Publication: The San Diego Union-Tribune [US]
Date: April 10, 1987
Section: Entertainment; Ed. 1,2,3,4,5,6
Page Number(S): C-2
Length: 1062 Words
Title: "LPs By Prince, Oingo Boingo, Smiths"
Written By: David L. Coddon; John Cataldo and Gina Lund

SIGN O' THE TIMES, Prince (Paisley Park Records).

Like a good seduction, Prince can be sizzling and exciting. Like a bad seduction, however, Prince can also be dull and clumsy. Perhaps the fault with his new double album is its length. There's too much lyrical foreplay and too much small talk. Were Sign O' The Times half the size, it would be twice as interesting.

No one has ever accused the enigmatic Prince of being unambitious. Purple Rain laid to rest all doubts that he can mold and manipulate a vision into a memorable musical stroke. Even his recent film flop, "Under The Cherry Moon," reached for great heights.

The imaginative combination of rock, rap and rhythm and blues included on "Sign O' The Times" is nonetheless distributed helter-skelter. Prince can transform funk into a fine art, such as on the title track, a rousing newsreel ditty about AIDS, "Star Wars," drugs and related societal scourges. And the standby sexual innuendo so identified with his lyrics turns up on the saucy "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" and, less subtly, on "It," a two-letter title about a three-letter subject.

"Slow Love," a bluesy ballad, and "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man," the tightest, most melodic cut on the album, are swamped by a purposeless rain of inane rap and teen-age come-hither fantasies.

With the exception of the rock spiritual, "The Cross," Prince's guitar playing is glitzy, and the promising conscience exhibited in the title tune that kicks off the LP is quickly shunted in favor of more pedestrian "tease" songs. live cut, "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night," hails from a Paris concert with Prince's backup ensemble, The Revolution. The audience sounds as if it's having a great time, which for the most part is more than those listening to this undistinguished album will have.

Neither the stellar percussion contributions of Sheila E. nor guest vocals by Sheena Easton can elevate Sign O' The Times from the ranks of the forgettable. It may be that Prince's work is simply fluctuating in an awkward stage between musical adolescence and manhood. But at the very least, he owes his faithful following the best parts of both and not a 90-minute grab bag.