10 Classic Albums That Are Criminally Short

At the end of the '70s, few could have guessed that Prince was about to be on the cusp of one of the greatest success stories of the next decade. Since disco was starting to go way out of style towards the '80s, the idea of combining dance music with rock and roll sensibilities felt almost silly. The Purple One did find a way though on Dirty Mind, and he did it by making everything filthy as all hell.

Even though the record itself is just over a half hour long, Prince aims to put himself up with the sex gods of old, with songs like the title track making his carnal desire explicitly known. This isn't just a record of dirty in jokes though, with When You Were Mine being one of the first real glimpses at Prince's amazing ballads and Partyup foreshadowing the kind of never ending celebration atmosphere that we would get later on 1999.

Given all of the amazing music that Prince would give us later down the line, this album almost serves as somewhat of a trailer for the next phase of his career, taking the old sounds of funk and R&B and creating something entirely new. Whereas this might have been a good start, the real killing blows would be coming down the pipeline shortly.