Prince – Sign "O" The Times

Not a huge Prince fan BUT I love ATWIAD, Parade, and this beauty ! For the amount of Prince that I play, those three albums are more than enough. Now, if only the first two were afforded the deluxe treatment that Sign has been given ! Going by various comments I’ve read over the years, it sounds unlikely that those will ever come to , which makes this super deluxe release feel even more special.
The original album sounds the best it ever has imo. The bonus tracks disc are, generally, all new to me, and are wonderful SQ as well as being interesting in their own rights. I’ve not played the live shows, but really must.
All packaged in a hefty, sturdy glossy slipcase + nice book. I almost didn’t bother picking this up but one day saw it for sale for silly money so grabbed it immediately.
The only real negative is that now I own this, I want equivalent releases for the other two albums I mentioned above. Come on Prince estate. A big, fat ATWIAD and Parade boxes would easily sell. If the thought of those appeals to someone like myself - a non-fan - then I can’t imagine how the genuine Prince lovers and collectors would feel. Heck, same with Alphabet Street too whilst you’re at it !

Just as an aside : None of my discs suffered from scratches thankfully. I’ve since popped them into little poly-lined paper covers which sit comfortably on top of the book.
A big ol’ 5 stars out of 5.

Brilliant pressing! Loud, dynamic, and full, and pressed on , flat, quiet vinyl. An absolute must!

A brief comment on the Bernie Grundman 2020 2-CD remaster of "Sign O' The Times". This is the basic album, and replicates the material on the original double album, with no bonus material (B-sides, Vault recordings etc.). It is, of course, a wonderful hour-and a bit of music. I'm even prepared to forgive "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night" in the dopamine rush of hearing this fantastic music as it hasn't been heard... probably since a certain Purple gent listened to the playback at Paisley Park studios.

I have to say that Bernie Grundman has done a superb job on this remaster. The tracks have the full dynamic range of the originals, but sound cleaner and clearer. None of the audio is brickwalled, and none of it has been put through the too-good-to-be-true EQ tweaking that plagued early "digital remasters" of all manner of material. A quick check in Audacity shows the tracks have the same overall waveform as the 1987 release - they just sound better! I am comparing with the Europe/UK Alsdorf vinyl pressings from 1987.

There was some huffing and puffing on the Steve Hoffman music forums about track 1-2 sounding quieter than track 1-1. However, I think this is a misjudgement. Track 1-1 has only ~88% max signal, whereas 1-2 uses the full available dynamic range, so should in theory be louder than 1-1. It doesn't sound that way subjectively, however. I suspect it's just the way Prince mixed and recorded the music, which is very much 'of its time'. Nowadays he could bang "Play In The Sunshine" through a multi-band compressor and make it sound more in-your-face... but he didn't, and I'm happy to have the recording as the small but perfectly-formed man intended.

I would also add that my copy of this 2xCD set has none of the scratching/fingerprints issues that buyers of the Super Deluxe Edition have complained about.

WOW, sounds absolutely amazing, it makes it better that this is some of the best music ever made, 10/10. very worth the price, i’m so
happy i own this.

Great album and great memory of buying it after a fun tour of Paisley Park!

my copy is in a fatbox, discs made in , cover printed in usa

The picture of the jacket cover for this listing shows the edited down "box" on the stage. We know this was done retroactively. I would think either a different entry may be needed or the picture updated if this is an original, early press.

I’m afraid I have to add to the poor reviews. The first track on both discs skips, there’s an underlying noise like a plane flying overhead, particularly on the second disc and the hole on the first disc is way off centre. On the plus side, they look really good. Can’t imagine me choosing to listen to this over the CD very often though, and it wouldn’t be easy to offload them, knowing the imperfections. I’ll put this down as a poor record fair impulse buy.

I just noticed that the matrices for the Target exclusive reissue are completely different than those for the main album in the Super Deluxe, 13-LP boxed set. Obviously 2 different sets of cuts, so I wonder if one betters the other.

Fantastic Sounding Cassette, A Must Have For Prince Fans And It's Essential Your Boom Box Has A Tone Control Functions As I Found I Needed To Adjust In Of The Treble And Bass To Get The Best Possible Sound Out Of This Cassette.