When he went in, he went in. Batman is written from the perspective of the movie’s principals, but like any decent comic book writer, Prince uses his characters to mouth his concerns. “The Future” starts with a tautological joke (“I’ve seen the future and it will be”), delivered in a low worried tenor. The percussion — what sounds like a rubber cowbell — allies the track with the club; Prince shortens the Joker’s Smilex to just “X.” This being a soundtrack to a proper Hollywood film, the synths sound like strings, and orchestral bits pop up here and there. (This being a Prince joint, he includes a hoary joke about an organ.) His power ballads have lost their juice: “The Arms Of Orion” is a bog-standard duet with Sheena Easton — who acquits herself decently — that can’t improve on that awesome title.

But “Orion” is just a temporary bringdown on an otherwise excellent party record — and that includes “Batdance,” the cutup funk instrumental that topped the charts worldwide. It opens with irresistible sequencing, then Prince adds some always-welcome shredding before dropping some mid-tempo funk that’s heavy on sampled dialogue. And his best axework wasn’t even there — it was on “Electric Chair,” yet another would-be hair metal anthem that flew over a lot of Aquanet’d heads. “Trust” has homeopathic levels of highlife; it bounces so well that it’s all Prince can do to hang on. Ironically, “Lemon Crush” leaves less of an acidic aftertaste than R.E.M.’s orangey single from the previous year; it could be the low-end motif, which sounds more than a little like “Thriller.” On the whole, this is one hell of a dance record, a glam slam that more than fulfilled his Warner agreement.