Prince is back! He wants to be spoken about in the present tense again. Having sold more than 60 million albums, he's betting that the commercial rock of his 25th album, "3121" will help him move a few more. The CD is both a return to form and to the mainstream.

The Minneapolis maestro won Grammy awards and many fans with his fusion of rock, pop, funk, jazz, Latin soul, R&B and anything else catchy. He forged exceptional albums such as "Purple Rain" and "Sign O the Times.'" Trouble is that purple period was in the 1980s.

Prince spent the 1990s frittering away his talent, becoming a joke. There was the bizarre name change to a symbol, the dispute with Warner Brothers, the scrawling of "Slave" across his face and some lackluster contractual-obligation CDs.
This time, Prince has a concept about a pleasure palace. In this bilious boudoir, one "drinks champagne from a glass with chocolate handles," according to the title track. Leaving aside practicalities, this opening song sums up all that's good and bad about "3121".

While the techno funk and industrial beats work best, there are some falsetto ballads, too. "The Dance" adds piano, and the Latin "Te Amo Corazon" has Santana-style guitar.
The CD is priced at $13.98 in the U.S.