50 great things about Prince's 'Sign O' The Times'

47. The emotional knottiness-unto-creepiness of "If I Was Your Girlfriend" and "Strange Relationship."

48. That weird pterodactyl shriek that Sheena Easton (?) does at one point in "UGTL"

49. "Step right this way, ladies"

50. The beyond genius "Dorothy Parker" drum programming

48. That weird pterodactyl shriek that Sheena Easton (?) does at one point in "UGTL"

― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, May 11, 2016 1

thought it was Prince himself

51. Prince's shades on the cover

Xpost It's been a minute since I watched it but I think in the video / SOTT film she looks at the camera and does it. It's also never sounded like his voice to me.

Shit 49 s/b "Look at the bargains offered here, ladies" . Mods please correct!

*over here

Sheesh. My memory's failing.

They're not shades, they're glasses! As evidenced by the SOTT movie.

52. The fact that "U Got the Look" is the only hit/single/song ever made to include the word heck-a-slammin'.

53. for you naked i would dance a ballet

54. sometimes i trip on happy we could be....PLEEEEEE-HEEE-HEEE-HEEEEEEEASE!!!!

*how happy... and the way his vocals distort at the end of that phrase

That was already at #15.

(xpost)

55. I just hate 2 see an erection go 2 waste!

56. The 'Hot Thing' bass note being slightly out of tune.

57. The self-aware melancholy in I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man.

Xxpost Wrong album

58. How "Hot Thing" goes from synth menace to a sax breakdown.

59. Play? No! PLAY! NOOOOO!

They're not shades, they're glasses! As evidenced by the SOTT movie.

Ok, in fairness, I haven't seen the movie in 20+ years.

But yes, you are correct. Another reason I thought they were cool, IIRC.

60. How the record is noted for being one of Prince's finest, yet the form it eventually took was not Prince's original vision for it!

61. u got the look's baseball metaphor is the best since paradise by the dashboard light

62. The way everyone slags off 'Slow Love', even though it's absolutely magnificent.

63. the nothing compares 2 u call back in adore

64. The encouraging way he says "Go on, Cynth" at 1:58 of Starfish and Coffee

65. Sheena Easton's "Oh please" in U Got the Look, which will be eternally cool

66. How this album basically introduced Camille. I remember how WEIRD it was to first hear that vocal effect on a Prince song the day I brought the album home (bought it the weekend of release). But this was Prince and he always aaaalways had something new up his sleeve then.

67. the best use of factory presets on a record ever?

68. The literally phoned-in rap in "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night".

69. The Fairlight orchestral stab sound is one of the most memorable parts of the titular song, and yet the stab is heard only two times, towards the end of tune. It takes only about two seconds of the 5 minute song, but Prince sure knew how to use those two seconds most effectively.

70. The ending to 'Play In The Sunshine', which is not so much psychedelic as an utterly bizarre mess that somehow works!

This is one of the few consensus "best albums" that actually is his best album. It really encapsulates everything I love about Prince.

Including those glasses.

71. "Mind if I turn on..." *drum fill* "...the radio?"

72. That there are just enough songs on this that I forget a few and am pleasantly surprised when I remember them every now and then.

73. Side 3 is prob the best run of songs Prince ever did:

U GOT THE LOOK
IF I WAS UR GIRLFRIEND
STRANGE RELATIONSHIP
I COULD NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF YOUR MAN

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/65/38/98/65389838d91e18c556a6f280aab23df1.jpg

Glasses!

The sleeve art on the double LP was such a shock - we had "slick Prince" as the mental image, black and white crop top, 30s chic in Cherry Moon, and then suddenly SotT drops and we have neopsychedelic Prince, Cat (who?), peach'n'black, ashram robes, flokati vests and Haight-Ashbury glasses. That plus Camille knocked me for a loop. And Sheena "My Baby Takes the Morning Train" Easton? Where's the Revolution? WTF?

did people really think this was him?

http://img.cdandlp.com/2012/09/imgL/115554290-2.jpg

one of the great back-of-the-sleeve shots ever.

According to Cat, some people did.

MatthewK totally OTM

Yah I remember folks thinking it was him :)

67. the best use of factory presets on a record ever?

― flappy bird, Friday, May 13, 2016 6:15 AM (4 days ago)

73. Side 3 is prob the best run of songs Prince ever did:

U GOT THE LOOK
IF I WAS UR GIRLFRIEND
STRANGE RELATIONSHIP
I COULD NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF YOUR MAN

― flappy bird, Monday, May 16, 2016 12:23 AM (Yesterday)

yesssssssss

74. Those finger cymbal things that I want to call castanets but aren't, particularly on Strange Relationship

Crotales iirc? Love the way he uses them. They are all over the atwiad LP.

was anyone else annoyed by this line in the p4k retrospective review of SOTT?

“Housequake” is, perhaps, the most obvious songs on the album, a funk jam that would have been a hit single if he’d allowed it to be released as such. But the care of the track’s construction belies any shallow analysis. It starts with a cartoony voice (maybe a Camille reference), a synthesized drum heavy with echo, then adds bass, keyboard stabs, and rhythm guitar. The synth drum and snare drum merge while there’s a double-beat on the kick. Live horns come it and the bass line moves as there’s both a synth bass keyboard and a live bass doing playing different lines. Various backing vocals float in and out with Prince doing his James Brown impersonation as singer/MC. Compared to the simple loops of your average club banger, “Housequake” is a symphony of syncopation. The beat moves even as it grooves.

wtf the drum machine couldn't be any more dry

none more dry

Perhaps we should have Camille step back from the drum machine so s/he doesn't trod on it.

I already got into one stupid argument about Prince productions earlier this week but until I just replayed this, I had thought it was the bass drum w the gated reverb too. I guess it's a detuned tom?