I listened to the Planet Earth album again on Saturday morning and directly afterwards played The Gold Experience...

Neither are the best albums of his career and I considered both to be equally "adequate". However, something interesting happened when playing them back to back...

Planet Earth sounded as cohesive and exhilerating as Sign O The Times and The Gold Experience sounded as disjointed and flimsy as Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic.

Has anybody else had a similar experience?

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[Edited 7/24/07 11:47am]

Justin1972UK said:

I don't understand! TGE is indeed one of his very best and underrated records. Are you saying PE is better than TGE because I'll have to disagree totally?

oh please.

I had the opposite experience.

I sat through Planet Earth,
which is a good cohesive album IMO.

Then I sat through The Gold Experience...
and it blew Planet Earth out of the water!

Justin1972UK said:

I have not played them back to back. I can see similarities between PE and TGE. IMO, I find PE to be pretty cohesive to begin with.

Justin1972UK said:

Hmmm, I wouldn't personally go that far, but I've definately cooled to TGE in recent years. It is 12 years old, difficult to compare an album that's barely 12 days old.

The thing I find about the 93-95 era is there are TONS of brilliant tracks, missed opportunities for hit singles and all kinds of woulda, shoulda, coulda's. But the albums as they are in their official form haven't held too well for me. Now give me a CD-R or an mp3 tracklist and I'm in 93-95 heaven.

NouveauDance said:

Gold Experience.. disjointed?? He had a top, top band back then. Its a great record I think, and listening to it now, I personally prefer it to PE. then again, TGE has had over a decade to grow me. so the 12 day old comment is a fair one by nouveuDance.

PurpleHouse said:

I didn't say it was disjointed (actually I think the opposite for TGE) - I said I've cooled to it.

I hold TGE in high regard, it's a watermark in his catalog IMO, I was just saying how the messy avenue his career took during that period didn't let the material that was recorded then shine to the best of it's ability - I think it could have reached a wider audience, given the chance - which it wasn't, by all parties involved.

NouveauDance said:

It's unfair to P for us fams/potential fams to cont. to compare the 93-95 era to PE.It is very clear to me that Prince is taking us into an entirely different genre of music as he glides into the "golden" years of his music career. If you really listen to PE with the "new Prince"in mind you can then see where he is going as it relates to his music. He has given us Funk, Rock, R&B, Jazz and a hint of classical music all 10 beautiful songs/PE. My love to Prince and thank you sooooo much for PE and what's to come.

NouveauDance said:

Yes I know u didnt say that..i was refering to justin1972 opening gambit!

I do remember Gold getting quite a bit or airplay and music vid shown..I think quite a few ppl heard that song. It had a good chance I think. It was pretty popular at the time.. I even remember somebody requesting it on Capital FM! (I'm in the UK btw)

PurpleHouse said:

Oops! Sorry.

I agree about the Gold Experience. It is disjointed and not fun to listen to in sequence. I love individual tracks on the Gold album (especially 319), but don't care to hear them back to back.

Planet Earth album: I didn't really love any of it at first (though I really admired the first 3 released tracks), but as I listen to the album in sequence it is really fun to have going over and over, and I notice when friends get in the car, they like it too...

And now the songs are all growing on me. Only the last track is still a bit weak in the lyrics for me...

Mr. Goodnight is such good classic seductor Prince for the ladies.

I think he has whipped up a true album as opposed to a gaudy collection of songs. But then again, I thought the first 2 cd's of Crystal Ball actually worked very well as a real album... so maybe I'm crazy.

Stupid org ate my response!

I think Gold is supposed to be disjointed, a sampling of the "over 500 experiences to choose from."

But I am liking the middle ground that PE sticks to. It's a very likeable side of Prince. Where I thought Gold had high highs, it had low lows, too.

NouveauDance said:

ufoclub said:

Yes - this is exactly what I meant by disjointed. There's very little flow to many of his 90s albums. It's interesting that when Orgers post imaginary tracklists, it's mostly confined to his 90s albums and rarely to his earlier output. I think The Gold Experience is the nadir of his albums sounding "disjointed" - sorry, I can't think of a better word.

NDRU said:

That may have been his intent, but it failed to my ears. I think his best albums are so well-loved precisely because they contain an eclectic mix of genres within a confined pallette. You know: dance music, funk, blues, jazz, pop, rock but within an over-riding template.

It's hard to put your finger on each classic album's pallette, but if I had to try in a rush it'd be something like:

1999 - New Wave Funk
Parade - Cinematic French Psychedelia
Sign O' The Times - Cold Beats With Lush Melodies
Lovesexy - Gospel Cartoon P.Funk

So, for instance, you'd find a dance song on each album... But on 1999 it'd be a New Wave Funk dance song like 'D.M.S.R.'; on Parade it'd be a Cinematically French Psychedelic dance song like 'Girls & Boys'; on Sign O Times, it'd be the Linn-tastic 'U Got The Look'; on Lovesexy it'd be the bonkers title track. You can take ballads as another example: 'Something In The Water', 'Under The Cherry Moon', 'Forever In My Life', 'I Wish U Heaven'... Yes, they're all ballads but each exists within the bubble of their respective album.

Most of his output in the few years prior to and after The Gold Experience was interchangeable. Take the songs 'Now', 'Race' and 'Get Wild' for instance.

What I find interesting with the Planet Earth album is it's cohesiveness. I can't quite put my finger on what this cohesiveness is yet, but it's there. Although the frantic disco funk of 'Chelsea Rodgers' and the West Coast rock of 'The One U Wanna C' couldn't be more different, they share a vibe in the same way that 'Hot Thing' and 'I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man' do.

Does anybody know what I mean?

p.s. Thank God I copied this to Notepad first - it logged me out when I pressed Reply!

I actually had a very opposite experience. After playing the entire Planet Earth album my iTunes (for whatever reason) jumped to "What's My Name?" from Crystal Ball. The raw emotion of that song really brought out the blandness of Planet Earth. And "What's My Name?" isn't even one of the best songs from the Gold era.

As for Planet Earth being a more cohesive album, I have to disagree with that as well. There are two pop songs, a handful of R&B slow jams, some Christian light rock and a disco song. I wouldn't really call that "cohesion" - IMHO

I refuse to compare those two great cds with each other.



I won't do it.

December1984 said:

What? You mean two pop songs like 'Dolphin' and 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World'? A handful of R&B slow jams like 'Eye Hate U', 'Shy' and 'Shhh'? A Christian Rock song like 'Gold'? A dance song like '319'?

I'm not necessarily talking about the style or genre of individual tracks but the way the album has a cohesive vibe. All the songs on the Planet Earth album belong on the Planet Earth album.

Anybody else feel this way?

Justin1972UK said:

so what would you label the PE vibe as?

NDRU said:

I don't know yet. I just know that it sounds like an album and not just a collection of songs.

Justin1972UK said:

I think I agree, though I'm just listening to it for the 3rd time. I haven't felt that since TRC.

I once read that TGE was tracklisted backwards. So it would begin with Gold -- forget the rest of the order now and I'm too lazy to look.

But maybe that would make it more cohesive for you.

Justin1972UK said:

the PE vibe is "Your Prince has come for all you housewives of Planet Earth" and it's still cool!

December1984 said:

cohesion does not mean the same genre, album cohesion (to me) means a harmonious flow in the intended order to build a certain mood that envelops the album upon repeated listening. Sometimes this involves just the right amount of wildness with a moment of relaxation, or white rock followed by black ballad. Sometimes there do have to be linked ingredients that are shared, and in this case it is the conservative mix and tone of this album and it's "safe" attitude that make it such light dessert that's brief enough to not wear out it's welcome.

ufoclub said:

It's the "Soccer Moms" of Prince albums!

NDRU said:

Diet Prince? Prince Lite? Prince Zero?

I disagree. I'm not quite happy with the order of Planet Earth, but I wouldn't change a single thing about The Gold Experience. That actually holds up as his most cohesive and impressive album since Lovesexy to me.

i dont agree with you but you can certainly make a good point!

TGE is prince for me at his nadir-95 was a momentual time for him and the funk was amazing.....but then he didnt realy capitilise on the funk

oh ho hum-hes above crtitsiscm realy isnt he!

and its 3am and im on nightshift

Madness - TGE is awesome and ranks among his best work (certainly his best work of the 90s).

However, the wealth of 93-95 material is amazing and the aborted "The Dawn" album would have been amazing.

Planet Earth is a "good" album but not a "great" album IMHO. In much the same way as Musicology and 3121 were "good" albums but not "great". I enjoy all three and only skip the odd track.

However, if you merge the tracks from all three (ignoring production style for the moment) then I think there are two great albums!

I've never understood the worship of "Gold Experience"... "We March" is silly, "The Most Beautiful Girl in the Word" was already released, the lack of "Days of Wild", the bad segues with the canned common sound effects, the cheesy tone of the title track "Gold", the bad "stoner" acting character in "Now" (should have been cut out to leave a good song intact).

The whole sequence in order seems in gaudy taste like a mime dressed in glittery gold sequins getting in your face.

I do love 319 (already released in "Showgirls"), and "I Hate U".

I think "P-control" is very novel. I think "Billy Jack Bitch" is just a retro live funk jam, the only great thing here is the shift to the spliced in horn break from another song. The little funky rhythm loop idea (the cool monkey oooh oooh noise) is used in the much, much, better "The Exodus Has Began".