AFTER MAKING TWO ALBUMS ON AUTOPILOT,PRINCE ACHIVE TO MAKE GREAT GUITAR ORIENTED ROCK MUSIC WITH VERY PERSONAL MESSAGE AND GREAT PRODUCTION

Your name, it reminds me ... Who's that knockin'on our door? Didn't we throw U out before?

Anyway, thx 4 sharing your wonderful insight about Prince's latest .. I really want to have it a lot more now than I did before!

Loved every song I have heard up2 yet

i am open to a new direction...

Have you heard the whole thing? I'm optimistic from the bits I've heard so far but it could still go all wrong!

Thirdeye said:

YOu must not have heard Mr Goodnight yet. Its New Power Soul-esque garbage.

has it leaked?

internationallover2004 said:

Oh, it's bloody garbage!

Mr Goodnight is excellent! It reminds of Player!

My 'quick review' after listening to every song on the whole album (No i dont have it, i just ensembled cuts and pieces) at least 1 or 2 times.

A welcome surprise, my expectations were a bit low after hearing Guitar, Future Baby Mama and the 1 u wanna C.

But i must say in many aspects its a big step forward from Musicology and 3121.

Prince has taken much more care in producing the songs: like i said before, it sounds like he has used certain elements of The Rainbow Children (acoustic instruments, more layered arrangements, a more organic feel) again. And it helps his music to 'breath' more. No idea about the songwriting credits, but i suppose the input of Wendy and Lisa also helped him to create more colourfull, layered music.

It sounds like Prince has found his gift to 'perfect popsongs' again: Resolution and All the midnights in the world are a huge step forward from forced sounding pop/rocksongs like Cinnamon girl or So Far, So pleased. He is grabbing back to the more subtle, fluent sounding songs on, well, yes, Parade and Around the world in a day.

On other songs you can also nice, quite new touches: The title track harks back to progrock, but its not so bombastic, and more fluent then Three Chains of Gold.
Chelsea Rodgers has ska-like guitarwork. And surprised me in a way he did with Willing and Able, where he used south african jive-like guitar work.
Somewhere on Earth is not new when it comes to his sound, but its nice to hear him try to do this more organic kind of jazz/soul then a more generic, plastic R&B ballad.

Looking at the album as a whole: next to the huge improvement in his arrangements and his songwriting in about halve of the songs, there a few rotten apples for me that spoil the flow and quality of the album a bit.
Guitar is definitely not bad, but its simple directness does contrast a bit with the more subtle material (The One U wanna C works better in that way, because it has more colourfull surprises in its arrangement).
Personally i find Future Baby Mama a bit too boring. The linn-drum is nice, but on an album on which Prince is sounding fresh and renewed in some sense, it sounds out of place. Like he is too purposely harking back too his past.
I am not sure what i think about Lion of Judah, i mean... i really adore the closing track, Resolution, a perfect little pop gem. But 'Lion' gives me the idea of 'filler'. IMO a long, strong, anthemlike track in the vein of the title track should have been on this place on the album.
The big 'miss' for me is Mr. Goodnight. Alltough i must say its growing on me. First i labelled it as plastic New Power Soul-material and gave it 2/10, i still dont like it now, but its a bit better then i thought: 5,5/10. Nonetheless, stylewise it just doesnt fit with the rest of the material, it breaks the flow, he should have left it off IMO or replaced it with another song.

To sum it up: Planet Earth is not perfect, it has his mistakes in sequencing and the inclusion of certain songs, but in general its big step forward compared to the last two albums. IMO there are at least 5 very good to great songs on it (those might differ from person to person, anyway) and in terms of songwriting, arrangements and overall 'freshness' he sounds renewed in a way.

8/10

From the songs ive heard , its a huge improvement from any of his albums in more than 15 years, i love most everything ive listed to.

It sounds a lot more mature, and thats a good thing, because eveything after 88 sounded too imature and gringeworthy for my tastes, (LOLITA) (LOVE)


Yea this is a great album so far, and i will buy the physical cd even thoe it only play on my mp3 player.

"Somewhere Here On Earth" WOW

internationallover2004 said:

Mr Goodnight is ok imo but yes the weakest track

Resolution is great

Yes, but how well is it MIXED?

Sorry, not trying to be difficult or so, here

But A LOT of people are PM me where to find the album, but sorry i cant help you with that.

I dont have the complete album, i have been busy a few days collecting bits and pieces. Some parts i dont even remember were i did find them

Sorry: I cant help you, so, i ask you kindly to not PM for me links. So, if you wanna get it i advice you to do the same (be patient )

By the way, going to bed in a moment.....busy day behind the pc

But one last thought i had while listening to the songs, is most of them remind me of seventies music.

There is some symfonic/progrock on the title track, some breezy, california styled popsongs, late seventies disco/ska, a bit of glamrock.


Not that is retro, or so, but it has that kind of colourfull diversity you could hear in seventies music.

ingela said:

- The Rainbow Children is from 2001...I really doubt Planet Earth is better, although there are real good reviews...

I am using my ears Gustav

its better

MikeMatronik said:

Good call. If he had released "Player" instead, everyone would have hailed it to death!

GustavoRibas said:

Yes its much better, but i hate trc to death
HATE HATE HATE HATE!!!!! lol

but seriously


its very good !!!! 'im sure youll like it too

Gustavo from one listen of the CD it is better than TRC and I love TRC.

Easily the best since Batman or Lovesexy,IMHO.