Sure, the song is attributed to a band by the name of Third Eye Blind, er, I mean 3RDEYEGIRL, but that dude singing is none other than Prince, who seems to be taking this opportunity to introduce the world to his new face-lift.
Upon hearing the song, my first thought was that Prince's vocals sounded a little restrained, but then I saw how tight the skin on his face has been pulled and wonder how he manages to sing at all.
While the song itself isn't anything special, like something from a recent Lenny Kravitz album, the fact that Prince is actually doing a straight-ahead pop song makes the song a lot more notable than it probably deserves to be.
As for the "band" 3RDEYEGIRL. I wasn't wowed by their performance. Granted, the song is a tad bit ProTooled, with the necessary peaks and valleys fine tuned to a generic mash of ones and zeroes.
Here's the thing that gets me about Prince (and Jeff Tweedy, for that matter): He has the ability to write beautiful pop songs - songs that have the potential of ripping your head off and making love to it while the rest of your body dances its ass off - yet he has spent the better part of three decades toying with his fan base by releasing one intentionally obtuse album after another.
I liken it to a beautiful, shapely woman wearing a parka to the beach. It isn't because she's shy, but because she doesn't want the world to see what she's got. She knows how beautiful she is and if it were up to her, she would be the only one who ever sees just how beautiful she is.
No, I don't want to see Prince in a bikini (the cover of Dirty Mind was more than enough, thank you), but I would like to see him come to terms with his greatness as a songwriter. Truth be told, it's not the blistering guitar leads or the playful shriek that we fans love about Prince, it's the songs.
Yes. the SONGS!
"Purple Rain", "When You Were Mine", "Raspberry Beret", "When Doves Cry", all great SONGS that have stood the test of time and sound just as fresh today as they did when they first hit the airwaves.
The "inside scoop" is that Prince first began stockpiling his better material in the mid-90s because he was unhappy with his label, Warner Brothers Records, and eager to fulfill his contract. Hence, what we got instead of "the good stuff" were albums like Come and The Black Album (which he'd initially refused to release), which, while not awful albums, were certainly not up to the level of what both he and his fans knew he was capable of achieving.
While I can understand an artist growing disenchanted with their record company, there is no excuse for putting out a half-assed album. Unfortunately, Prince has chosen to continue doing so long after his contract with Warner Brothers expired.
His most recent album, 20Ten, was actually his fifteenth studio album since "Squiggle" (aka the Love Symbol album), the album where Prince first began testing the patience of his fan base.
Getting back to this new song, it's not an earth-shattering return-to-form or anything. If anything, it sounds like the results of Prince killing an afternoon checking out the new features of Pro Tools 11.
Or maybe its a step toward Prince once-again embracing his knack for penning great songs. Plus, it's a whole lot easier getting the crowd out of their seats when you give them something that makes them wanna shake their asses.
VERDICT: The new Prince tune is neither THE SHIT nor shit. We give it a solid six out of ten.