Junodog's comparison to Jackson is apt. Recent listens to MJ have been, for me, highly disappointing. Bad sounded especially awful. Prince records from this era, particularly Sign, have lost none of their luster.

Prince tries his hand at almost everything and does a bloody good job of it too.

I'm not a fan but this is a masterpiece

Great work from the master. A golden age time for me because Prince released a great album every single year. This one is his apex. (Along with Purple Rain of course.)

This album solidifies Prince's genius. He's even better than MJ. King of the 80s r&b and pop. So many subtle touches in his melodies and hooks. Brilliant.

Out of all Prince's albums, I would say this one is definitely the most overrated. It is a great album, I would simply place it below Purple Rain and 1999, that's all. Another must-hear from the greatest artist of the 80s.

This is Prince's best. He has a level of genius on par with any other superstar of pop. However, he lacks consistency. He has many weak albums, and usually a few duds on even the good albums. This is his best because it is the most consistent. Also an underrated guitarist.

The best of peak-era Prince is on display here. You have your club-bangers ("housequake"), your sexpot ("u got the look") and your adoring lover ("if i was your girlfriend"). Mix in a little social commentary on the title track, and stir for an album which is as funky as it is flirtatious. Put on repeat and enjoy.

Effortlessly shifting between lustful dance tunes and dark musings and running the gamut of musical genres, Sign ‘O’ The Times shows the breadth of Prince’s talents and it’s the best argument to support the claim that he is a genius. It's the perfect mix of the one-man-band electronic funk of his early days and the raw emotion and soul of his recordings with the Revolution. It’s one of the precious few double albums that benefits from its haphazard, toss-in-everything-that-didn’t-make-other-albums nature. In short, it’s the Exile on Main St. of funk, a disjointed watershed that was never bettered. Purple Rain might have the hits, but anyone who wants to hear intelligent yet still fun pop music desperately needs this album. If this record was borne out of Prince’s fear of an approaching apocalypse, the end of days never sounded so danceable.

Forgetting the fact that as a whole this is a work of eclectic genius, this double album tour-de-force features "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" which just may be the best song of the entire 1980's.