Planet Earth

With Planet Earth’s release I was back in the purple thick of things. Following on from seeing him in 2003 just prior to the release of Musicology I had recently returned from seeing him play 2 shows (and amazing after shows) at 3121. I got a real sense that with the announcement of his 21 shows at the O2, Prince was once again getting the public recognition that had had gone lacking during his period.

So when Planet Earth was released I had to keep my expectations in check, and despite the 3121 allusions in the background graphics, I had to separate this work from it’s predecessor.

So with a degree of excitement I pressed the play button on the CD player and waited to see what the view was like from Planet Earth.

With its soft piano and vocal intro Planet Earth quickly drifts into a Princely rock-opera with crescendos a plenty. An interesting song to kick off the album, I always felt it was a more of a closer track than an opener. And for all its pomposity the breakdown at 2:39 is light and airy and salvages the song from being too overly blown, but just. I always felt that in these types of song Prince was just trying a little too hard to show his musical prowess as both composer and performer.

Guitar with its hook you from the get go riff grabs you immediately. A rock-fused track of the ilk of Endorphin machine the song might be a tad light on the lyrical content but delivers on the rock scale. And nice to see the man finally have his priorities in place.

With the grove of a record introing the track, Somewhere Here on Earth is a throwback to the smooth as velvet ballads of the Prince of past. The production is lush without being too syrupy, and allows for Prince’s vocal to carry the melody to perfection. But for all its wondrous arrangements it fails to connect with me, and sadly it has my fingers hovering over the >> button.

Again strutting his rock creds Prince lays out The One U Wanna C. With hints of “when you were mine” in it, the song’s production is even more bedded in the classic rock sphere than in today. It immediately became a song you wanted to cruise the city listening to. Light and happy, it bops along with ease and you could see how this would be a simple crowd pleaser in a live show – it just has that sweep up the crowd in a joyous hook feel to it.

If Somewhere Here on Earth was a throwback, FutureBabyMama was rooted in the present (despite the appearance of the Linn). The whole song is super smooth, it just lays itself out on a silky flow and lets you chill to it. The layering of the background vocals adds extra warmth to the track and a touch more seductive, especially during the final minute.

Mr Goodnight musically feels like Prince has been listening to a few Marvin Gaye and Maxwell tracks. Unfortunately the little rap verses is a bit too cringe worthy to be taken seriously especially the line “all over the world they call my Prince but you can call me Mr Goodnight”. And with the 3121 call out, it further cements the idea that maybe this track (and perhaps the whole album) are the left overs once the crème of the crop had been released.

All the Midnights in the World feels weak to me. As try as I do to get into the song, it feels just undercooked and like it is more suited to a middle of the road rock group of the 70s than a vibrant (and relevant) artist of the 2000s.

Thankfully Chelsea Rodgers breaks the losing streak of the album and delivers a slamming funk jam that you can’t sit still too. Packed with energy the track struts like the model on the runway it references, with horn blasts going off like photographers flashes. Lyrically it presents some of Prince’s views on religion and age but they are delivered in a take them or leave them fashion that lets the listener choose to pick em up or just have them wash over them and get caught in the undertow of the music.

Following up with Lion of Judah may not have been the wisest move. Again the song feels a little too forced musically and makes me wonder if Prince is more driven by the need to be seen as doing epic tracks that are musically impressive than actually just letting the tracks go where they want. With all that in mind relistening to it now I feel the final 2 minutes of the song more listenable that the first 3, but still not a track I would find myself going back to for quintessential Prince playlists.

Revelation is sadly not one. Whereas Prince’s early politically tinged tracks where rooted in music you couldn’t resist and had lyrics that challenged, this feels like politics for Sesame Street rather than the world at large. Sadly it doesn’t put forward a persuasive argument or musical hook.

As a follow up to Musicology and 3121, Planet Earth just pales in comparison. It’s always hard to listen to a Prince album without his back catalogue playing in your mind, but sadly I think people discovering Prince for the first time on this album wouldn’t be that interested in seeing what he came up with next. The harsher critic might argue the reason he gave it away for free was because it wasn’t worth much, but from a strategic point of view it probably served its purpose and that was get people to be aware he was still making music and head on out to the shows. Sadly it probably left them wanting to hear more from the cannon of Prince and less from the current offering.

Great album. Somewhere Here on Earth ranks as one of my favourite songs of the decade.

Vict0r said:

Great album. Somewhere Here on Earth ranks as one of my favourite songs of the decade.

I don't feel it personally, so what am I missing?

Swa said:

Vict0r said:

Great album. Somewhere Here on Earth ranks as one of my favourite songs of the decade.

I don't feel it personally, so what am I missing?

i dont get it either. But when prince performed it on leno, his vocals were excellent

I think SHOE takes time to really appreciate. It's very slow and really for certain moments or late at night. I think it's a song you can even fall asleep to. That's why it requires patience in the beginning.

That being said, I think the beauty of this masterpiece is that there is so little music to it, sometimes it's almost a acapella. The vocals are perfect and the lyrics exquisite.

The music, though completely minimalistic is really dreamy when you do hear it. But I think the song showcases Prince writing and singing talents most. Really hard with so little music to make a song sound so emotional and deep.

title track is poor. Prince once again showcasing a wide range of immaturity.3/10

Guitar Seems to come from a very ugly place 5/10

SHOE - Saves the album. It's a minor classic. 8/10

the 1 u... okay pop song. I like 6/10

FBM I like. he's good at these ballads. 7/10

mr. goodnight. So smooth it hardly gets noticed 5/10

All the midnights. Less than stunning but ok 5.5/10

Chelsea. upbeat, soon gets dull.5/10

The lion of Judah. OK, I like it but it's not enough 6.5/10

resolution. Nice voice & tune but message and lyrics are annoyingly dumb.1/10

Well I didn't buy it.
I really think he's got his priorities all muddled up

Planet Earth: nice trip back to the 1985 sound, but for some reason this song bored the hell out of me

Guitar: just dumb, and like it or not, the U2 ripoff is evident

SHOE: competent ballad, but I personally don't like it

1 U Wanna C: nice pop song weighed down by some awful lyrics

Future Baby Mama: 3121 outtake-like

Mr.Goodnight: 3121 outtake-like part II

All the Midnights in the World: too poppy

Chelsea Rodgers: the classic of the album

Lion of Judah: decent rock song, but lifeless in my ears...

Resolution: too poppy

that means that PE is a competent-average pop/rock LP which doesn't resonate...

It always felt (to me) like Planet Earth came and went pretty quickly. The packaging was still promoting 3121 (and for some reason had no tracklisting on it)... his official website was still 3121.com; He just didn't seem that into it - just like LotusFlow3r, 2 months after it came out, you'd think he forgot it even existed.

It's actually a decent little album, could've used maybe one more uptempo song, it seems to be bogged down by too many slow songs.

/waiting for someone to post Ernest's remake of the cover...

[Edited 10/25/10 12:32pm]

ok, i'll play. might make me rethink some of my ideas about this, my 2nd least favorit prince album

planet earth -

sounds like a gold experience outtake. the lyrics are just your typical prince pseudo religio/politik

and it's pretty childish. the "could it be magic" bridge takes it to a place that causes this to be the

single most dreaded prince song for me personally. i'll listen to jughead for 8 hours back2back

ere i put this song on again. ever. ouch.

guitar -

nice enough. i already liked the demo version with less guitar and more synths. so this one is like

a nice edgy companion to that. it's a cool album track. the fact that it was a lead single says all you

need to know about the rest of the album.

somewhere here on earth -

once again, nice enough. cool vocals, cool arrangement and all and the lyrics aren't even bad, for

a prince ballad post scandalous. somehow tho it fails to keep my interest, it just meanders on and

on and on without any really exciting parts.

the one u wanna c -

hmmm. as with most tracks on this album, the basic elements are cool enough but when you put

the parts together, the sum of them feels either silly or lacking. sometimes i decide to give it one

more spin and i always have to stop it at the "u don't have to shave your legs, when it's me that

is knocking on your door" line.

future baby mama -

the music on this one is dreamy and i like it a lot. simple and understated and just classy. but it

is completely butchered by those lyrics. the title alone says it all. ugh. a few lines in the song are

cool and the vocal performance is excellent tho. despite hating some of those lyrics with such a

passion, i still listen to this song sometimes because the good parts are reeeeeeeally good.

mr goodnight -

as a goofy segue, i think it's fun. it's not a good song tho. especially if you consider that we went

from "the good life big city remix" to these kind of raps. oh man.

all the midnights in the world -

call me crazy, but i like this. a lot. in fact, i would go as far as to say this is my favorit track on

the album. it reminds me of other poppy, breezy, off center songs, like pearls before the swine

etc. it's dangerously close to being a sugar sweet ott mushy song that i would have hated, but

it showcases perfectly just how good those songs would be if prince knew when to leave well

enough alone and let his songs just be songs instead of producing them into oblivion.

chelsea rodgers -

hmmm. ok. jah. it might have been more memorable if prince had been on lead vox for this. it

is him on co-lead, i guess, but i don't really hear him at all. don't understand why everyone was

jumping up and down calling this prince's most funkin disco rocking whatever song since 1984.

when i heard it i was like WTF? this is just watered down copy of a copy TRC by means of a bad

1970s disco soundtrack. pass.

lion of judah -

wow, whadda you know, another actual song. damn. that makes 2 and a half for this album

yes it's religious, yes it goes a bit ott, but it's a song. at it's best moments it reminds me of some

gold experience outtake, but a good one this time. especially like the opening line, that's the only

line on this album where i went "hey, nice imagery there prince".

resolution -

a weak, weak, weak cousin to reflection. but where reflection remains one of his most honest and

breezy quirk songs (and best) of the last decade, this is just something you hear and forget in an

instant. total generic blah. and once again, those lyrics. jeez. prince seems like a clever guy who

knows a lot of stuff. and he did write some pretty clever and/or cool lyrics in the past so this kind

of stuff just makes it seem like he's dumbing down dramatically.

and then, a mere few months after this mess of an album, he suddenly releases "F.U.N.K." and it

turns out to be one of my 'top 3 prince songs of the 00s". what a suckerpunch of a song. that one

is just bursting with ideas and fresh sounds, effects, guitars, loops, crazy voices and fun lyrics, it

is all the more baffling to understand how he can release an album like "Planet Earth" at the same

time as having something like this in his bag. but that's prince for you, i guess.

ok, thanks for listening

now unleash the hounds and get it over with

This is probably my least favorite Prince album. Ick.

"Chelsea Rodgers" which should hav replaced "Get On The Boat" - would've turned 3121 from an ok album to a great album...

sadly there's no daving grace for Planet Earth or as I like to call it: "Earth Song 2"

'dre