Принцтің «Sign o’ the Times» альбомы: Музыкалық инновация мен әлемдік танылу

Many of the drum sounds on Sign o' the Times came from the Linn LM 1 drum machine, and Prince used the Fairlight CMI synthesizer to replace other instruments. Minimal instrumentation is heard on the stripped down "Sign o’ the Times", the lead single. Four songs contain higher pitched vocals to represent Prince's alter ego "Camille". The album's music touches on a varied range of styles, including funk, soul, psychedelic pop, electro, and rock. Sign o' the Times release was supported by several singles, among them the socially conscious "Sign o' the Times" and "If I Was Your Girlfriend"; in addition to a well received concert film of the same name. The album peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) four months after its release. It also reached the top 10 in Austria, France, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the UK and number one in Switzerland. "Sign o' the Times", "U Got the Look" and "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" were all top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Following Prince's death in 2016, the album re entered the Billboard 200 at number 20. Though not as commercially successful as Purple Rain, Sign o' the Times was Prince's most acclaimed album, being voted 1987's best album in the Pazz & Jop critics poll. Included in many lists of the greatest albums of all time, it has been appraised by many critics as Prince's best album, ahead of Purple Rain. Writing for The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Michaelangelo Matos regarded it as "the most complete example of [Prince's] artistry's breadth, and arguably the finest album of the 1980s". In 2017, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Prior to the disbanding of the Revolution, Prince was working on two separate projects: The Revolution album Dream Factory and a pseudonymous solo effort, Camille. Unlike the three previous band albums, Dream Factory included input from the band members and lead vocals by Wendy & Lisa. 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. Warner Bros. balked at the idea of trying to sell a triple album and forced Prince to trim it down to a double album. 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. 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. 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:

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) 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." 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") 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." According to music journalist Touré, the album is Prince's foray into soul more than anything, Prince's use of the drum machine throughout the album is an example of "authentic rock music [made] with computers", Yuzima Philip writes in Observer. In the opinion of Star Tribune journalist Jon Bream, the music can be described as an absolute "balance of everything" the artist had explored stylistically up to that point, including "grinding funk, catchy pop, anthemic rock, tender balladry". Regarding the themes explored throughout the album, MTV News writer Hanif Abdurraqib said it functions "as a political action" and "that the politics are not those of solutions, but those of survival in the face of that which you might not survive for much longer. The politics of survival say that we may dance in the face of a coming apocalypse. We may, in the face of a coming apocalypse, go to bed with someone we love or someone we didn’t know before the night started. We may play in the streets, or fantasize about a new world to run into. On Sign ‘O’ The Times, after laying out the terrifying landscape, Prince pushes the landscape aside, lays out all of our options for survival on a table, and tells us to take our pick."

Sign o' the Times was released on March 30, 1987, in the United Kingdom, and one day later in the United States and France. It peaked at number six on the Billboard 200, reached the top 10 in Austria, France, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the UK, and reached number one in Switzerland. The singles "Sign o' the Times", "U Got the Look" and "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" reached number three, two and ten on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. Prince did not tour Sign o' the Times in the US (he also cancelled the UK dates, meaning the tour only reached mainland Europe); furthermore, it was released into a market which, throughout 1987, welcomed a fair few classic albums. The props were taken from Prince's home and studio, and the backdrop borrowed from a stage production of the musical Guys And Dolls.

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. 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 became Prince's most critically acclaimed record. Reviewing for Spin in 1987, Bart Bull said the musician's loosely organized songs are "genius" rather than indulgent and that, although there is no song as groundbreaking as "Girls & Boys", "nobody else's outtakes would sound so strong, rock so hard, swing so free." Don McLeese from the Chicago Sun Times hailed it as "a one man show, a tour de force, and a confirmation that pop's former prodigy has come of age." In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau said the album is not a "formal breakthrough" but rather "the most gifted pop musician of his generation proving what a motherfucker he is for two discs start to finish." He particularly praised Prince's "one man band tricks" and multi tracked vocals, which he said "make Stevie Wonder sound like a struggling ventriloquist" and express real emotions: "The objects of his desire are also objects of interest, affection, and respect. Some of them he may not even fuck." Sign o' the Times was nominated for Album of the Year at the 30th Grammy Awards. It was voted as the best album of 1987 in The Village Voices Pazz & Jop critics' poll. According to Christgau, the poll's creator, the album was "easily the biggest winner" in the poll's history and "established Prince as the greatest rock and roll musician of the era—as singer guitarist hooksmith beatmaster, he has no peer." The title track "Sign o' the Times" was named the best single of 1987 in the poll, while "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" and "U Got the Look" were also voted within the top 10. In an interview in December 1989, Robert Smith of the Cure cited Sign o' the Times amongst the best things about the 1980s.