It’s difficult to talk about Prince’s latest release in terms of the actual music, at least initially. The first thing that rolls out about this latest by his royal purple badness is that the three-CD set (the third is the Prince-produced debut of protégé Bria Valente) is only available through mass retailer Target for the relatively low price of $11.99. Prince remains one of pop and rock’s most enigmatic figures, and a vanguardist some 30 years into a career, still challenging constraints, contexts, and expectations. Lotusflow3r succeeds on the back of Prince’s still blazing guitar work and his untouched skill for fusing funk, soul, and rock. From the Miles Davis-style fusion intro and outro tracks to the gospel-powered epic “4ever” that he lifts to the sky like Reverend Al Green, he manages to put it all together. He calls it the “purple colored rock and roll” on the James Brown flavored “Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful,” and that works: Let the stylistic chameleon coin his own name for what he does. There are drawbacks—like overly slick production and the dreaded, ever present auto-tune—along with head-scratching moments like a needless cover of Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Crimson and Clover” and the middle-of-the-road mire “Love Like Jazz.”

It’s a little surprising that producer Brendan O’Brien—known for streamlining the sound of everyone from Bruce Springsteen and Paul Westerberg to Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine—was the one to help to deliver Mastodon and their vision for a prog-rock-metal amalgam to its ultimate and near perfect result. O’Brien is often seen as the defanger of artists, bringing them to a wider and refined end, often to the chagrin of longtime fans. Detractors see O’Brien’s touch as more of a mainstreaming than a streamlining.