Prince - Sign 'O' the Times (Top 500 Countdown Update)

Well if you've been reading my reviews then you can probably guess where I'm going to come down on this album. It has too much. Strip out the extra and you probably have Prince's best work, but as it stands there is too much and the excellent tracks get lost at times among subpar work. The genius of the album is how Prince is able to write very good songs for a variety of different genres. "The Cross" is rock, "Starfish and Coffee" is electric pop, "Slow Love" is r&b, "Housequake" is funk, etc. On top of everything throw in a live song, "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" which leaves you wanting more of that and you have an amazingly mixed up album. In the end it is a bit too mixed up for me, but it is still a wonderful album.