ART OFFICIAL AGE 酷我

On his 33rd studio album, Prince shuffles the deck of his immense aesthetic vocabulary, delivering an array of sounds and themes that's scattered but always captivating. "Art Official Cage" mixes Daft Punk's funky post-disco, rapping, choral interludes and vague sci-fi dialogue. "The Gold Standard" sounds like a mutant version of "Kiss"; "Breakfast Can Wait" is a characteristically outsize seduction. The album is messy but delectably Prince: bedroom talk intermingles with rants about technology, underscored by funk-guitar pyrotechnics, falsetto bursts, and chunky bass. The sweeping, introspective, and melodically memorable "Breakdown" isn't to be missed.