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With his third album, 1980’s Dirty Mind, Prince came of age. Playing nearly all the instruments himself and juxtaposing his every influence — from funk and R&B to new wave and pop — Prince proved himself a musical marvel and a visionary intent on writing the rule book for pop and soul music in the coming ‘80s decade. His rhythms could be uptight (“Dirty Mind,” “When You Were Mine”), expansive (“Uptown”), or funky (“Head,” “Do It All Night”). He preferred his instrumentation sparse, injecting a minimalist’s flair for arrangement, synthesizers and guitars painting the canvas in light shades to leave ample room for his vocal gymnastics — and for those lyrics that made for quite a bit of controversy since Prince didn’t merely suggest but stated his blatantly sexual themes of oral sex, threesomes and incest (“Sister”). This provocative approach created shock waves that went beyond the music. That may have increased Prince’s public profile, but it obscured his prodigious musical talents.

Genres: R&B/Soul, Music, Electronic, Rock, Arena Rock, Soul, Dance, Funk, Pop, Pop/Rock

Released: Oct 1980

℗ 1980 Warner Bros.

Tracklist:

01 Dirty Mind

02 When You Were Mine

03 Do It All Night

04 Gotta Broken Heart Again

05 Uptown

06 Head

07 Sister

08 Partyup