Sign "☮︎" the Times
Released: 1987

Sign "☮︎" the Times

by Prince

The 36th greatest album of all time

Sign o' the Times, released in 1987, is a sprawling double album by Prince that blends funk, contemporary R&B, pop rock, rock, and soul. The record moves between sparse electronic textures and drum machines and fuller guitar and horn arrangements, pairing intimate ballads with upbeat funk-pop tracks; it includes the title track "Sign o' the Times", "U Got the Look", "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man", and "If I Was Your Girlfriend". Lyrically and sonically diverse, the album mixes personal themes about relationships with broader social commentary and represents a particularly experimental and wide-ranging phase in Prince's work.

Appears On These Lists

500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 2023 edition

Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2023 update) is the latest edition of the magazi...

100 Best Albums

Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums (2024) is an editorially curated, all-time canon built by Apple Mus...

NME’s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

NME’s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2013) is a special issue compiled from ballots cast by...

TIME's All Time 100 Albums

TIME’s All-TIME 100 Albums (2006) is an unranked, editorial canon compiled by critics Josh Tyrang...

Uncut’s 200 Greatest Albums of All Time

Uncut’s 200 Greatest Albums of All Time ran as the February 2016 cover story (issue “Take 225”), ...

MOJO’s 100 Greatest Albums of All Time

MOJO’s 100 Greatest Albums of All Time (1995) is an early modern “canon” list from the UK monthly...

VH1’s Top 100 Albums

VH1’s Top 100 Albums (aired January 2001 as a five-part TV special) is a ranked, all-time list bu...

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005)

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a long-running reference book series (first published...

Colin Larkin’s All Time Top 1000 Albums

A book series created by Encyclopedia of Popular Music editor Colin Larkin (1st ed. 1994; later p...

Pitchfork’s The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s

Pitchfork’s The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s (Sept. 10, 2018) is a staff-curated, ranked retrospe...

The Top 10 Albums of the 1980s

In a Los Angeles Times critics’ poll published December 24, 1989, the paper’s regular pop-music r...

The 100 Albums of the 80s

This is a ranked, end-of-decade canon that leans heavily toward the decade’s post-punk / new wave...

500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die

who voted: John Aizlewood (editor), Matt Ashare, Michael Azerrad, Greg Beato, Johnny Black, Ben B...

The 1000 Best Albums of All Time

Fnac’s Les 1000 CD des disquaires de la Fnac (Dec 2008) is a collective, staff-driven canon: Fnac...

The 100 Best Albums of All Time

In summer 2007, Dutch music magazine OOR surveyed 100 Dutch pop “tastemakers”—critics and music f...

The 100 Best Albums of All Time

Hot Press is a long-running Irish music and current affairs magazine (founded in 1977, based in D...

The 100 Best Albums of All Time

Epoca (Italy) – The 100 Best Albums of All Time (1988) is a ranked “all-time” albums list publish...

The 100 Best Albums of All Time

In late 1993, The Times’ “Vulture” music feature ran a four-part countdown of the 100 best albums...

The 100 Best Albums of All Time

Berlin Media’s “100 Best Albums of All Time” (1998) is a Berlin-based critics poll: the albums (a...