I get the feeling that some folks think that we all have to either collectively like the cd or collectively hate it. Some will like it and some won't. It can get any simplier than that.

Minister: Livewire, will you take Planet Earth to love, honor and cherish as long as you shall live?

Me: I will.

Minister: I now pronounce you man and new classic album. You may kiss Prince's ass.

Do yourself a favor...Go back and listen to the album a minimum of 5 times. All of the way through. Then don't listen to it for a week. Then come back and tell us how you were CRAVING a certain track

I listened to the full album yesterday about 3 times all the way through and then "cherry-picked" the songs I connected with at first...


Here's the thing...

Some of the tracks ARE bizarre and I don't think they'll be on regular rotation, but I respect this man more than I respect just about anyone else. As an artist I understand how difficult it is to just make the music you want to make...sometimes it tells a story that the public understands, but sometimes it doesn't.

I was running errands and I started humming the songs that I weren't even impressed with...I didn't even realize that the melody had gotten into my sub-conscience...


I couldn't WAIT to get back home so that I could revisit some of the tracks...and a Prince album hasn't made me want to do THAT in a LONG time.

This is it for me...THIS is where *I* want him to be...he's heading in the right direction with this one...


Sometimes we as fans forget that an artist's job is to be true to himself...and not to those on the outside who enjoy their work. When music is done best it is a wonderfully personal experience for the artist...if you happen to like what comes out of the artist then that's great, but we should remember that it's not about OUR journey so much as it is about Prince's journey. We're along for a ride. It's his life...we just get to join in the fun sometimes.


Do yourself a favor...Go back and listen to the album a minimum of 5 times. All of the way through. Then don't listen to it for a week. Then come back and tell us how you were CRAVING a certain track



How does he do it? How does he open himself up in this way to receive such inspiration from the heavens...I may not agree with his choices, but he will receive NOTHING but my supreme respect.

Thank you for sharing your soul, sir.
[Edited 7/10/07 20:58pm]
[Edited 7/10/07 21:01pm]

as far as the musical content is conserned i totally like this album,
it's nice and diverse and not too farmiliar in prince terms.

my main gripe with his last few albums Musicology and 3121 especially
is the lyrics.

they've become so bland. he used to have some really cool subjects or
at least interesting twists in his lyrics.

planet earth is a bit of an improvement on musicology and 3121 but it
still lingers too much on his romantic interests.

not that it's a bad thing, but he's saying the same thing over n over
these days.

with different lyrics, a bit deeper, a bit more cryptic and perhaps a
song or two about something else i would be able to appreciate those
songs a lot more, even if i don't like the music per se.

i particularly like his 'science' and 'history' or 'alchemy' lyrics
of the past decade. even if his view is warped and weird on most of
these matters it still makes for more interesting lyrics than having
him sing again and again about winning someone over or having to do
the right thing in regard to god/relationships etc etc.

but hey, he's said so much already over the past 30 years that i can
see how it's hard to keep coming up with though provoking stuff all
the time.

IstenSzek said:

I think I know where you're coming from, but what about "coma, pimp & circumstance"?

Well, at least 1 exception.

"I might be past my expiration date, but still I adore you..." - LION OF JUDAH

It's funny - both ha-ha and weird. After almost two decades of flatlining egowank, rainbowless, treasureless repitition & recycling, vile stillborn hip-hop pastiches and a walled-in mindset oblivious to the universal law of diminishing returns - Prince Nelson admits what even the hardest of the die-hards has suspected - he's a lonely man who feels old and out of touch.

"Looking for the energy to take u there/The places u wanna go/Know if I do you will fool me again and the press will turn it into a show." - LION OF JUDAH

Yet, it's in these lines I fall for the guy again. Maybe it's the odd, quivering vocal inflection or the plantiff, castaway spirit of the melody carrying this actual true, honest lyric. No assertations that he's the muthafukin' bezt, that he's the Daddy Pop, the true King of Music.

N
o.

Here, he finally admits he's a bit lost. The words also convey his need to know the people listening to his music understand the effort it takes to craft - and more importantly, why he still does it. Wow, seimesic!
The fans also thirsting for the cartoon persona the press portray come in for a lace-sleeved swipe, the swine, even them, the bastard, blind to his pearls. How care they question this cartoon, one dimentional persona he is only too willing to play, trade upon and exploit. Pimp. The Conflict - he knows what we want, what we expect, what we crave. Yes - the child and suckle urge in him wants to deliver, but an impish bellyminddemon - borne of deep insecurity - hoodwinks his better nature, continually persuding him to flip the lid on expectation and confound all and sundry - even himself. He'll never give you what you want. Ask for it and you'll get a grin and the clackety-clack of his heels as he walks away. And you'll be looking at his ass while he does, straight or gay. He'll die a tease.

"Sitting on the floor in an all white room/Feeling like the colour blue.." - LION OF JUDAH

It's no coincidence these words are sung over a chord sequence and guitar tone immediately calling to mind Purple Rain, the albatross which has inhibited his musical growth & freeze-framed his public persona since 1984. Mix the colours white and blue, you get purple. He purges this sacred cow here, similar to Kurt Cobain exorcising Teen Spirit (both song and actual) in Rape Me.

"I guess I should be happy but Im not sure if u really love me."

Doubt.

Then of course.

The theory's blown apart like a Palestine marketplace by the triumpalist, ego-wanking chorus about how great and better than everyone else he is and always will be. He believes his struggles to be Biblical to future perception. From egoless verse to cock-waving chorus. Oh, and white and blue don't make purple. Sometimes making things up and fronting like you know better can fool a lot of people into thinking you're talking a higher sense when you're not. This post was a nasty-hearted experiment in language.

[center][b]Please use this thread to discuss the new Prince cd, Planet Earth.

Those of you lucky enough to have received a copy already, whether you liked the disc or not, please list your views in a courteous manner.

Just wait till you the better quality version of Planet Earth.

Very nice details to hear (Lisas piano's, those typical distored Prince background vocals) and some songs improve a lot from it (certainly the title track)

Riverpoet31 said:

NOTE TO MODS: I'm NOT asking where or how to get this!

just wanted to ask Riverpoet31 if you've heard a copy
of the actual album (listening party perhaps?) or if
there's a 320 kbps leak out there floating around?

It's no coincidence these words are sung over a chord sequence and guitar tone immediately calling to mind Purple Rain, the albatross which has inhibited his musical growth & freeze-framed his public persona since 1984. Mix the colours white and blue, you get purple.

Number23 said:

Actually, mixing white and blue gets you... light blue. And you're stretching!

Ian

IstenSzek said:

And I am asking istenszek the same question.

Number23 said:

i will answer you as soon as i get an answer

IstenSzek said:

I can almost hear Lisa's decending minor chords as I type.

I listened to the full album yesterday about 3 times all the way through and then "cherry-picked" the songs I connected with at first...


Here's the thing...

Some of the tracks ARE bizarre and I don't think they'll be on regular rotation, but I respect this man more than I respect just about anyone else. As an artist I understand how difficult it is to just make the music you want to make...sometimes it tells a story that the public understands, but sometimes it doesn't.

I was running errands and I started humming the songs that I weren't even impressed with...I didn't even realize that the melody had gotten into my sub-conscience...


I couldn't WAIT to get back home so that I could revisit some of the tracks...and a Prince album hasn't made me want to do THAT in a LONG time.

This is it for me...THIS is where *I* want him to be...he's heading in the right direction with this one...


Sometimes we as fans forget that an artist's job is to be true to himself...and not to those on the outside who enjoy their work. When music is done best it is a wonderfully personal experience for the artist...if you happen to like what comes out of the artist then that's great, but we should remember that it's not about OUR journey so much as it is about Prince's journey. We're along for a ride. It's his life...we just get to join in the fun sometimes.


Do yourself a favor...Go back and listen to the album a minimum of 5 times. All of the way through. Then don't listen to it for a week. Then come back and tell us how you were CRAVING a certain track



How does he do it? How does he open himself up in this way to receive such inspiration from the heavens...I may not agree with his choices, but he will receive NOTHING but my supreme respect.

Thank you for sharing your soul, sir.
[Edited 7/10/07 20:58pm]
[Edited 7/10/07 21:01pm]

ian said:

You didn't read the end of the post you lazy bastard.

Sometimes I think unless it's a full on rock affair (which has never ever happened) featuring the Revolution spanning over 2 discs and it's name is either Roadhouse Garden or Dream Factory, folks are simply going to be disappointed.

I don't think people will be happy even then. They will say things like:

"We waited all these years for this!"

"It doesn;t sound fresh like it used to"

"What's with all the hype, we've heard Prince do all of this a million times!"

etc

Number23 said:

are you sure that's not londell's cellphone ringing outside your door?