His Royal Purpleness Prince dropped a surprise single today on his SoundCloud page.
The track, “HARDROCKLOVER,” finds Prince in a sort of “The Beautiful Ones” mode with quiet verses leading into big, loud, guitar-drenched choruses. It’s always enjoyable when the Purple One rocks out; Prince really has embraced his funkier side in recent years. The psych-influenced tune plays on rock and roll clichés with mentions of “another rip in your jeans” (a callback to “Little Red Corvette”) and something resembling a guitar talk box or vocoder near the end of the song.
The song’s lyrics are classic Prince subject matter—peppered with more modern references to cell phones as well as Red Bull and Patron—telling the story of a young lady who isn’t into the quiet-storm stylings of Sade and Babyface. No, this chick gets turned on by loud, raunchy guitar solos, and Prince is more than happy to oblige. As impressive as the guitar work is, however, it’s unfortunate that the hook isn’t as big as Purple Rain-era Prince hits. (His recent song “Baltimore,” also available on SoundCloud, is infinitely more hummable, despite its more serious subject matter.)