Whilst not at the top of my favourites list, I think Controversy is the most important step change in Prince's whole career.

It was from this album onwards that he truely defined his own sound. What did controvery give us that the previous material didn't?


Production - Princes whole production style changed. the first three albums were all tinny in comparision. They sounded from the 70's. Prince learned to lay off the treble and echo and modernised his whole production.

The voice - The deep voice arrived, and prince sounded a lot broader as an artist. Like it or not, the falsetto was an aquired taste. The new voice gave him much broader appeal.

The Linn - Princes signiture of the 80s first appeared.

The room - Three tracks on one side!? Prince began breaking the mold and realised that he could commit his long jams to vinyl.

The lyrics - So far, we had sex love sex love. This album showed the man growing up. It was the for-runner for what we would get on 1999 and Sign o the times.

Direction - Prince seemed to finally choose a direction in sound. He used The Time as a separate outlet.


Whilst Dirty Mind and 1999 grab the headlines, it was Controversy the saw the biggest shift in Prince's whole career, and the one that would lead to his world domination of the mid 80's.

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[Edited 5/22/06 4:09am]

the only problem i've had with it is the way ol' boy attempted to spit out his views on social affairs and what-not. it was more or less the very first example of how he kinda has the ability to spoot forth something profound in regards to the ills of the world but when he opens his mouth, mental potato salad falls out. it's as if the stuff prolly sounded better within his own head, i suppose... all that aside, it's an okay album.

the 25th anniversary of this album is coming up in october! (no, i won't be doing a special thing for it like i did with dm last year, but it'd be cool for someone else take it to task...)

I'll do him proud!

the only problem i've had with it is the way ol' boy attempted to spit out his views on social affairs and what-not. it was more or less the very first example of how he kinda has the ability to spoot forth something profound in regards to the ills of the world but when he opens his mouth, mental potato salad falls out. it's as if the stuff prolly sounded better within his own head, i suppose... all that aside, it's an okay album.

the 25th anniversary of this album is coming up in october! (no, i won't be doing a special thing for it like i did with dm last year, but it'd be cool for someone else to perhaps take it to task...)


edits call me rude
[Edited 5/22/06 9:39am]