Prince - HITnRUN Phase One

Still restless at 57, Prince teamed up with young co-producer Joshua Welton and came out swinging with HITnRUN Phase One, a brash, beat-driven curveball from late in his career.

Released in 2015 as his 38th studio album, it debuted as a streaming exclusive before reaching shelves, the first half of a two-part push that ended with Phase Two only months later. Recorded at Paisley Park between 2013 and 2015, it divided critics at the time, but its appetite for modern production and its sheer nervy energy make it one of the most surprising entries in a famously unpredictable catalog.

Million $ Show opens proceedings with Judith Hill, stitching fragments of his own classics into a glossy, electronic strut. Fallinlove2nite, first released as a single the year before, is bright and flirtatious, and This Could B Us reworks a song from 2014's Art Official Age into fresh shape. Rita Ora and Lianne La Havas also drop by elsewhere on the record, keeping the guest list sharp and the mood loose.

It is Prince at his most playful and experimental, unafraid to sound current at a stage when many of his peers were looking backward. Paired with Phase Two, it forms the closing chapter of an extraordinary run.