Prince
Lotusflow3r/MPLSound

(NPG Records)

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.”

The sprawling MPLSound hits some similar problems at the surface—like the overly finessed, often plastic production—but overall finds nice ground as a sampler plate for that “purple-colored rock and roll.” The freaky electro-funk of “Chocolate Box”—not to be confused with the lauded Prince bootleg from the 1980s—is a club- and radio-ready hit complete with a rapper Q-Tip dropping a guest verse. There’s the silky soul of “U’re Gonna C Me” and the decidedly p-funk thump of “Ol Skool Company,” which stretches into seven minutes of celebration and postulation on how things were and how they ought to be now.

There’s no real clarity to be had from Lotusflow3r and MPLSound as to where Prince really fits in these days. While he fails to fully blow minds and ears across these sets, he remains able to summon the old spirit at points, hinting that he is still the Prince Rogers Nelson who reinvented popular music several times over and probably could do it again…just not here and now. If nothing else, he remains a respected icon who can make the kind of records he wants. The mass audience might shrug a bit, but his hardcore fans will keep coming back. Call it a sign o’ the times.

—donny kutzbach