Not since 1999 (released in 1982) had Prince gone it alone without The Revolution, the bandmates intimately familiar to everyone who’d seen his mega-successful Purple Rain magnum opus on the silver screen. In his first strictly solo album in five years, Prince proved his mastery over rock (“I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man”), funk (“Housequake”), R&B (“Adore”), patented purple musicality (“The Ballad of Dorothy Parker”) and all points in between beyond the shadow of any doubt. Sign o’ the Times is a double-album masterpiece in a career that can claim at least five of them.