Sign O’ The Times Deluxe Set Review
My love of Prince started very young and that was because of one of my older sisters. My whole family ended up loving him, his music and even his mystique. The man is and was a force to be reckoned with. I still feel that no one living or dead can hold a candle to him or his artistry. I own several albums of his and when it was announced that his estate was releasing a deluxe set of Sign O The Times I flipped out. So for my birthday I decided to purchase it for myself. The price tag was pretty hefty but no matter what I had to have it.
When it came in the mail I was close to filming an unboxing video for it but I decided to keep that moment to myself. When you open the box you are treated to the original cover but with a twist. Embossed in the cover is the name of the album along with prince standing in a yellow turtle neck tunic, pants, long dark coat and yellow guitar like a mirage. You can see every detail of the cover picture that was photographed by Jeffery Katz in 1987. The background was from a local theater that was doing Guys and Dolls musical at the time and they were able to use some of the set design for a brief time to photograph the iconic cover. Then you remove the book from the cover box to find an alternate cover with Prince in a different blue outfit with glasses standing in front of a blue drum set. You open the book you see beautiful pictures of him and the band, song lyrics, and stories. I could only wonder what is was like to be in the sessions or wonder what he was thinking when he was writing songs like Housequake, or Starfish and Coffee, or even Hot Thang.
Disc 3 of the set being loaded into my computer.
After you flip past the book part there is a disc with a concert at Paisley Park from New Year's Eve 1987 in the customary peach w/a black hart. Then you get to the stars of the show…..The music! The first 2 discs at the top are of the original double album with all of the hits that we know and love and the remaining 6 discs are of alternate versions of some of the songs, and songs that were recorded during the sessions that were going to go to other projects like the Camille or Crystal Ball. Every song takes you to a different place and you wonder what he was thinking or feeling when he wrote that particular song. I have listen to every disc several times and I can say this was a great buy. To this day I find myself just randomly singing different songs from this set like Housequake (I just wake up saying “Tell me who in this house know about the quake” (We do!)). I just pops in my head and I have to sing it or play it.
When you look at the set you wonder where to store it. Should you store it with your album collection, or store it with you CD box sets (yes I have several of them), or store them with your coffee table books around your house. No matter where you store it is makes a great addition to your collection.
Hello, World!