I remember an album review where the critic referred to Controvery as Dirtier Mind there are some similiarities between the two albums.

"Private Joy" seems like it was inspired by the Dirty Mind title track.

"Let's Work" is reminscent of "Head".

Adorecream said:

Dirty Mind is consistently great, but Controversy has better single songs.

.

Grade A songs - Dirty Mind, When u were mine, Uptown, Head, Partyup

Grade B songs - Do It all night, Sister, Gotta Broken Heart

.

Grade A songs - Controversy (A+), Sexuality, Do Me Baby (A+), Private Joy

Grade B songs - Lets Work

Grade C songs - Jack u off, Annie Christian

Grade D songs - Ronnie talk 2 Russia

.

Grade A = Excellent/Exceptional

B = Great /Very Good

C = Average/Satisfactory

D = Mediocre/ Flawed

E = Crap/Poor

Nonsense!

Dirty mind can be listened to al the way through like if it was a movie. It all just fit perfectly. Controversy is an album I go to for single tracks, even though it has many classics. Sexuality, Controversy, Do Me Baby, Let's Work and Private Joy are all killer tracks. And songs like Annie Christian, Jack U Off and Ronnie Talk To Russia are songs that make the album just weird enough to become true Prince albums. Most of his albums has a few of these crazy songs like Tamborine and Sister, that really put him in the weird category. However as a whole piece combined Dirty Mind wins every time for me. If not my favourite Prince album, it's the first true album that trule liberated me, and gave me some kind of courage with everything I did, took me to another level with everything in life. It's the truth imo. Purple Rain, Sign of The Times and Parade are much bigger albums that breaks alot more ground.

However Dirty Mind was what made everything else he did later possible. For You and Prince had hints of his genuis, and he could really show off on those instruments and arrangements. But his truly unique self came to life on Dirty Mind. And I heard Dirty Mind when I was 21 years old. I was a hip hop producer looking for old 60s, 70s, and some early 80s records. My father had Dirty Mind. It seriously BLEW MY MIND. The drums were live, but had attitude that I've missed on all his other albums, the guitar was rock, even though it was recorded directly into the mixer, the vocals had so much grit and personality compared to his earlier releases, he was merging rnb, rock, pop, funk and new wave in one song, and it was almost impossible to tell what genre it was. BLending genres is not the difficult part. Making it sound seamless and not forced is what made it so great. It was new music to me even hearing it when I was 21, 7 years ago.

Replica said:

DM has zero filler.

Jack U Off and Annie are great.

jaawwnn said:

Adorecream said:

Dirty Mind is consistently great, but Controversy has better single songs.

.

Grade A songs - Dirty Mind, When u were mine, Uptown, Head, Partyup

Grade B songs - Do It all night, Sister, Gotta Broken Heart

.

Grade A songs - Controversy (A+), Sexuality, Do Me Baby (A+), Private Joy

Grade B songs - Lets Work

Grade C songs - Jack u off, Annie Christian

Grade D songs - Ronnie talk 2 Russia

.

Grade A = Excellent/Exceptional

B = Great /Very Good

C = Average/Satisfactory

D = Mediocre/ Flawed

E = Crap/Poor

Nonsense!

Well whats your opinion then?

I've come to prefer Controversy.

Earlier on I thought the answer would be Dirty Mind without a doubt, but I just find the vast majority of the songs on Controversy really satisfying to listen to. I don't really care for "Ronnie Talk To Russia" and "Jack U Off", but otherwise every song on it kicks ass. Not that I ever thought that "Gotta Broken Heart Again" on Dirty Mind was a very strong song as it sounds like a Prince album outtake to me. "Sister"'s fun, but I'm not sure if it really works as something else than as just a joke.

Controversy has aged really well as far as that early-80s funk stuff is considered. I was just listening to all those records that Cameo, The Bar-Kays etc. type of bands put out then and I have to say that compared to the competition around back then Prince's stuff just had so much more edge. The only one that could compete him with then was Rick James and he kind of lost the plot when trying to compete with Prince. Controversy just nails the sound of that era.

For my favourite "early Prince" song it's a tie between "Uptown" and "Let's Work".

Earlier,I said that "Head" is Prince's first funk classic.

I also think that "When U Were Mine" is his very first rock/pop classic

That's what's so cool about Dirty Mind....there are so many "firsts" throughout

They both go hand in hand...

Love both these albums...

It's like asking me to choose air over water. Yeah, I'll need air immediately, but lack of water will also kill me eventually. These are the two albums that are most closely related in my Prince experience. "Party Up" seems to flow magically into "Controversy".

Totally backing this almost word for word.
I actually had a Walkman upon which this was the ONLY cassette I played.
By the time my girlfriend 'borrowed' it 'over xmas', never to be seen again, the tape had deteriorated so much from perpetual auto-reverse plays that it had the frequency range of a telephone conversation with someone being smothered with a big cushion so neither it nor the girlfriend were ultimately missed that much. BUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT PRISTINE WALKMAN?

:'(

callimnate said:

I always treated these two as a double album.

.

This tape was played so many times that I bought it over an over I dont know how many times.

[Edited 9/7/14 14:53pm]

[Edited 9/7/14 14:54pm]