Purveyor of a more intriguing brand of gimmick ever since changing his name to "Love Symbol #2" and writing "slave" on his face in 1993, Prince gave away 2004's Musicology to anyone who bought a concert ticket and 2007's Planet Earth to anyone who bought the Mail on Sunday. Those who bought passes to any of his 21 aftershows after 2007's 02 shows were similarly at his purple whim; some nights meant another two hours of electrifying Prince performance in an after-hours setting, others got underachieving funk singer Nikka Costa. Those who drew the run's shortest straw got a DJ so lacklustre that guests gave him a copy of Planet Earth to play instead.
This year the stunts continue. Three weeks ago Prince launched three new albums - rock guitar-infused Lotusflow3r, synthesiser-powered MPLSound and the poppy Elixer, a showcase for Bria Valente, the latest in his collection of beautiful protégées - with three wildly different LA shows, backed by three different bands, in three different venues. The one constant was his nonstop grumbling about the three soundsystems. "Fix the sound and I'll be here every week - I'll do it for free!" he scolded bosses at promoters AEG; the same people, he said, who had paid his $3m fee.
Value for money is also on Prince's mind with these self-released albums, two of which are possibly numbers 30 and 31 in his official catalogue. They're free to download - once you pay a $77 (£52) subscription to his new website. What they're worth rather depends on which way you take your Prince.
MPLSound could be a thank-you note to those Parade-era purists patient enough to have stuck around. When Doves Cry drums kick off Chocolate Box, a swashbuckling pop song that sees Prince, a Jehovah's Witness since 2001, reconnect with his lascivious, ridiculous side: "I'm your Willy Wonka/ Golden ticket, it's yours/ Don't you waste not a taste/ From my ladle it pours." Dance 4 Me similarly finds him looking back; "dark sunglasses in the pale moonlight... I like it when you dance 4 me", he pouts, over keyboards last heard when The Goonies was on release. U're Gonna C Me is the sort of charismatic ballad he used to so excel at that he'd hand them out to Martika or Stevie Nicks. Ol' Skool Company hammers the retro point home; seven minutes of funk strutting name-checking 1980s acolytes Jellybean, Morris Day, Sheila E; and asking "Fat cats/ On Wall Street/ They got a bailout/ Why somebody else got to wait?" (The more things change ... )
Lotusflow3r is less easy to love. A guitar-hero workout from an era when that didn't involve a PlayStation, it's half Jimi Hendrix acid rock, half Randy Newman lounge jazz. Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful falls over itself to suggest a terrific party is under way and everyone should stick around. Dreamer is all guitar mewling and puff about "peanut butter logic served on a bed of lies". There's an OK cover of Tommy James and the Shondells' Crimson and Clover, but mostly this album's where Prince has stuck his fill3r.
Elixer is at least a more pleasant listen; ignore the Prince mystique and it's a collection of reasonably well-turned pop ballads. You're left feeling he'd have done himself better service to release just the one album (MPLSound) somewhere everyone could buy it, like a normal person. But where would be the gimmick in that?
