Controversy
by Prince
Prince bestography
Controversy is ranked 7th best out of 66 albums by Prince on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Prince is Purple Rain which is ranked number 71 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 15,937.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Upcoming concerts
Listen to Controversy on YouTube
Controversy track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 79 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Controversy rankings
Tamthebam
Hayden
paladisiac
videoheadcleaner
Boltzmann
slatsheitControversy collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 99 members
Controversy ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 247 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 30 hours ago | Exist-en-ciel | 6,454 | 70/100 |
| ! | 01/06/2026 11:29 | markl73 | 531 | 79/100 |
| ! | 11/12/2025 23:25 | NYAndreas | 1,432 | 43/100 |
| ! | 11/05/2025 19:56 |  SomethingSpecial | 1,731 | 82/100 |
| ! | 10/25/2025 12:57 | Siromynian | 1,600 | 78/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 8% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 75.0/100, a mean average of 74.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 75.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.6.
Controversy favourites
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Controversy comments
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Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
HoldenM 06/14/2025 20:19 | #309533
Super front-loaded, but all told, a sonic and songwriting improvement on Dirty Mind.
The 5th is the best in his career ??
llibnanoon 06/23/2020 17:49 | #254310
Definetly some Controversy here!
Brandon8 04/12/2020 17:24 | #249847
This album came after Dirty Mind and before 1999 and is a bit underwhelming for 80’s Prince but its still good. Best tracks for me are the title track which is a classic mission statement, Do Me Baby & Let’s Work.
9999 06/26/2018 00:59 | #217280
Annie Christian is pretty meh, but the rest I really enjoy, and the title track may be one of his best songs ever. Overall, I don't see a big difference in quality between Dirty mind and Controversy. It's worse, but not by much.
Oh no, my Prince
It's Prince but not his best by a long shot. Give me the previous album, Dirty Mind, or the next, 1999, over this mishit. Annie Christian is bad (and I'm not getting down with kids), I mean really bad, as in awful - it must be the worst track he ever did.
Not as good as, dirty mind, but still okay, just a little unsure of where he wants to go. The next record is where it really starts.
AAL2014 05/12/2016 06:04 | #165793
For the most part the songs are there and the instrumentation is very good. The production makes this album sound very dated, almost sun bleached but some of the songs make up for that.
lightmyway 05/10/2012 03:09 | #41943
A lot of missteps compared to the much more consistent Dirty Mind.
Your feedback for Controversy
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