www.roanoke.com

There wasn't enough room on the printside for this week for more than one review, so here are the rest.

PRINCE

"Lotusflow3r"

Three has become the new purple.

Remember when Prince did three hometown shows in one day on 7/7/07? Now he’s releasing a three-disc album Sunday, exclusively via Target, for the thrifty price of $11.98.

To promote the new three-pack, he is performing three consecutive nights on "The Tonight Show" and three concerts Saturday in Los Angeles with three different bands.

About the only promotion missing is a trio of fragrances (how about Mplscent?), though Prince does talk about cologne in two — but not three — songs on the new set.

Enough about the marketing. How’s the music?

In short, the two Prince discs — "Lotusflow3r" and "Mplsound" — are hit-and-miss, with enough good stuff to justify one must-have CD. The third disc, "Elixer," by his Minnesota protege Bria Valente, is marginal. But there is no breaking up this threesome; all the discs come in the same purple package.

Prince loyalists will dig parts of "Lotusflow3r" and "Mplsound," both of which echo familiar 1980s Purple sounds. But some of the topics are current: Wall Street bailouts, "Ugly Betty" and a reference to "the White House is black." In moments that evoke "Sign o’ the Times," the Minneapolis icon sings about issues of race in "Colonized Mind" and "Dreamer," inspired by Martin Luther King.

He also rails about radio, record labels and stars who can’t sing — three Prince themes older than his fabled Minneapolis Sound.

When it comes to romance, this former libertine has become hopelessly "old-fashioned," as he sings in "Ol’ Skool Company." In fact, his seductions seem too tame for today’s urban and pop radio. With lines such as "Ooh baby baby/ when u walk thru that door/eye am gonna give u what u’re waiting 4" (his spelling, of course), he’s not going to score with listeners weaned on, say, The-Dream’s "Rockin’ That Thang."

Actually, Prince seems to be admitting to his age (50) and accepting the fact that he’s not making music for horny teenagers anymore.

In the dreamy ballad "Better With Time," he tells his lady: "Like wine, u get better with time." In "Valentina," he talks about hitting on a girl’s mom. Of course, this song is reportedly about Penelope Cruz’s infant daughter. (The last verse starts with the line: "If Penelope wants 2 cruz.")

While he may strike out with his romance language, Prince definitely connects with his party tunes. The first three selections on "Mplsound" will get the party started: the spare funk of "(There’ll Never B) Another Like Me," the sassy synth funk of "Chocolate Box" and the good groove of "Dance 4 Me," which sounds like old Prince with a new computer-manipulated voice. This disc — a one-man-band affair — concludes with more funky fun: the free-wheeling "Ol’ Skool Company" and the speedy, playful "No More Candy 4 U."

"Lotusflow3r," which was recorded with a band, parties with more eclectic sounds, sort of like George Clinton lost in the early 1970s. There’s guitar work that suggests the jazz-rock fusion of Jeff Beck, the Latin rock of Carlos Santana and the heavy psychedelia of Jimi Hendrix. Prince even finds a Brazilian groove on "Love Like Jazz" and an unexpected Italian vibe on the instrumental "77 Beverly Park." "4 Ever" sounds like a Gavin DeGraw pop song but it, like everything else here, probably won’t fit into any of today’s radio formats.

Just dance to "$," a club celebration smothered with New Orleans seasoning, and "Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful," a terrific piece of Prince-meets-Sly-Stone "purple rock ‘n’ roll" (his lyric) that begs for an extended club remix.

All that excitement makes Valente’s "Elixer" hard to swallow. A Twin Cities native, the tall, almond-eyed brunette has a pleasant, breathy voice but can’t compete with the power-house vocals of Shelby J or Tamar, two of Prince’s other recent discoveries. Moreover, this newcomer is saddled with generic romantic R&B material. "Elixer" seems like a throwaway, done as a favor for a friend, or maybe just because Prince needed something to complete his threesome.

— Jon Bream, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

MARTINA MCBRIDE

"Shine" (RCA)

Martina McBride says she was looking for someone to offer a fresh perspective on her music. Unfortunately, the petite belter chose Dann Huff, one of Nashville’s most commercially successful but artistically sterile producers. "Shine" is the dim result, reinforcing the tendency toward radio-ready but forgettable fare that has marred much of the star’s work.

McBride, who shares producer credits with Huff, has a luminous voice that is almost always framed in generic arrangements heavy on pop and rock elements with little country character. The material doesn’t help, either: Superior efforts like the spare, wrenching ballad "I’m Trying" are outnumbered by losers like the mush-headed "Don’t Cost a Dime" ("If you got love, you don’t need money"). Even when things are moving along fairly well — the rocking "Wrong Baby Wrong Baby Wrong," the rootsy "Wild Rebel Rose" — Huff throws in a straight-out-of-the-’70s guitar solo, highlighting the hack effect he has brought to this album.

— Nick Cristiano, The Philadelphia Inquirer

THE DECEMBERISTS

"The Hazards of Love" (Capitol)

The Decemberists’ leader, Colin Meloy, has always given his English major’s vocabulary and fondness for narrative free rein, often to delightful effect in stories of French legionnaires, chimney sweeps, and seafarers. The band dabbled in prog-rock indulgence on their 2004 EP "The Tain," but "The Hazards of Love" goes further: It explores the connection between folk-rock and heavy metal that reared its hairy head in Britain 40 or so years ago. Think Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant, and the Led Zeppelin of "Stairway to Heaven" or "The Battle of Evermore."

We get a 17-track fairy tale of a maiden impregnated by a forest creature, told in several voices (guests include members of My Brightest Diamond and Lavender Diamond); we get acoustic finger-picking interrupted by trudging, thunderous power chords; we get harpsichords, string quartets, and children’s choruses.

The Decemberists released several EPs last year with self-contained and topical tunes such as "Valerie Plame," so here’s hoping the extravagance of Hazards is a temporary diversion.

— Steve Klinge, The Philadelphia Inquirer

CURSIVE

"Mama, I’m Swollen" (Saddle Creek)

Indie rock is full of young men grappling with adulthood. Cursive’s sixth album digs hungrily into the theme, even examining it through the lens of Pinocchio ("Donkeys") and human evolution ("Caveman"). The fact that it’s more light of touch than not is a tribute to front man Tim Kasher’s casual roaring of urgent, wordy lyrics, not to mention a band that itself has grown up and now embraces jittery pop and cozy orchestration over angular post-punk anthems. That said, the opening "In the Now" will shake awake anyone who expects "Mama, I’m Swollen" to be as harmless as Kasher’s other longtime band, the Good Life. It’s a throttling introduction to an album that soars when Kasher avoids cheesy sentiments and simply unburdens his tormented soul.

— Doug Wallen, The Philadelphia Inquirer

RAVI COLTRANE

"Blending Times" (Savoy)

For tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, it’s all about the improvisation. The second son of Alice and John Coltrane, Ravi, now 43, is fierce about finding his way in real time.

Here on the follow-up to 2005’s "In Flux," Coltrane assembles a set that alternates between band originals and tunes he calls "improvisations." Even the lone standard, Thelonious Monk’s "Epistrophy," comes with a more freely imagined vamp. Coltrane has been reluctant to capitalize on his huge legacy, focusing instead on his development with groups ranging from the acidic collective M-Base and its founder, alto saxophonist Steve Coleman, to trumpeter Ralph Alessi and the Saxophone Summit band.

This quartet outing includes some sheets-of-sound moments worthy of Dad, yet it’s also highly melodic at times. The Venezuelan-born pianist Luis Perdomo is a welcome presence, providing a palette of lines from funk to Latin to modernist derring-do. Bassist Drew Gress and drummer E.J. Strickland backstop the risk-taking.

An improvisation called "Before With After" is nicely cosmic, while the opening "Shine" is a handsome ditty. Bassist Charlie Haden, who makes a cameo with harpist Brandee Younger, provides some sweet moments on his "For Turiya."

— Karl Stark, The Philadelphia Inquirer