Prince - 'Black Sweat,' + 'Beautiful, Loved & Blessed'

The kinetic lead track, "Black Sweat," represents Prince's funky side at its finest. Its sparse yet high energy beat is the perfect compliment to the Purple One's vocal attitude on the song. Not faring so well, however, is the mid-tempo B-side "Beautiful, Loved & Blessed," a duet between Prince and his latest protege, Tamar. The song is neither stellar nor memorable.

After a brief hiatus, Prince continues his musical comeback with "Black Sweat," the first single off his upcoming album, 3121, which is set for a March 21 release. Without going overboard on the hype, "Black Sweat" is one of the funkiest, most danceable songs Prince has released in many years. The song's high energy, yet sparse synthesizer-and-drum machine beat is simplistic, but perfectly utilized. The production goes against the grain of modern R&B songs in the that the accompanying music is used to complement the singer's voice, rather than supplant or take precedence over it.And Prince coos, yelps, slinks and vamps his way through the song, evoking memories of another of his more attitudinal jams, 1992's "Sexy MF." On the similarly lusty "Black Sweat," he sings:

"I don't want 2 take my clothes off/ But I do. I don't want 2 turn nobody on/ Unless it's U. I don't want 2 dance 2 hard, baby/ But this is a groove (yes it is! Fonky)/ I'm hot, and I don't care who knows it/ I got a job 2 do."

Things take a 180-degree turn however, on the B-side "Beautiful, Loved & Blessed," featuring the Purple One's latest protege, songstress Tamar (pronounced Tay-Mahr.) The duet, as its name somewhat implies, is a mid-tempo feel-good song. Its main weakness is that Tamar doesn't have a particularly distinctive voice, much like previous Prince sidekicks Sheila E, Vanity and Apollonia. And the song definitely suffers because of this. Fortunately, "Black Sweat" more than makes up for it.