Any concerns that Prince had entered Permanent Funk-Jazz Mode were wiped aside when he and Beyonce performed a medley of hits — a couple of his, a couple of hers — at the 2004 Grammys. Musicology followed two months later, and it’s all been vocal work since. And even if he’d gone on to release work that was never worse than Diamonds And Pearls, it’d be a shame. Musicians ought to work out of their orbit more often; even if the results aren’t spectacular, the familiar language is vitalized by the new. And it wasn’t like this was a doom metal record (although, holy hell, yes); it’s more like the fusion passages he used to drop once upon a time.

But the non-purple players cannot be fronted on. John Blackwell (drums), Eric Leeds (tenor and bari sax), Renato Neto (piano and synths) and Rhonda Smith (bass), all seasoned NPG hands. Prince’s is a compositional skill set, so while N.E.W.S. has a programmatic feel — each track is exactly fourteen minutes long, probably because PYRAMIDS — the jazz heads provide a gutbucket vibe for their employer to bounce off of. “North” is anchored by Smith’s bullfrog figure; Prince and Leeds attach and break apart. “East” begins with Arabic scales on what sounds like a clavioline, joined in turn by Blackwell’s skittering groove, then a brief Leeds/Prince pairing. After a pause, some of Prince’s most metal playing: it ain’t Zorn, but Sharrock’s pretty close. “West” starts with the smooth stuff before segueing into a trebly funk passage, closing out with a Prince solo pitched somewhere between his early-’80s proggy stuff and his demolition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at the next year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. And “South” lets the band kick some outer-space funk before an organ part of Jon Lord-level heaviness breaks it up. There’s no pretending that this isn’t for the diehards primarily, or that it’s even a coherent collection, but it’s great to see a man with so many ideas let some new ones loose.