#25) Prince - Sign 'O' The Times (released in 1987, I bought it on used vinyl at City Lights my sophomore year of college)

Fellow Freelance Mentalist (allegedly - don't think he's written anything for the page yet) and Seattle Weekly editor Michaelangelo Matos has a book about this album coming out, so I'm less than inspired to talk about this album in too much detail. If I was talking to someone else who knew the album, I could spend ages talking about the drum patterns alone (consider yourself warned). The mixture of astonishingly unique arrangements and solid songwriting is unparalleled, and if it wasn't for side 4 giving me one Jesus song, one big-band rave-up and one slow jam too many (though I'd rather lose "Slow Love" than "Adore"), this album would likely make my top 10. I was going to list which songs here qualified as some of my favorites ever about relationships and realized that about half the album made the cut (special shout-out to "If I Was Your Girlfriend"'s pleas for closeness and "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" for its tricky Timbaland-foretelling beat and the line about wanting "someone with a quicker wit than mine," a sentiment I don't hear enough in pop). Anybody who tries to tell me that Prince hasn't proven his genius by the end of side one (hell, it should be clear somewhere in the middle of "Housequake") should prepare for a cry of "shut up, already. Damn!"