Contemplating on his most funky material, it occured to me that Prince during his entire recording career, has a tendency to return to a kind of music (and lyrics) i label as 'dark funk'.

What is 'dark funk'?

Well its funky, in the first place i mean: the majority of the songs on those albums are based on funk rhythems and riffs, and not as eclectic and elaborated in style as the material on his more 'diverse' albums.

Next to that, its mostly stripped down, hard funk you can hear on those albums: not 'poppified' or 'discofied'.

Finally, the 'dark element' can be heard both in the music (the often stripped down arrangements, the hard beats, the dirtieness of the sound) as in the lyrics (which deal mostly with sexual and violent obsessions, often, but not always 'relativated' by tongue in cheek elements: dark humor to speak off).

When i think of albums that show these aspects i am in the first place thinking about the following ones:

Dirty Mind (1980)
1999 (1982)
Camille (1986)
The Black Album (1987)
Batman (1989)
Come (1994)
The Slaughterhouse (2004)

It almost seems like from time to time Prince feels the 'need' to 'go back' to a certain dirty, dark, obsessed part of his personality, which translates into material that is not as diverse as the mixed-bag of styles of music that he offers on most his other albums, that is in essence 'funk' and that carries lyrics that deal with lust and sexual obsessions in the first place.
Like he needs to get in touch with his 'underbelly' again, to get carnal and to get some 'relieve' from the lyrical and musical ambitions he is trying to achieve on his other albums.

Anyone else sees that pattern?

Let me think about it.

So that'd mean that now he's in his Middling Quality Junk Cycle?

I could see a particular song giving u a dark funk vibe...and I had that initial impression with the "Black Album," although I don't feel this way about any other Prince songs...and certainly not an entire album.

I'm glad my bicycle doesn't have cycles that irregular, it would make for a very sore bottom.