“You keep breaking me down,” a falsetto says before continuing with a short series of mostly incoherent shrieks. It’s a classic Prince moment reminiscent of his livelier Purple Rain days. It’s also the only one this Art project has to offer. There’s some nice Kokane-like harmonies happening on Way Back Home and the main melody of the music is a charm, but nothing else even comes close to the twenty-something-second peak of The Breakdown, the full song of which is technically flawed with what sounds like clipping.

Sticky Like Glue from 2010 was (is) one of my favorite Prince songs. There’s no such thing on this 2014 follow-up, which features Lianne La Havas; a girl who, apparently by mere chance, looks like she could be Prince’s daughter; almost to the point of wearing out her welcome. Prince still has a knack for contemporary funk, yes, but it seems most of his good songs are far behind him. Official age? 56 years. Perhaps it’s time to call it quits before he tarnishes his legacy, or at least his discography, more than it already is.

my rating : 3 of 5

2014

It starts like a Janet Jackson song from the 1980s, but this Prince ballad, which seems to be about a woman, builds into a bit of a powerhouse. The best part is when he starts doing his signature ad-libs over the final chorus section. “You keep breaking me down,” he shrieks in that gay falsetto.

It’s a classic Prince moment reminiscent of his livelier Purple Rain days. The song should end as soon as that section is over, at about 3:26, but it goes to about four minutes. The “The” also makes the title seem trite, but such complaints aren’t enough to break the song down aesthetically.

my rating : 4 of 5

2014

I would start with how awful the title is, but it’s Prince; the guy who made a song called 1999 in 1982; so in the name of pop music history, he’s forgiven. Besides, 2010, stylized as “20Ten”; an album that should’ve been released much earlier than seven months into the year; is a virtual time portal to his 1980s heyday.

That might literally be the case as the quirky synths of songs like Beginning Endlessly and Lavaux sound almost too good to be new. It’s as if the self-proclaimed Purple Yoda went digging into his own vault to salvage some never-before-released tapes. The grooves on some of these songs are surprisingly stellar.

Sticky Like Glue is, despite Prince trying to rap, one of his best songs. It’s a romantic love dedication at heart, but its sleeky funk also makes it a fitting pick for the dance clubs. It’s the dull slow songs and zany fillers, like Everybody Loves Me, that hold the album back from being the full return to form it could’ve been.

my rating : 3 of 5

2010