Various Artists – Controversy: A Tribute to Prince

Controversy: A Tribute to Prince ‘ Various

BY CHRIS PEKEN

Prince, Love Sign, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, or as his mother named him, Prince Rogers Nelson – needs little introduction. Multi-instrumentalist, chart-topper, Grammy Award winner, Prince’s body of work is as stylistically diverse as it is ambitious. Controversy sees an impressive cast pay homage at the purple alter. D’Angelo, Soulwax, The Dymanics, Peaches and Kode 9. Yet, with a few notable exceptions such as the reggae swing of The Dynamics Girls & Boys and Hefner’s low key Air-like approach to the title track, this tribute fails to take off. The hits are there – Controversy, Purple Rain, Alphabet Street – and it will sit comfortably in the background at the hippest of dinner parties or the chicest of bars at an hour when all good footballers should be in bed; but it doesn’t have the sex. What made Prince the artist he was was his songs oozed the funk and dripped the sex: Controversy is a little to asexual.
** ½