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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Controversy, 9 Mar 2006
I have to say, I don't understand how anyone could give this album a poor review - it's a classic! Okay, so the reliance on synthesizers dates it somewhat, but isn't that how pop music works? Can anyone honestly say that Sgt. Pepper's sounds as fresh now as it did back in the day? Of course not. Forget the production,listen to the songs and experience an artist at work.Controversy finds Prince in something of a transitional phase, making a deliberate step away from the heavily R&B rooted sound of his earlier works towards the "whiter" rock sound of 1999 and Purple Rain. Whereas before he had sung exclusively falsetto, His Royal Badness really begins to stretch out as a vocalist on this album. It also features Prince's first use of the Linn LM1 drum machine that would become an important part of his trademark sound throughout the rest of the 80's. The title track is great funk/rock number led by the purple one's tighter than tight rhythm guitar. "Do Me Baby" remains one of his best seduction numbers and "Annie Christian" shows he was never afraid to experiment. The subject matter of much of the album is summed up by the second track, "Sexuality". According to Prince, "Sexuality is all we'll ever need" - well it served him well at least. Much of the lyrics are rather silly and far less contoversial than Prince seemed to think. In fact, even in the early 80's we'd heard it all before. The fact that he believed it would be shocking may show just how conservative Prince really is. Daft rhymes aside, this is a funky, fun (and slightly eratic) album that would make a worthy addition to any collection. So shut up already, damn.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Prince magic is here!, 26 Nov 2002
This lovely slab of funky pop-rock succeeds in the risque songs like Jack U Off, Sexuality and the sensual ballad Do Me Baby but doesn’t do it for me when it comes to politics, as in the title track, Ronnie Talk to Russia or Annie Christian, although these last-mentioned aren’t dismal failures either, since they’re saved by the beat. The secret of this early period Prince was the urgency in the songs, a type of nervous tension reflected perfectly in the mix of urban styles and his voice. He created and refined a brilliant blend of dance and rock that went down well in both the disco and the lounge. Controversy is not usually highly acclaimed by the critics, but to my ears all the Prince magic is here, and it has aged remarkably well.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Prince on the cusp of mega-stardom, 2 Aug 2006
'Controversy' - Original Release Date: 14 October 1981
Controversy, Prince's fourth album, and the very last one before Prince became an international superstar.
Controversy sits between two giants in the Prince catalogue: The ground-breaking collection of Punk Funk demos, 'Dirty Mind', and the explosive, electronic exotica of the double LP, '1999'. For this reason it is often over-looked by fans and critics a like, something I'd like to make a tiny-step in the way of re-addressing here.
Criticised for not being as raw as, Dirty Mind, and not as expansive and commercial as 1999, Controversy is again a snap-shot of Prince pushing himself as an artist. After touring Europe with Dirty Mind, Prince was clearly influenced by the New Wave and Synth acts over there at the time: Soft Cell, Gary Newman and The Human League for example.
The title track opens with a hypnotic proto-House 4/4 beat, and lyrics that give Prince's side of the story concerning the media attention he received for the graphic sexual lyrics and striking, non-conformist image unveiled on his previous album.
This leads straight into the bristling 'Sexuality', a utopian New Wave manifesto for life in the 80s. The original vinyl side A closes with the lengthy ballad, 'Do Me, Baby', which became a template for many of Prince's future lascivious seduction numbers, and ends with an entirely over-the-top and unintentionally hilarious portion that should make you grimace and grin in equal measures, and over-emphatically
sing along to in years to come.
The original Side B opens with the perky power-pop of 'Private Joy', Prince's first use of the Linn drum machine that would become such a staple of his sound in the 80s.
Next up, is one of Prince's most universally loathed and/or disregarded tracks, the entirely dated and lightweight New Wave Rockabilly anti-Cold War statement, 'Ronnie, Talk 2 Russia' - Now, I ADORE this track - it has a fantastic Punk-ish urgency that is rarely shown in Prince's work, and the silly, over-simplistic lyrics are endearing in their naivety, it's a fantastic snapshot of early 80s Cold War paranoia, and was made for singing along to at full-volume in a fast car. Besides, it makes a brilliant introduction to 'Let's Work', which itself serves a similar purpose to 'Head' on the previous album, Dirty Mind, in that it's a straight up Funk work-out that is there to tell his audience that he is still capable of everything that made them dig him so much before, but he's into trying new things too and they should try and dig that too, because trying new things out is good for - Music that initially scares or repulses you is no bad thing!
The final two tracks are typical of the juxtaposition the album finds itself, sitting between Dirty Mind and 1999: 'Annie Christian' is a fantastically bleak guitar-fuelled, New Wave number that points forward beautifully to the amazing synth-landscapes of the 1999 album, where as the closing rockabilly number, 'Jack U Off', looks back to the unveiled smutty shock-tactics of 'Dirty Mind'.
Controversy: The most under-rated of Prince's 80s albums in my opinion, and in spite of, maybe because of that, my favourite.
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