FOr some reason, I got 3121 and Planet Earth out after listening to 20Ten about 10 times. TO ME, they stand up to 20Ten quite well. In fact, both were better than I recall. I think 3121 is near flawless. The Dance and Te AMo Corazon are two of the most sophisticated and elegant pieces of music from Prince - and show that he was still ahead of everyone. And only Prince could make Planet Earth when you get right down to it. Lion of Judah alone shows him doing things that no one else has.

Perhaps 20Ten will hit me like these in 3 years but for now it is just a nice collection of Prince songs for me. And that amazes me because I have never been so indifferent about a highly regarded Prince album in my life. Do I need some Prince therapy?

It's all relative, I suppose...

I also love 3121 and Planet Earth. 3121 is probably the stronger album, if only because Planet Earth kind of falls flat a bit after "Chelsea Rodgers". I'm really torn to say which is the better of the three. I will say this, however - 20Ten is better than MPLSound, but perhaps not as good as Lotusflow3r... all in my opinion of course.

Normally I'd be all diplomatic and suggest that it is subjective and that opinions will differ but are all valid !!

However, in this instance ......NO !! Planet Earth is beyond poor - FACT ! Only SHOE stands up to being a good (very good, in fact) song !!

3121 is a cool, very strong album - pepared to agree that this is just my opinion. "The Word" is a real Prince classic - FACT!

20TEN - I like it, WAY better than PlaneTurgid. The not sure where I'd place it if I was of a mind to rank P albums. I've heard some fans see a similarity between Future Baby Mama and Future Soul Song - errrr, NO ! the only similarities are the word "future" and that the titles consist of 3 words! FSS is superb !!

I don't tend to compare or rank albums - hopefully they're all different and stand up in their own right. However, Planet Earth would certainly be at the bottom of my list - even NPS had "The One" (amazingly beautiful song) and "Come On" !!

sorry -I feel better now !!

[Edited 7/22/10 7:01am]

what's better chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry? It depends on your taste buds.

Like Musicology

Love 3121

Like Planet Earth

LOVE LotusFlower

Eh MPLSound

LOVING 20Ten

I have a bud for every taste

but I'd say 3121 is the least of all three.

I like the fact that each album doesn't sound the same as the last. With his being able to write and play anything, he keeps his fans guessing what is next. Of course, you can go to every album and find at least one song that you wouldn't play often. For me, it's a song like "Had U". I know it was meant to be a flip off to WB. Still, I get excited with every new album. It may take a few listens for it to sink in fully, but it usually makes me happy.

3121 is an awesome album in my opinion. Can't find anything wrong with it.

Planet Earth is cool to me because of the wide range of music on it.

LotusFlow3r and MPLSound are both awsome to me. A lot of people put down MPLSound, but I think it's funky and fun to stick in the player while driving down the road. All of this, is my opinion, and I am far from a music God. Since I do play music and write songs, I may look at these albums differently from those who don't. I don't know... just ready for my mailbag today.

this would be my ranking (subject to change, of course)

1. Lotusflow3r/MPLSound

2. 3121

3. 20ten

4. Musicology

5. Planet Earth

NoVideo said:

Huh. Didn't expect this.

1. Musicology

2. Lotusflow3r

3. 20ten

4. 3121

5. Planet Earth

I really love Musicology. Always have. Love that band and I love the vibe of the album. It's funky, up and happy in a NON-cheeseball kind of way. Which is to say there is nothing that resembles Compassion and Everybody Loves Me on it. Always had a strong dislike for Planet Earth. It continues to feel like a throwaway to me. Just some leftover songs tossed together.

Cerebus said:

Huh. Didn't expect this.

1. Musicology

2. Lotusflow3r

3. 20ten

4. 3121

5. Planet Earth

I really love Musicology. Always have. Love that band and I love the vibe of the album. It's funky, up and happy in a NON-cheeseball kind of way. Which is to say there is nothing that resembles Compassion and Everybody Loves Me on it. Always had a strong dislike for Planet Earth. It continues to feel like a throwaway to me. Just some leftover songs tossed together.

Dude - could not agree more with just about everything you said. And your rankings are right in line with mine.

Depending on which day you asked me, I might put Lotus ahead of Musicology. While Lotus has no true brilliant moments, it has many good/decent songs with no pure stink bombs.

For me Musicology has one absolutely brilliant song, (What Do Want me To Do) four good songs, a few OK tracks and a couple of stink bombs. (esp. Life of the Party)

Planet Earth could be one of the worst albums I've ever heard by any artist... and to think PRINCE.....YES....PRINCE even made that piece of shite

tricky99 said:

what's better chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry? It depends on your taste buds.

Exactly! never understood how someone can compare another Prince album to another. Its like saying 2 one of ur children ur better or more beautiful than the other one...Its an insult to the Daddy Prince. There all different & unique.....

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

tricky99 said:

what's better chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry? It depends on your taste buds.

Exactly! never understood how someone can compare another Prince album to another. Its like saying 2 one of ur children ur better or more beautiful than the other one...Its an insult to the Daddy Prince. There all different & unique.....

And some of the suck. No different than some of the things made with chocolate, vanilla or strawberry.

tricky99 said:

what's better chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry? It depends on your taste buds.

Exactly! never understood how someone can compare another album to another. Its like saying 2 one of ur children ur better or more beautiful than the other one...its an insult to the Daddy Prince. There all different & unique.....

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

tricky99 said:

what's better chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry? It depends on your taste buds.

Exactly! never understood how someone can compare another Prince album to another. Its like saying 2 one of ur children ur better or more beautiful than the other one...Its an insult to the Daddy Prince. There all different & unique.....

when one of your children is Adolf Hitler it's ok to like the others better

3121 gets tedious. too many bland tracks and too much soul-sucking over-production in places. Planet Earth and 20TEN are on par with each other. They're both short, mostly light-hearted, breezy affairs. I'd give 20TEN the edge over Planet Earth in that most of the songs sound like they belong together on a project, whereas Planet Earth sounds like a complete mess, even down to the sequencing. Plus 20TEN doesn't have "Resolution" on it.

errant said:

3121 gets tedious. too many bland tracks and too much soul-sucking over-production in places. Planet Earth and 20TEN are on par with each other. They're both short, mostly light-hearted, breezy affairs. I'd give 20TEN the edge over Planet Earth in that most of the songs sound like they belong together on a project, whereas Planet Earth sounds like a complete mess, even down to the sequencing. Plus 20TEN doesn't have "Resolution" on it.

20Ten is definitely cohesive, unlike Planet Earth, and the production does not hurt my ears like 3121 does in places. It has a better flow than MPLSound.

But song for song I may like 3121 better.

Spandau said:

FOr some reason, I got 3121 and Planet Earth out after listening to 20Ten about 10 times. TO ME, they stand up to 20Ten quite well. In fact, both were better than I recall. I think 3121 is near flawless. The Dance and Te AMo Corazon are two of the most sophisticated and elegant pieces of music from Prince - and show that he was still ahead of everyone. And only Prince could make Planet Earth when you get right down to it. Lion of Judah alone shows him doing things that no one else has.

Perhaps 20Ten will hit me like these in 3 years but for now it is just a nice collection of Prince songs for me. And that amazes me because I have never been so indifferent about a highly regarded Prince album in my life. Do I need some Prince therapy?

No the hell it ain't!

20Ten is better than Planet Earth, but 3121 puts up a good fight. At the end of the day, 3121 wins out I think. I like 20Ten's style more, but 3121 has some music that trumps it entirely. Love, Black Sweat, Lolita, Inscense and Candles, Fury. They're just better songs.

Lolita makes me cringe every time somebody mentions how great it is. It's subject matter is just disturbing to me, even from Prince.

3121 PE LF MPLSOund and 20ten are all great highly enjoyable albums I put them pretty much on a par.

Imo 20Ten is far better than 3121 and Planet Earth.

Lifted from another recent thread:

1-The Rainbow Children (Music is great, never mind the Darth Vader voice) 9

2-LotusFlower/ MPLSound (Chocolate Box is really bad, I love the rest) 8

3-20Ten (Everything but Walk In Sand and Everybody Loves Me) 8

4-Musicology (First half minus Life O The Party is excellent) 7

5-Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic (The extended versions wow, and Beautiful Strange) 7

6-Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (Man O' War the original version) 6

7-3121 (I really dislike this album - Black Sweat is great and the title track when played live) 5

8-Planet Earth (Title track and Future Baby Mama saves this album a bit) 5

out of 10.

I hated 3121 when I first heard it, but I used to like some songs like "Love" (which is the bomb) and some others. Title track is awesome, but the rest...meh. I'd rate it about 6 or 7 out of 10.

20TEN is very "fun" album to my ears. I even enjoyed his slower songs on it (and that means a lot coming from me )! So, I like 20TEN more than 3121.

On the other hand, I'm not sure about PE. There are some strong songs, but as the whole album it's not as cohesive as 20TEN.

1. lotusflow3r

2. 3121

3. Musicology

4. Planet Earth

5. MPLSound

6. 20Ten

errant said:

3121 gets tedious. too many bland tracks and too much soul-sucking over-production in places. Planet Earth and 20TEN are on par with each other. They're both short, mostly light-hearted, breezy affairs. I'd give 20TEN the edge over Planet Earth in that most of the songs sound like they belong together on a project, whereas Planet Earth sounds like a complete mess, even down to the sequencing. Plus 20TEN doesn't have "Resolution" on it.

Resolution is unbelievably bad. His worst ever song in my opinion, I'd even take Jughead over it!

As you say Planet Earth is just like a compilation of songs thrown together but 20ten has a real flow and sound and I like the way some of the songs run into eachother like Act of God - Lavaux and the 2 slowies Walk in Sand - Sea of Everything.

First of all, I never seperate the discs when rating Lotusflow3r unless that's how we're discussing the album. The rest of the time I rate it as one release. Just like I wouldn't seperate out discs on Emancipation or Crystal Ball. Although, The Truth is pretty bad ass on it's own.

Second, I honestly can't remember what Resolution sounds like. Weird.

[Edited 7/23/10 12:13pm]

The Purple Rain album is the best Prince album in my opinion.