Which are your favourite 80s studio albums by Prince, by 1980s I mean 1/1/1980 to 31/12/1989. I don't include Graffiti Bridge as its 1990s even though it was mostly 80s songs, it was still a 90s thing. I will allow the B lack album as many heard bootlegs of it in the late 80s.

Only one album really sits below the other 9 in the 80s.

Mine

1. Sign o the Times 98/100

2. 1999 93/100

3. Parade 92/100

4. Dirty Mind 91/100

5. Purple Rain 90/100

6. Controversy 88/100

7. ATWIAD 85/100

8. Lovesexy 82/100

9. Black Album 72/100

10. Batman 54/100

01. Purple Rain (10)
02. Sign "O" The Times (10)
03. 1999 (10)
04. Lovesexy (10)
05. Parade (10)
06. Around The World In A Day (10)
07. Dirty Mind (10)
08. Controversy (9.5)
09. The Black Album (9)

10. Batman (8.5)

1. Sign "O" The Times (10)

2. 1999 (10)

3. Lovesexy (10)

4. Parade (10)

5. Around The World In A Day (9)

6. Purple Rain (9)

7. The Black Album (9)

8. Dirty Mind (9)

9. Batman (8)

10. Controversy (8)

[Edited 5/21/13 2:56am]

Lovesexy 10
Controversy 10
ATWIAD 10
Black Album 9
Sign o the Times 9
Purple Rain 9
1999 8
Parade 8
Dirty Mind 8
Batman 7
[Edited 5/21/13 3:06am]
[Edited 5/21/13 3:07am]

1. Purple Rain (596/600)
1. Sign "O" The Times (*****)
1. 1999 ( )
1. Lovesexy (GRRRRREAT!!!!!)
1. Parade (meh)
1. Around The World In A Day ( )
1. Dirty Mind (Oooooh Saucy!)
1. Controversy (3/5)
1. The Black Album (White)

1. Batman (Super man!)

1. Parade (10/10)

2. Around The World In A Day (10/10)

3. The Black Album (10/10)

4. Purple Rain (10/10)

5. Sign "O" The Times (10/10)

6. 1999 (10/10)

7. Controversy (10/10)

8. Lovesexy (9.5/10)

9. Dirty Mind (9.5/10)

10. Batman (8/10)

1. Purple Rain(10)

2. 1999(10)

3. Around the World in a Day(10)

4. Batman(10)

5. Controversy(9)

6. The Black Album(8)

7. Sign o the Times(8)

8. Dirty Mind(7)

9. Parade(5)

10. lovesexy(5)

[Edited 5/23/13 23:08pm]

Sign "O" The Times (10)

Purple Rain (10)

Parade (9)

1999 (9)

Lovesexy (9)

Dirty Mind (9)

Controversy (8)

The Black Album (8)

Around The World In A Day (7)

Batman (6)

Around the World in a Day

Purple Rain

lovesexy

Sign o the Times

Controversy

1999

Batman

Parade

Dirty Mind

The Black Album

1. SOTT

2. 1999

3. Purple Rain

4. Parade

5. Dirty Mind

6. Controversy

7. The Black Album

8. Lovesexy

9. ATWIAD

10. Batman

1. 1999 (*****)
2. SOTT (*****)
3. Purple Rain (****1/2)
4. Lovesexy (****1/2)
5. Black Album (****)
6. Dirty Mind (****)
7. Parade (****)
8. ATWIAD (****)
9. Controversy (****)
10.Batman (***1/2)

Sign o the Times 4.75/5

1999 4.5/5

Purple Rain 4.5/5

Parade 4/5

Dirty Mind 4/5

Controversy 3.5/5

ATWIAD 2.5/5

Lovesexy 2/5

Black Album 2/5

Batman 2/5

wow what a list!!

can't rank them

The very best:
Purple Rain
Lovesexy
Sign o' the Times
Parade
1999

Still learning:
Dirty Mind
Controversy

Some fans think it's fantastic but doing flower power 20 years too late is really silly:
Around the World In a Day

I'm only in it for the money:
Batman

Legend made it more important than it is:
The Black Album
[Edited 5/25/13 14:25pm]
[Edited 5/25/13 14:27pm]

I will not pretend to be a hardcore fan
my totally honest list.

1. Purple Rain 10/10

2. Sign O' The Times 9/10

3. Lovesexy 9/10

4. 1999 8/10

5. Controversy 8/10

6. Parade 7/10

7. Dirty Mind 7/10

8. Around the World In a Day 6/10

9. Batman 6/10

10. Black Album 5/10

3 great albums
2 very good albums
2 good/decent albums
and 3 average/weak albums

1. Purple Rain 10/10

2. Sign O' The Times 10/10

3. 1999 9.5/10

4. Dirty Mind 9.5/10

5. Parade 9/10
6. Around The World In A Day 8/10

7. Lovesexy 8/10

8. Controversy 8/10

9. The Black Album 7/10

10. Batman 6/10

1. SOTT 10
2. Purple Rain 10
3. Lovesexy 9
4. ATWIAD 8,5
5. Parade 8
6. Bat man 8
7. 1999 8
8. Black album 7
9. Controversy 7
10. DM 6

B-sides. 10!

1. 1999
2. Sign o the Times
3. Lovesexy
4. Controversy
5. Purple Rain
6. Parade
7. Dirty Mind
8. Around the World in a Day
9. Batman

It's just about impossible to rank those top 8 because they're all so good.

SOTT 10

ATWIAD 10

Lovesexy 10

Batman 10

Parade 9

Purple Rain 9

1999 7
Black Album 6

Controversy 4

Dirty Mind 4

Batman is very underrated imho, and I don't generally like "electronic" sounding albums. It has a unique character. Nothing else sounds like it in the rest of the Prince oeuvre, or anybody else's for that matter. It has a dark quality and lots of fascinating harmonic textures that really appeal to me.

I feel the early '80s records are vastly overrated. The songwriting was actually much stronger back on "For You" (though derivative at that stage). The subsequent explicit lyrics and simplified punk-funk approach to the music come across to me as Prince doing whatever he thought would propel to him to pop stardom.

[Edited 5/27/13 23:13pm]

1) 1999

2) Dirty Mind

3) SOTT

4) Controversy

5) Purple Rain

6) Lovesexy

7) Batman

8) Parade

9) The Black Album

10)ATWIAD