As a colossal, remastered edition of Prince’s seminal LP is released, Mobeen Azhar speaks to the people behind the album to find the secret to its brilliance. As a colossal, remastered edition of Prince’s seminal LP is released, Mobeen Azhar speaks to the people behind the album to find the secret to its brilliance.

By 1986 Prince had already seen the top of the mountain. His 1984 album Purple Rain had cemented – or more aptly bejewelled – his place in history, and in the summer of that year he simultaneously held the number one spots on the US single, album and film charts. But Prince wasn’t satisfied with mere star power, and two records after Purple Rain, he changed direction. The result was Sign O’ the Times, an album that has repeatedly appeared on critics’ most-esteemed lists since it was released in 1987, 33 years ago. Could it be the greatest of all time?

The album is a freeze frame of the time in which it was written – the title track including a line about “a big disease with a little name”. Gang violence, crack cocaine and US President Reagan’s Star Wars programme are name checked. Like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, the opening moments of Sign O’ the Times are a state-of-the-nation address. Listeners expected a new Prince record to be a sexually-charged invitation to dance and sing – they didn’t expect the audio equivalent of a newspaper front page. Some DJs read the lyrics to the album’s title track on air as an introduction. It was a statement of intent: Prince was in a different place and wanted it to be known.

By 1986 Prince had already seen the top of the mountain. His 1984 album Purple Rain had cemented – or more aptly bejewelled – his place in history, and in the summer of that year he simultaneously held the number one spots on the US single, album and film charts. But Prince wasn’t satisfied with mere star power, and two records after Purple Rain, he changed direction. The result was Sign O’ the Times, an album that has repeatedly appeared on critics’ most-esteemed lists since it was released in 1987, 33 years ago. Could it be the greatest of all time?

The album is a freeze frame of the time in which it was written – the title track including a line about “a big disease with a little name”. Gang violence, crack cocaine and US President Reagan’s Star Wars programme are name checked. Like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, the opening moments of Sign O’ the Times are a state-of-the-nation address. Listeners expected a new Prince record to be a sexually-charged invitation to dance and sing – they didn’t expect the audio equivalent of a newspaper front page. Some DJs read the lyrics to the album’s title track on air as an introduction. It was a statement of intent: Prince was in a different place and wanted it to be known.

By 1986 Prince had already seen the top of the mountain. His 1984 album Purple Rain had cemented – or more aptly bejewelled – his place in history, and in the summer of that year he simultaneously held the number one spots on the US single, album and film charts. But Prince wasn’t satisfied with mere star power, and two records after Purple Rain, he changed direction. The result was Sign O’ the Times, an album that has repeatedly appeared on critics’ most-esteemed lists since it was released in 1987, 33 years ago. Could it be the greatest of all time?

The album is a freeze frame of the time in which it was written – the title track including a line about “a big disease with a little name”. Gang violence, crack cocaine and US President Reagan’s Star Wars programme are name checked. Like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, the opening moments of Sign O’ the Times are a state-of-the-nation address. Listeners expected a new Prince record to be a sexually-charged invitation to dance and sing – they didn’t expect the audio equivalent of a newspaper front page. Some DJs read the lyrics to the album’s title track on air as an introduction. It was a statement of intent: Prince was in a different place and wanted it to be known.