Prince – Sign "O" The Times

Sign ☮ The Times DLX was the PERFECT pandemic album of 2020.

The CD/DVD edition of Prince’s ‘Sign o The Times’ classic album from 1987 is amazing. It’s great hearing the original album remastered. Sounds great listening to it on the couch with the music surrounding you. Discs 1&2 feature the remastered original album, which could easily fit onto a single CD. This would free up space in the box for a Disc featuring BOTH Madhouse 8 & 16 together on 1 CD as a much needed bonus. Madhouse was recorded during the same period as 'Sign o The Times'...Smh

I won’t get into specifics about all Vault Discs 4-6, but they are out of this world for the most part. Disc 3 with the Extended Mixes, B-Sides, and Edits was decent. The Live in Utrecht Discs 7-8 are a welcome addition to the collection. The DVD is also worth the price of ission...great video quality & sound.

Now for the packaging. I love the slipcase and graphics. Glad I was able to retain the plastic on it for protection. The hardcover book is stupendous. Love the extensive liner notes from key individuals. Track information for the original 16 track album wasn’t included, but I loved the details given for all the vault material. Paper quality and Photography by Jeff Katz were top notch.

The main issue I have with this box set is how the discs are stored...pockets...which sure enough resulted in scratches on the CDs. Some of my discs became dislodged during shipping. Thankfully Amazon replaced my box ASAP. It would’ve made sense to include a free digital code in the CD edition just like the Vinyl Box. Here’s what Princes Estate should’ve done....Store each disc in separate sleeves then into pockets within the book.....Just like bonus DVD was protected in the ‘1999’ Super Deluxe Vinyl Box from last year. At any rate, this box set is truly essential for any REAL collector of Prince & his music!

Minus the shotty packaging, this is possibly the most complete deluxe remaster from Prince's catalog we have gotten so far. One thing I do wish we would've gotten was more Camille sessions, but considering how they were spread out between this album, the Black Album and Lovesexy, perhaps if they decide to remaster "Lovesexy" we might get some of the lost Camille songs...? Who knows. Likewise I love the tracks and the concert we got with this set, it was worth the money. Also the Miles Davis collaborations are stellar on this project!

I can’t seem to stop being upset about the packaging for this 8CD/DVD set.
The printed tracklistings are almost nonexistent. You either have to refer to a disposable sheet of paper that was stuck to the back of the slipcase, or flip through the book to find the exact pages that reference the tracks. And the book tracklistings are horrible for the "vault" discs because not every song is listed in order, nor are they separated by disc number.
There are no card sleeves for the discs, which is a horrendous mistake. The discs would have been better protected and easier to transport somewhere without having to bring the entire book with you. Plus, the card sleeves would have had the tracklisings on them so you could actually know what you’re listening to.
The music contained is brilliant. I just wish they had respected the consumer enough to have the discs protected in card sleeves with printed tracklistings.They did an amazing job for Prince's 1999 super deluxe set. I wish they had done the same for this.