prince double album poll: sign o the times vs 1999

I love 1999 but the album track oddities on SOTT ("Forever In My Life," "Strange Relationship," "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker") provide endless comfort. On the other hand, "Free" and "Something in the Water" define Album Track Oddity.

"some people say that i got great legs"

that song is one of his all time best/weirdest

I really have to go 1999, if only because of "Something In The Water"

1999

"Some people tell me I got great legs."

if 1999 ever gets released with outtakes extra loveable must be on there

re: prince politics, free is obv a bit questionable unless youre a republican perhaps, but despite hating it, i now kind of look at it as a charming example of political naivity (plus i just like the melody)

I lump it in with Donna Summer's "Livin' in America" among patriotic songs too goofy and naive to really dislike.

Prince would basically rewrite "Free" as "3 Chains of Gold."

I agree that 1999's politics are more bizarre and idiosyncratic than SOTT's. Fun and unsettling is always good, and Jamie Principle's Baby Wants to Ride is one of the few non-Prince songs to get that same weird brew of the sexual and political. Much prefer SOTT musically though. I don't think its appeal now rests on "Serious Social Commentary", though no doubt that played a part when it first came out - P&J voters love that shit.

"Sign 'O' The Times" is the worst song on the album.

1999 also has dozens of fantastic stand out lines. i would quote them but i think that would ruin the effect.

the 'important' songs on SOTT i think are probably lyrically the weakest (though i love the music of both and on the SOTT film the guitar intro to SOTT is great). interestingly both were sequenced together on the original crystal ball album near the end which i think would have been better (beautiful night is also a better closer than adore imo).

"Sign 'O' The Times" is the worst song on the album.

well, it's not "Slow Love" or "It", but it's close

slow love is one of his all time best ballads!

xp Lyrically, yes. Musically still wonderful I think, but then so is pretty much everything else on there.

"Slow Love" is a big ball of eye rolling wank.

OTM. "Adore," tho, is almost without peer among Prince ballads.

but there is no airline steward segment on adore like international lover.

Side two (vinyl version) is definitely SOTT's weak patch.

holy shit, i just heard "extra loveable" for the first time. can't believe this was never released.

"International Lover" and "Adore" are both so much better than "Slow Love" it isn't even funny

xpost, side two has starfish and coffee, hot thing and forever in my life.

yeah all three of those are fantastic

"Slow Love" is just terrible, tho

"International Lover" is so much better than "Adore."

def the best song about fucking in a plane (or best song to use a flight-as-fucking metaphor)

1999. The more Prince I get into, the more it seems like the essence of what I love about Prince. Pop instincts married to the filth of Dirty Mind and extended funk jams.

"Do Me Baby" >>>> "International Lover"

well duh

"Adore," tho, is almost without peer among Prince ballads (in a world with no DeBarge).

I don't care for "Adore."

shoot me now

I usually stop listening to SOTT at the 32-minute mark in "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night."

I'm just going to scratch your ride, Alfred.

xpost lol otm

What I love about "1999" is that I keep forgetting it's a double at all, so when I put it on it just keeps going and going ... it's more monolithic than SOTT, obv., so it's a matter of reveling in its joy of repetition.

SOTT covers a lot more bases, very neatly, and impeccably for the most part, but yeah, its not exactly the most cohesive album in any way. it does hang together in that the whole thing has a certain solemn vibe and prince has never really done cohesive albums anyway, but 1999 is at least all more or less cut from the same sounds/production.

'Automatic' slays all

often think that part of the album is way too much, until I actually play the thing

Yeah I couldn't even recall "Automatic" by glancing at the title but the nanosecond it came on, it all came rushing back, including many of the lyrics. It's this ungainly thing, a broken carnival ride that shouldn't move. But oh does it ever move!

Really sharp comparison, titchy. But as a poptimist, I have to confess I get a bit itchy after the verse-chorus-verses of 1999's epic dance tracks. So I'll take the (relative) pop concision of SOTT. And there's always "Adore" waiting for me at the end.

P.S. The pre-teen me had a 1999 t-shirt with the album cover on the front and the entire lyrics to the title song on the back.

SOTT is his white album; 1999 is his Electric Ladyland.

in career stages, yeah, but i think SOTT is the white album and electric ladyland all at once.

i cant think of any other doubles as singular as 1999. anyone?

Sure. Speakerboxx/The Love Below

Alfred, come my revolution you will be up against the wall, blasphemer

the love below works. very similar to 1999 actually, even though its pretty weak (about the same length too).

Also Here My Dear

Also Faces and Love Streams if they were double albums.

more songs on SOTT = win

I've never heard a double album that wasn't "sprawling" or messy.

randomly i was thinking SOTT would be better if more of the tracks faded into each other like albums in the 70s

all my favorite albums are double albums

SOTT...the highs are higher for me on 1999 but it's more patchy than SOTT which I can listen to all the way through without hitting the skip button

sometimes i feel like double albums are kind of cursed...either they work and they're so good and big that everything the artist does after is anticlimactic, or they don't work and signal that the artist has lost grip on quality control. 1999 was an exception, in that it was Prince's biggest album to date and he immediately made one even bigger directly afterwards. then got got greedy and did another double album, and THAT one turned out even better, but then of course it made everything after it pale in comparison. and then he spurted out a couple of triple albums for good measure.

1999, i think

God, I haven't played SOTT for 20 years at least, and some of these songs are receeding in my mem.

"Beautiful night" is great where it is.

I like "The Cross", basically for being "It's alright the way that you live" merging into "sister ray" Velvet Underground(s).

"Sign O The Times" is better. Both running a bit thin towards the end, but SIOT keeps the steam all through side 3 while "1999" is starting to lose it around side 2 already.

sometimes i feel like double albums are kind of cursed...either they work and they're so good and big that everything the artist does after is anticlimactic

i think sott was prince shooting his last great wad. he recorded SO much material during that time, its like he was worried he might not have anything more to come afterwards (obv i cant ever imagine prince worrying about lack of material, but it can look like that). it was the most inspired he would ever be i think. after that, he never stopped recording as much, but in terms of quality/quantity being more or less equal, he wouldnt really get it back after that 86/87 era.

i suppose you could argue that white female musicians have been prince's most inspiring collaborators.

Of course it's 1999...one of the most revelatory albums I ever heard...can still remember listening to it for the first time and having to put it on again straight away( but quickly fast forwarding cos I couldn't wait to hear it again)...it covers every Prince base...pop Prince, rock Prince, minneapolis Prince, soul balladier Prince, just plain weird Prince and pretty much peerlessly...It's his 'A Wizard,A true Star'...SOTT is his 'Todd'...definitely a top 10 album...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I love both but 1999 is slightly more powerful and explosive.

anyone know where i can get the "For Those of U on Valium" bootleg? ;)

oops, sorry i found it

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

dan's weird out of nowhere "it" hate upthread is killing me because that is maybe my favorite prince song

anyway i think maybe the love symbol record should have been in this poll.

i mean i know it would have lost terribly but it's kind of the other prince double lp

oh on second thought given album lengths i'd be including diamonds and pearls there

dammit it's too late to think about this

anyway had i seen this poll i would have gone for sign after thinking hard about how much i love "little red corvette" and "automatic" and "lady cab driver"

The synth riff in the chorus to 'Let's Pretend We're Married' is so Gary Numan in hurts.

*in=it

Lady...cab driver

titchy (titchyschneiderMk2)
Posted: 11 July 2011 at 18:51:16
randomly i was thinking SOTT would be better if more of the tracks faded into each other like albums in the 70s

this would be good. parade does this to great effect.

Definitely SOTT for me out of the two, but they're both astounding records.

I want to petition the BFI in London to show the sott movie on 35mm.

I would say SOTT most days, but not when I just listened to 1999. The whole back half of the album is a real career high point, where his weirdness and his virtuosity meet most productively and successfully over track after track. Also I think his funniest album? So many great asides and jokes. I love how he so deliberately frontloaded the record with hits and then just let himself do whatever we wanted for the rest of it.

Well, after going through the albums Dirty Mind though Lovesexy, SOTT was the first that seemed underwhelming. It's a lot less of a party record than the early stuff, but to my ears, also less sonically interesting than Parade (and the arrangements sound more dated). I'm guessing people really like the lyrics? Or?

(I should say Controversy also seemed a little underwhelming, but only because it was more of the same with slightly lesser songs -- SOTT just seems like a change to whole other feel)

I kind of hear what you're saying but SOTT has that inscrutable thing of summing to this pocket universe of music

SOTT is the quintessential double album, in line with Physical Graffiti, The White Album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Tusk, Blonde on Blonde - if his other albums are a single spoke in the wheel, SOTT is the whole wheel, with all of his proclivities and idiosyncrasies explored to the fullest extent.

Except it *sounds* lesser than all the ones that preceded it -- maybe it's a production thing, although for much of it, Prince's vocals seem more subdued as well. Lovesexy beefs things up a bit. At the moment, I'm hearing SOTT more as an introduction to the next phase in his career, one less about reigning over the pop charts/leading the zeitgeist, and more about exploring his own muses. It doesn't sound like a summing up of everything Prince does to me, because nothing on it sounds like it could have been on, say, Dirty Mind or even 1999.

(but then, I only really love The White Album of the ones you mention above, others ranging from good/interesting to not my thing at all)

All CD/digital copies of SOTT sound like shit - way too quiet and flat. I listened to my vinyl copy for the first time in a while last week and thru the weekend, and I was astounded by how much better it sounds. Beefier, louder - that's one you've gotta hear on vinyl.

All CD/digital copies of SOTT sound like shit - way too quiet and flat.

Have you heard the Japanese remaster from a few years ago? Genuinely curious about this 'cause I was thinking about maybe buying one on eBay or Discogs.

I haven't, just a US CD and the copy on iTunes I bought last week.

There was a Japanese SHM CD from 2009 that I would absolutely buy if the price dropped below, say, $60. Right now the cheapest one is $114.

The Japanese shm are basically just EQ treatments of the existing CDs iirc. But they do sound better. Just not as much better as I want them to.

Man, I can't understand at all how anyone could be underwhelmed by Sign '☮' the Times. It is quintessential Prince. His crowning achievement.

https://youtu.be/kyOCgW11Ajw

not going to embed that, it's DMSR live in Detroit

Lemme get a fruit cocktail, I ain't too hungry.