I was in Target today and fell for an impulse buy: Prince's newest album, LotusFlow3r. I had never heard of it, didn't know Prince was recording a new album, and didn't know anything about it other than the endcap display they had and the video clip that was playing on a nearby TV with some cuts from the album. Actually, from the 3-disc set. It was $12 for 3 discs, 2 of which were Prince, with the third being someone I've never heard of -- Bria Valente. I figured that was a great deal for 3 discs if they were good. And hey, it's Prince -- I'm sure he's got some good stuff on it.

Yeah, I know that's a dangerous gamble. Especially with Prince.

So far, I'm loving it. I've listened to about 2/3 of one of the Prince CDs (Lotusflow3r), and none of either of the other ones. It's jazzy and bluesy. I dug the cover of Crimson and Clover / Wild Thing. The opening jazzy instrumental was nice.

I've looked at a few of the reviews on amazon.com now and a lot of them indicate that I'm listening to the best of the three CDs right now. The Bria Valente CD seems to be universally panned. And MPLSound seems to be getting mixed reviews. I'll see what I think about the rest of it as I get a chance to listen over the next few days.