441: Lolita

3121 (2006)
Prince’s Humbert Humbert dutifully knocks back his underage admirer’s advances in this personal-space-invading atmosphere of tight, staccato synths. Vladimir Nabokov’s novel may now have its own dictionary definition but I find the name Lolita so inseparable from his glissading writing style that it sits uncomfortably on this claustrophobic machine funk. But that may just be the raving Nabokov fanatic in me. Literary references aside, Lolita is a fun romp from an older, responsible Prince. A funky click track clipping the wings of ripening desire. It’s cut from the same paño as 2009’s Valentina and I’ve heard it compared to the jerky, more lubricated Soft and Wet, but when held in the same light as his debut single Lolita becomes, to quote Nabokov, just “rust and stardust”.