3121

The centerpiece of Prince’s most exhilarating 21st-century album is “Black Sweat,” a spare, bass-less electronic drum track overlaid with whining synths that slams like a grittier revamp of “Kiss,” or maybe the missing link between James Brown and mid-2000s Oakland rap. Whether effortlessly seducing with the humid ballad “Te Amo Corazón,” playfully rejecting a young woman’s advances on “Lolita,” or launching into a psychedelic guitar workout on “Fury,” Prince didn’t so much cover new ground on *3121* as demonstrate that his home turf remained an inexhaustible source of inspiration. He hadn’t sounded so contemporary—or timeless—in years.