Prince is back! (And all over the place)
After an unparalleled run of pop brilliance that lasted from 1979 to 1992, we've learned to adjust our expectations for new Prince albums. Best-case scenario: The music is a little freaky and the maestro isn't being too control-freaky about it.
In recent years, he's managed to pluck nearly all of his music off YouTube, earning him a reputation for being Web-phobic and out of touch. But it's important to remember that Prince, now 56, began experimenting with self-distribution and giveaway album releases long before it was fashionable - and before it was so eagerly sponsored by titans of telecom and consumer electronics. Ten years ago, Prince's sales spiked when he included a copy of his latest album, "Musicology," in the price of a concert ticket. And that album was pretty good, too.
Still, His Purpleness never managed to establish a sustainable business model and has recently re-signed with Warner Bros., the label that first launched his career. Their breakup in the '90s was more historic for its ugliness, causing Prince to change his name to a symbol and scrawling the word "slave" on his face in guy-liner. Now, the major artist and his major label are back together and everything appears to be peachy.
To celebrate the reunion, Prince has released two separate albums this week. The first is an all-over-the-place romp called "Art Official Age," while the other, "PlectrumElectrum," finds him marching his new band, 3rdEyeGirl, through a sequence of airtight rock riffs.
If you're nutso for Prince's guitar playing, the 3rdEyeGirl album is for you. And only you. The songs are crunchy and colorful, but too pristine, at times evoking a less-funky Parliament-Funkadelic or non-grungy grunge. If you're of the mind that great rock 'n' roll speaks magic through its mistakes, move along. Prince doesn't make mistakes when he's holding a guitar.
"Art Official Age" is the stranger, spottier, but ultimately stronger recording. It's a concept album about waking up from cryogenic naptime in an enlightened utopian future and partying like it's 1999 (we think). And while there are plenty of propulsive funk numbers to go around, they're often deflated by their brittle and garish electronic timbres.
The album's slow jams, however, vibrate with the teasing electricity that Prince has mastered over the past four decades. "U Know" offers some delicious quirks while "This Could Be Us" takes its lyrical inspiration from a Twitter meme, even though it sounds like Prince might have penned it in the late-'80s.
The tastiest in the bunch is "Breakfast Can Wait," a mischievous ode to a.m. canoodling. It first surfaced online more than a year ago, but it came with some hilarious and ultimately distracting cover art: Comedian Dave Chappelle dressed as Prince, offering up a plate of pancakes.
A year later, listen to "Breakfast Can Wait" with your eyes closed. You'll hear something frisky, funny, and masterfully wrought - something only Prince could make, let alone get away with.