Being a one-man industry isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as Prince learned with the bungled rollout of yet another multi-disc set. His first wholly independent set, Crystal Ball was three CDs of outtakes and remixes. Prince held off release until he received a minimum number of orders; those who pre-ordered were directed to a website to print liner notes, a vexing decision made worse when the brick-and-mortar versions included liners. More consternation came with the content: a majority of recent-vintage cuts, many edited down from bootleg length. After extended delays in getting the set to production, Prince tossed in Kamasutra (a programmatic set credited to The NPG Orchestra, crafted for his marriage to Mayte Garcia) and The Truth, his quietest collection to date.

The tracks are all built around Prince and his acoustic, but there’s room for distorted vocals, dolphin sounds (ugh), synths … enough added heft to give The Truth an intimate, rather than unfinished, feel. A couple of the cuts (the rapper-baiting “Fascination” and the butch wish-fulfillment of “Man In A Uniform”) qualify as funk. It’s a complete record thematically as well, with his Gaian manifesto “Animal Kingdom” (key couplet: “If God wanted milk in me/The breast I suck would have a line around the hood”) sharing space with the wistful daisy-chain memories of “Circle Of Amour.” “Don’t Play Me” could be the best explicit defense Prince has ever mounted, as he coolly dispatches racists and industry doubters with equally credible parries. The vibe is loose but not careless; the format compels him to find natural stopping points, and his voice remains a marvel. Perhaps it’s all the milk he hasn’t been drinking.