Prince - Sign O' The Times (Super Deluxe) (2020) 9xCD

 The album was reissued in Remastered, Deluxe and Super Deluxe editions on September 25, 2020. The Super Deluxe edition contains nine discs with a remaster of the original album, all 13 single, maxi-single and B-side tracks, 45 previously unreleased tracks, and two complete live recordings of the Sign o' the Times Tour: one audio performance recorded at stadium Galgenwaard in Utrecht, The Netherlands, on June 20, 1987, and one video performance shot at Paisley Park on December 31, 1987.^[34] In addition, a 7" vinyl singles box set limited to 1,987 units was released, containing remastered audio for all four official 7" singles released in 1987, as well as the two official Warner Records promo singles and a brand new 7" single comprising two versions of the previously unreleased track "Witness 4 the Prosecution

 Sign o' the Times is the ninth studio album by the American singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Prince. It was first released on March 31, 1987, as a double album by Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records.^[2] The album is the follow-up to Parade and is Prince's first solo album following his disbanding of the Revolution. The album's songs were largely recorded during 1986 to 1987 in sessions for releases Prince ultimately aborted: Dream Factory, the pseudonymous Camille, and finally the triple album Crystal Ball. Prince eventually compromised with label executives and shortened the length of the release to a double album.

Sign o' the Times is a drastic departure from Prince's previous works, taking inspiration from social issues and spirituality. An R&B album, the album takes influence from avant-pop and hip hop, which was emerging in mainstream music. Many of the drum sounds on the album came from the Linn LM-1 drum machine, and Prince used the Fairlight CMI synthesizer to replace other instruments. Four songs contain higher-pitched vocals to represent Prince's alter ego "Camille". The album's music touches on funk, soul, psychedelic pop, electro, and rock.

Despite being Prince's fifth album in five years, Sign o' the Times reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 and spawned three top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: the title track and lead single "Sign o' the Times", "U Got the Look" and "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man". Besides these three, "If I Was Your Girlfriend" was also released as a single. A concert film of the same name was released to promote the album. The album was a huge critical success and is certified platinum in the US. Following Prince's death in 2016, it re-entered the Billboard 200 at number 20.

Sign o' the Times is one of the most critically acclaimed albums in popular music, widely being regarded as Prince's best album, ahead of Purple Rain (1984). It was voted the best album of 1987 in the Pazz & Jop critics poll and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 30th Grammy Awards. Often hailed as a masterpiece, some critics have praised Sign o' the Times as the best album of the 1980s. It is a frequent inclusion in lists of the greatest albums of all time and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2017. 

 

Prince's sixth studio album, Purple Rain (1984), dominated American pop culture for nearly the entirety of 1984.^[3] Prince, and the Revolution, followed it with the psychedelia Around The World In A Day (1985) and Parade the following year; the former topped the Billboard 200 whilst the latter was critically well received.^[3] However, Prince's record company and most of his newer fans gained from the success of Purple Rain wanted a second Purple Rain. Further issues were that much of his black audience thought he was becoming "too white" and sections of the public were uncomfortable with his prurience and sexual ambiguity.^[3]

The Revolution album Dream Factory and a pseudonymous solo effort, Camille.^[4] Unlike the three previous band albums, Dream Factory included input from the band members and lead vocals by Wendy & Lisa.^[4] Prince's feared that he was losing control, leading to the project to be abandoned.^[3] The Camille project saw Prince create an androgynous persona primarily singing in a higher, 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.^[5] Warner Bros. balked at the idea of trying to sell a triple album and forced Prince to trim it down to a double album.^[6] Prince cut seven tracks, and also reformulated the album to accommodate the newly added title track.

 

As with many of Prince's early 1980s albums, this album features extensive use of the Linn LM-1 drum machine on most songs.^[9] 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 synthesizer also containing a 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" use pitch-shifted vocals to create a higher voice, ostensibly the voice of "Camille", Prince's alter ego of this era.^[10]

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.^[11]

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)^[12] for recording vocals at this stage in his career. Susan Rogers also recalled the speed of Prince's creative process, saying "[the] songs came out like a sneeze, one track after the next, after the next."^[7] She also noticed a problem with the sound desk—which had been newly installed—during the recording of "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker", which resulted in a sound matching the "underwater dream state" of the song.^[7][13]

Although Sign o' the Times was regarded by some as less polished than his earlier efforts (one review said it sounded like outtakes, "except nobody else’s outtakes would sound so strong, rock so hard, swing so free")^[14] Prince pointed out that he (and his record company) "spent more time and money" on Sign o' the Times than anything he had ever done, adding that "[much] more work went into it."^[7]

Two of the album's songs were first recorded in 1979 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 high-pitch vocal. "U Got the Look" was also recorded in this manner, though it was not intended for the Camille album.