Dirty Mind sees Prince leaning more into a pop-punk adjacent sound while upping the explicitness of his lyrics and subject matter, as indicated by the album's name. I think that the more sexually charged themes work well for Prince and suit his style (given that he's generally known for this nowadays) but I think the more synthpop-y sound that eschews the funk/groove of his prior two albums wasn't the best move. In my opinion the more simplistic feel and thinner timbre isn't as interesting as the more complexly layered tracks from what he had already made by this point, and subsequently the songs on this album that do lean more into that style with more funky elements are far and away the best parts of the album. I don't think that I would consider anything here "bad" in terms of style or sound and most of it is still pretty good, but I think that, for me, this is probably his weakest showing so far (which checks out when you see that he said that a lot of the songs here are pretty much just demos). Oddly enough, despite my hangups with the less complex and interesting harmonies overall, his vocal performances and the way he harmonizes with himself is really great here and shows his talent with singing in that higher register. Overall, Dirty Mind is a fine work that I still enjoyed well enough and will probably return to. The explicit lyrics may be a turn off for some people, but I'm fine with them personally and think they work well for what they are (I'm taking off points for Sister though).
Highlights: Gotta Broken Heart Again, Uptown, Head.
Rating: 4/6
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