New Releases: Prince Has 3121 Reasons To Smile

The 2006 trend of no releases one week and plenty the week after continues on Tuesday, then again on the Tuesday that follows. At the very least, we have a lot to write about this week.

First, there's the new release from the "Purple One," Prince. The artist formerly known as a symbol releases his latest funk odyssey, 3121, on Tuesday. Better than actually listening to the album might be guessing what exactly 3121 refers to. The number of acres Prince owns in the Toronto area? The number of women he's undressed using only his mind? Find out for yourself by picking up the record.

The latest artist to hop on the double album bandwagon is Ben Harper. Both Sides Of The Gun features one disc of political funk and a second of more reflective acoustic tracks. We're pretty sure that a lot of joints will be smoked to both.

Remember when you thought the lead singer of Placebo was really a hot girl with a guy's voice and then you were shocked to find out that he was actually a guy? Was that just us? Memories aside, the band's new record, Meds, hits store shelves on Tuesday.

Love Monkey may have failed, but the career of Teddy Geiger, who was featured in the show, is still hanging on. His debut CD, Underage Thinking, is a mix of pop, pop and more pop, and comes out this week.

My Chemical Romance have been busier than most bands in the last couple of years. They're headed back to the studio as we speak, but have found one last avenue to get blood from a stone. Life On The Murder Scene is a CD/two-DVD package that's sure to get the fans out to the cash registers at least one more time.

Other Tuesday releases include Anti-Flag's For Blood And Empire, Editors' The Back Room, Howe Gelb's 'Sno Angel Like You, Loose Fur's Born Again In The U.S.A., Quasi's When The Going Gets Dark, Mates Of State's Bring It Back and Sondre Lerche And The Faces Down Quartet's Duper Sessions.