| Contradiction | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Ohio Players |
| Cover: | Ohio_Players_Contradiction_cover.jpg |
| Released: | March 1976 |
| Genre: | Soul, funk |
| Length: | 38:36 |
| Label: | Mercury |
| Producer: | Ohio Players |
| Prev Title: | Honey |
| Prev Year: | 1975 |
| Next Title: | Gold |
| Next Year: | 1976 |
Contradiction is the eighth studio album by The Ohio Players, and the fourth album recorded for Mercury.
Contradiction was not as ballad-heavy as Honey, but it did expand on the mixture of funk, soul, and rock that they played with on that album. The title track also showed a leaning towards the work they did on Westbound. "Who'd She Coo?" was released as a single and went to No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart.
The band recorded Contradiction at three different recording studios, each session utilizing Barry Mraz as their engineer. The album cover depicts a nude woman feeding a horse a shiny red apple. While the horse is identified by name and breed in the liner notes (an Anglo-Trakehner stallion named Wasyl), the model is uncredited.
It is the fifth and last Ohio Players album to be announced also as a quadraphonic (four-channel stereo) release in the 8-track tape format. However, it was never actually released as no known copies have surfaced even among collectors, and there is no evidence the remix was ever performed. Contradiction was one of three Ohio Players albums released in 1976. Westbound released Rattlesnake, featuring songs not used during their time with the label. With four Mercury albums under their belt and hit singles on the charts, the group would approve a greatest hits compilation, Gold.
| Chart (1976) | Peak [1] |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Top LPs | 12 |
| U.S. Billboard Top Soul LPs | 1 |
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US | US R&B | ||
| 1976 | "Who'd She Coo?" | 18 | 1 |
| "Far East Mississippi" | - | 26 | |