wedding), the funky live workout "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night" (the last song Prince recorded with the Revolution), the epic closer "Adore"! All of the songs are sheer genius & prove that Prince may have waiting until SIGN O' THE TIMES to truly unleash his talents. DIRTY MIND, 1999 & PURPLE RAIN were just the calm before the storm, I believe.
SIGN O' THE TIMES turned out to be Prince's last major commercial success for several years. 1988's LOVESEXY became one of his lowest-selling albums ever; 1989's BATMAN was thought to be the ultimate in selling out by hardcore Prince fans; 1990's GRAFFITI BRIDGE was another soundtrack that was miles better than the movie it came from. But 1991's DIAMONDS & PEARLS seemed to show that Prince had put his heart back into his music again, not just operating on autopilot in hopes of getting a hit.
Since then, Prince hasn't been the same fresh artist we knew him as back at the start of his career. Occasionally, there are some glimmers of genius, but now they seem to be on a song-by-song basis. In my mind, SIGN O' THE TIMES will be not just Prince's last truly magnificent album, but his best overall. Nothing can match in its scope & magnitude, not even the similarly-structured RAINBOW CHILDREN album of late. While the reviews of that album may be mixed at best, chances are Prince's old fans will be looking to the older stuff for comfort. In that case, SIGN O' THE TIMES wouldn't be a bad thing to turn to.
Free Music Review: Prince's "Songs In The Key Of Life"
Hit: 5 Stars
Ok. The age old question: What IS Prince's best album? Sign 'O The Times or Purple Rain? I personally would throw in 1999 in that question too. Well to answer that you probably should look at it the same way that we look at Stevie wonder's Songs In The Key Of Life and Innervisions. Songs is Stevie's most important work for MUSIC. Innervisions is his PERSONAL best. Therefore I feel Sign is the Purple One's most important work for music and Purple Rain is his personal best. Why? "Sign" bashes down musical doors just as "Songs" did 11 years earlier. And, as with "Innervisions", "Purple" has better all around song writing and energy to it. Enough of the comparison, you should have BOTH CD anyway! On with my review. Because this is a double disc, reviewing all of the songs in 1000 or less is impossible so I'll stick with what I feel are the best songs.
Sign 'O The Times: A slow, purculating classic. Prince sings of all of the maddness going on in the world today and how things seem to be getting worse. "September my cousin tried refer for the very first time, now he's doing horse. It's June". It's a great opening for a the masterpiece that is to follow. Housequake: One of the tightest jams he's ever done, and he's done MANY! This song started so many parties it's amazing! It's Prince as both jokester and funkster. AllI can say is "Shut Up already, DAMN"! It: This is the hottest, sweatest sexiest song every. It is, well, IT!!. It's minimalist musicwise, not a whole lot of instramentation or anything but that's the point. Sex and sexual lust is not complicated or multilayered. It's pretty straight and simple. Just like this great song. A must hear. Starfish and Coffee: Prince snd Stevie Wonder were compared when Prince was just starting off. Mainly because of the fact that both were multi-instramentalist and great studio musicians. With this song it takes the similarities to another level. As a child, before his Motown fame, Stevie would be listening to many blues and soul masters on his way to school. And he was generally he only black kid on the bus going to these special schools for the blind. Because of that it took a lot of nerve for him to listen to what he loved while the other kids were listening the like. In Starfish and Coffee, Prince tells the tale of a person (Cynthia) who lived life to the beat of her own drum. Everyday she brought for lunch starfish and coffee. As he says in the song, "Go on Cynthia, keep singing starfish and coffee, maple syrup and jam..." She's going to do her thing no matter what. It makes you think if Cynthia is actually Prince in disguise. Say what you want but our buddy Prince IS different. And he has definately walked to his own beat. Musically, the song is weird, very psychedelic, but incredibly catchy. It's actually one of the best songs on the album. Not anything you would hear on the radio, but still one of his best. Strange Relationship: A heavyhanded funk classic. A tale of a love/hate/love relationship that many of us have been involved with. Crank this one up to listen to it. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man: One of the best song of his career. This is a psychedelic/pop/jazz masterpiece. To be honest, most of Prince's music is not very thought provoking. Prince is know for his MUSIC and there is plenty of it going on in this one. The song is about a night in the club where he meets a lady and does his rap but feels that she's looking for something more than just a one night stand. Which is what he's gunning for! Again, this is not brain surgery lyricswise but musically he goes from his now patented psychdelic/pop to a jazzy mid-section and back. Ending I with a rocked out scream. Amazing. Adore: The best song on the CD. Prince sings in falsetto here to great effect. It's a slow jam that glides you in and out of it's story. Prince clowns around on this one too. Saying he'll do anything and give anything for his woman.....except for his car!!! It's funny, irreverent but oh so truthful in so many ways. The best part is that it doesn't mess up the sexiness of the song. Only Prince could pull that off. It is a perfect end to a great CD. Prince never won Album of the Year Grammies but he should have for this one.
Free Music Review: Prince Playing Right In The Sunshine
Hit: 5 Stars
I'm not sure what I can say that hasn't already been said about what is very justly regarded as a classic album. Well maybe the best thing to do is discuss a little about why it might be so revered. In the three years or so since his commercial breaktrhough with "Purple Rain Prince had been carefully balance creativity with his need to communicate with his audience. It was a restless struggle that's basically defined his career and,to an extent his personal character up to this point. Somehow here he managed to make it all work. Basically this is a double album pieced together from from three aborted 1986 album sessions and reworked into what ended up being one of his 80's classics. As with any Prince album the sound is eclectic yet somehow consistant. On this album though the range of subject matter lyrically is much broader in scope and in a lot of ways more mature. During this time Prince was also interjecting strong live band and solo elements of jazz into his sound. It's not only in the instrumentation but in the arrangements too and,not only that his production elements-especially his noted,inventive use of the LINN drum machine is on full display here. The title song here is a completely stripped down,pulsing musing on outwardly focused social ills of the day and very surprisingly became a big hit as well. There are also a good deal of genuinely sunny weather sounding pop/rock tunes such as the bouncy "Play In The Sunshine". At the same time these songs,being that it's Prince are not mere "fun" tunes and give you the full spectrum of weather as each song concludes with these minor chorded jazz-funk/blues instrumental bridges that express the human race's duel consciousness very well. There's also a couple of dense,moody funky rockers in the explosive "It",the tough grooving,hip-hop beat inflected "Hot Thing" and the stomping "Strange Relationship". This album also offers up enormous doses of funk. Both the classic "Housequake" and "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night",with their precise horn charts and chunky rhythm guitars not only showcase the obvious James Brown influence but give a possible wink to out JB might've sounded had his career not been stalled after the mid 70's and had he just continued on innovating. So Prince is actually kind of picking up here where one of his musical heroes left off. There are also a series of songs here that just pull everything he does best together. One is the slinky,electronically polyrhythmic jazz-funk of "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker"-one of my favorite Prince songs and one containing an intentionally misleading come on in the lyric. "If I Was Your Girlfriend" has a similar musical idea married to a lyric that plays on the idea about how opposit sexes may not relate to each other as well as they think. "Forever In My Life" is a very poigant bluesy funk number that is about Prince maturing when it comes to matters of love. "U Got The Look" is one song here that does sound a little bit like his 1984 era material well,by degrees anyway although Sheila E's percussion effects and the slicker production make it very distinctly it's own beast. On an early nod toward what would later become known as praise rock "The Cross" has a very anthemic guitar god styled flavor and is one of Prince most rock oriented songs ever. On the horn packed soul ballads "Slow Love" and "Adore" Prince is at his most sweet and romantic since the lyrics on his debut album For You. So across the sixteen songs on this album you get a Prince musically and personally in transition,augmenting his musical sound into yet another new territory while still keeping a foot in his original style. Also the lyrics illustrate Prince's psyche in a similar place and in a way this stands as something of a peak of the stylistic progression he'd been working on since the 80's decade got started.Free Music Review: Colour me peach and black, and me taken aback
Hit: 5 Stars
Prince did it again--a change in style different from his other albums. However, this began life as a concept triple album called Camille, before being whittled down to this double release. I'll just go over selected songs.The title track is basically the news with Prince as its anchor. He reports on gang warfare, poverty, hurricanes killing people, and the follies of SDI. He dubs AIDS as that "big disease with a little name", and the line "It's silly, no? When a rocket ship explodes and everyone still wants to fly" may be a reference to the Challenger disaster a year earlier. A sobering and telling lyric: "Some say man ain't truly happy 'til man truly dies. Oh why?"
"Play In The Sunshine" is very playful, danceable, and jubilant celebration that has the energy of "Delirious" or "Let's Go Crazy". Apart from doing the title act, Prince sings: "we wanna be free/without the help of a margarita or ecstasy/We wanna kick like we used 2" One of my favourites.
"Housequake" is Prince's first stab at rap, house, and funk combined and is the name of a dance Prince invented. The lead vocal is by "Camille", which may be another alias, like Jamie Starr or Alexander Nevermind, albeit a female one, Prince has picked out for himself. The voice is slightly like someone inhaling helium.
"It" features prominent drums, bass, and a quiet synthesizer and is about him wanting to do it all the time. Stylings akin to "Automatic" from 1999.
"Starfish and Coffee" seems to have missed the Around The World In A Day album. It's what a dreamy girl named Cynthia has in her lunchbox: "Starfish and Coffee/Maple syrup and jam/Butterscotch clouds, a tangerine/and a side order of ham" Kinda sounds like Dr. Seuss.
Another standout is the lush slow-dance ballad "Slow Love" is a big improvement over its cousin, "Under The Cherry Moon" and in the same vein, with tones of "International Lover". Wendy and Lisa have backing vocals.
"U Got The Look", his well-known duet with Sheena Easton, is easily the most accessible song here, made with Sheila E.'s pounding percussion and Prince's guitar.
"If I Was Your Girlfriend" and "Strange Relationship" has Prince in his Camille persona. The monologue at the end of the singing has Camille confronting her lover on various provocative. As for the latter, it has a martial pounding drums backed by a funky rhythm.
The version of "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" is the unedited 6:31 version. The catchy rhythm synthesizers and the quickly-sung lines leading to the chorus somehow caught me more than "U Got The Look". The way in which he avoids commitment is clever: "I may be qualified 4 a one night stand/But I could never take the place of your man."
The sombre "The Cross" is another religious tune comforting the downtrodden. After the second-and-half minute, a slow-grinding guitar picks the pace up, with Prince singing the lyrics at higher intensity.
The near 9-minute "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night", sung live in Paris, is another party jam, with vocal help from Susanna Melvoin and Jill Jones, the blonde girl from Purple Rain, and Sheila E. on drums and "Transmississippi rap."
Susanna Melvoin, Wendy's twin sister, has backing vocal duties as well as co-writing "Starfish and Coffee" and despite the breakup of the Revolution, Matt Fink, Wendy, and Lisa do plenty on this album.
If any album comes close to being Prince's equivalent of a White Album, this is it. It's a double CD, has an eclectic mix of music, and was released when he was well established.