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"CRITICS’ CHOICE" Recommended with a button on the home page of NYT.
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: March 29, 2009
PRINCE

"LotusFlow3r" by Prince.
“LotusFlow3r” (NPG)

Prince has called his own shots for much of the last two decades, making plenty of odd, stubborn choices along the way. Here comes his latest: a three-disc album, self-released, with one disc devoted to a protégé, Bria Valente. Part nostalgia trip, part futurist manifesto, it’s available either at Target (for under $12) or through a subscription to lotusflow3r.com (for $77). The choice between thrift and indulgence reflects a familiar paradox for Prince, who presents himself on the album(s) as both a sensualist and a scold.

It’s no mystery which side wins out in the end. There may be some satisfaction in hearing Prince rail against the Wall Street bailout in “Ol’ Skool Company” or attack empty fame (along with “all the haters on the Internet”) in “No More Candy 4 U.” But neither of those tunes — from “MPLSound,” the funkiest of the three discs — transcends its own hectoring. The put-downs aren’t half as good as the come-ons.

One bit of good news about the album, then, is how many come-ons Prince delivers, in his voice and through Ms. Valente’s. (Her disc, “Elixer,” which he produced, presents a palatable but undistinguished batch of slow- to medium-tempo R&B fare.) On “Chocolate Box,” which sounds deliriously like a club track from the 1980s, Prince declares his own delectability. On “U’re Gonna C Me” he luxuriates in a simple vow; on “Dance 4 Me” he does the same with a simple request. And in “Love Like Jazz” he woos his quarry with a perfectly audacious line: “I want a lover who can improvise.”

That song comes from “LotusFlow3r,” the set’s strongest disc, and the one that best narrows the distance between Prince’s airtight studio work and his rampaging live shows. He plays a lot of psychedelic guitar, compellingly, in songs like “Boom” and “Dreamer.” And even when he gives in to playful sprawl — his cover of “Crimson and Clover,” by Tommy James and the Shondells, includes passing references to Jimi Hendrix and the Velvet Underground — he rarely strays far from a potent hook.

The title refrain of “Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful” is one of those hooks, a glowing exhortation. Elsewhere in the song, driven by a funk backbeat, Prince expresses umbrage, hauteur and gleeful dominion. It’s no

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