Prince seems to enjoy being back in the limelight. After 5 years of avoiding commercial success, preceded by 5 years of waning popularity, he re-emerged in 2004 for his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, a wildly popular hits tour and the stellar comeback album Musicology (#9 on my list that year). Though the songs on his last album broke little new ground, they did reaffirm Prince as one-of-a-kind musician and songwriter. With 3121, he settles deeper into his comfort zone with a classic mix of deep funk, sultry r&b and synth pop/rock. The only problem is that most of the lyrics feel phoned in and silly. It’s as if he had so much fun making the music that the burden of adding words often made him resort to the safest clichés he could muster (two notable exceptions are the pro-dance-floor, freak out “Black Sweat” and the persistently seductive “Incense & Candles.”) If Prince’s days of trailblazing art and top shelf songwriting are fading, at least he’s back making music the masses want to hear.
Heavy Rotation tracks: “Black Sweat”; “Incense and Candles”
Medium Rotation tracks: “Fury”; “Te Amo Corazon”
Grade: B

(As posted 4/10/06 on davepowersmusic.com)
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