Prince is a lot of things to a lot of people: movie star, R&B pioneer, sex icon.

But to college-aged folk like ourselves, Prince's talent can be kind of a mystery.

He's been making records since before we were born, but grew past his prime by the time we started caring about things like music. If you can temporarily forget the last, oh, 10 years of his career, however, Mr. Raspberry Beret deserves to have a lot of nice things said about him.

The genius of Prince lies in his ability to match up the songwriting of The Beatles and Dylan with the funky soul of Parliament and Sly Stone, creating a literate, groove-heavy blend of music that still hits hard. On albums such as Parade and Purple Rain, Prince made the kind of pop music John and Paul would have made if only they had stayed together long enough to hear James Brown's The Payback.

But with 1987's classic Sign 'O' the Times, Prince went further, throwing so much social commentary, grinding funk and his brand of delicate weirdness in the mix that he needed two records to show it all off.

The bare-bones thump of the title track that opens Sign 'O' the Times is a perfect backdrop for the album's most overtly political song, as Prince pontificates about Reagan-era dystopia and "a big disease with a little name."

Ever the mind-twister, though, he follows up "Sign" with "Play in the Sunshine," a bright power-pop number that completely shifts the mood of the record. And so it goes with Sign 'O' the Times; every radically different song fits into the puzzle, creating a dizzying mash-up of heavy-handed come ons ("It"), thundering keyboard funk ("Housequake"), sitar-driven ballads (album closer "Adore") and everything in between.

Most astonishing about Sign 'O' the Times (and, really, of most of Prince's catalog) is Prince plays virtually every instrument himself. Aside from a few background vocals and the occasional string arrangement, every sound you hear on Sign 'O' the Times was meticulously laid down in the studio by Prince.

If that's not a testament to his talent, I'm not sure what could be.

Though Prince's sound is grounded in classic pop of the 1960s, his penchant for screwing around may be his greatest asset.

"If I Was Your Girlfriend," sung from a distinctly female perspective, was culled from an entire album of planned vocal cross-dressing that Prince later shelved (probably a good move). "Ballad of Dorothy Parker" is quite possibly the subtlest song ever written about bathing with pants. "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" is a nine-minute, full-band live jam placed in the middle of Prince's meticulous studio craft, but it works simply because it, like everything else on Sign 'O' the Times, is so darn good.

Sign 'O' the Times might not be Prince's best record (that honor probably belongs to the new-wavey Dirty Mind), but as an artist, it's his finest mission statement.

Funky, dreamy and gritty, it's the sound of the late 1980s crashing down on itself. And Prince, the most visionary artist of that decade, is standing on the rubble.