http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2007/07/22/2007-07-22_prince_charming.html

Prince, charming

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Sunday, July 22nd 2007, 4:00 AM


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Prince

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Prince. "Planet Earth." Columbia.

You never know which Prince will pop out on one of his CDs: The funkster? Jam man? Rock star? Soul smoothie? Or a confusing combination of all the above?

On "Planet Earth," Prince favors one of the least common roles in his career - as melody-mad pop star.

"Planet Earth" has to rank as the lightest, fastest, rocking-est Prince album in years. Nearly the entire disk plays to the top end of his sound - i.e. the tuneful side.

Any nod to the funky bottom comes as an afterthought. You'd have to push back to his earliest days with the Revolution band to find a Prince disk this brisk and bouncy.

No wonder he rehired Wendy and Lisa from that era for several songs on the disk.

Before the album takes off, however, it briefly stumbles. The opening cut, which doubles as the title track, is one of those ghastly "save the environment" harangues, a green plea saddled with a polluted melody. It even has a drag of a beat. Together, it's enough to make Madonna's new Earth-happy salute ("Hey You") seem revelatory.

Luckily, Prince recovers fully with "Guitar," one of his most fantastically flip singles since "Kiss." It boasts a chiming, double-timed guitar hook (think: U2's "I Will Follow") matched to a flirty vocal. "I love you baby," the lyric teases, "but not like I love my guitar."

Nice.

Prince goes for a chugging T-Rex-ish rocker in "The One U Wanna C," which could just as easily have slinked off 1980's "Dirty Mind." "Lion of Judah" rocks out sweetly, as does "All the Midnights in the World," even if the latter does contain hints of the corny Broadway-style "rock musical" Prince often falls prey to.

Along the way, the disk offers a few brief peeks of soul. "Somewhere Here on Earth" has the swank of the Stylistics. "Future Baby Mama" brings out a beautifully feminine falsetto from Prince.

The only time the star approaches funk is in "Chelsea Rodgers." And really it's more of the disco variety, ending up closer to the Trammps than James Brown. The song also features a cameo from a hot new Prince find: Shelby J, who has some of the grit of a young Mavis Staples.

The ease of the whole CD comes as a special relief after Prince's labored, techno-heavy last work, 2006's "3121." This time he's not trying to sound at all contemporary. Even the disk's one rap, "Mr. Goodnight," sounds more like Barry White than T.I.

But who needs to be in step when you can write a tune as singable as "Resolution," the album's apt finale?

Notably, the lyrics to this song take an antipopulist stance. According to Prince, we still have wars because most of us secretly want them. That's a rare perspective from this seldom contrary writer.

How nice to know that, 30 years into his career, Prince can still keep those little surprises coming.