I'm an anti Planet Earth advocate. Personally I believe this is his worst album due to one simple fact... It feel's like the blandest and most boring album he's ever made. There is nothing that stands out about this album except the first 5 seconds of Guitar.

Many people will argue, but Somewhere Here on Earth is to die for... It's an ok song on a terrible album, nothing more. Besides in this digital age, who really pages people anyway??

There have been many many bad Prince albums, but they always had an element or at least a song or two that I could re listen to over and over... This was the FIRST Prince album I bought that when I listend to the whole album, there was not one stand out track that got my attention.

Not only do I really hate this album, it is one of the most forgetable Prince albums. Even the bad albums like MPLS, NPS, Rave, we remember they are bad... But Planet Earth is so dull, so bland, so boring, that we don't even remember it's that bad...

I'm an anti Planet Earth advocate... Because... It was the first Prince album that I completely forgot about over time.

A short breakdown of the tracks:

1. Planet Earth - A failed attempt of trying to sound like the Crystal Ball intro, and just gets strange... Then boring.

2. Guitar - The intro was the only thing that gave any life to this WHOLE album. Nothing special, vocals and lyrics very weak, guitar playing we've heard it all before... Thank God for DREAMER a couple years later.

3. Somewhere Here on Earth - The song that everyone will say is AMAZING... It's a nice song, starts to get a bit corny at the end... Nothing new, nothing special. It's good because it's on a BAD album. If this song was on Lotusflow3r or 3121 or 20Ten it would be forgotten.

4. The One U Wanna C - Such a corny song. So cliche, like a circus song... Sounds like a bad Vegas song from the 1960's.

5. Future Baby Mama - Can't believe this actually won a Grammy... Out of all the R&B songs Prince made this song won a Grammy?? Must've been nothing good released that year... This song Prince has done over and over again, as a matter of fact if you played the last slow songs on Musicology and 3121... They sound all the same.

6. Mr. Goodnight- So boring don't even remember what it sounds like anymore...

7. All The Midnights In The World - I think he sang the whole song in those opening 5 seconds... Another boring song.

8. Chelsea Rodgers - I'll admit, when I first listened to this it had a little energy, at least to dance to... Nothing more. Not a strong song, just vibrant on a bland album.

9. Lion of Juadh - Zzzzzzzzzzz

10. Resolution - Wake me up when this whole album is over.

My rating is a 2/4 Stars just for the intro of guitar and Somewhere Here on Earth. As an album as a WHOLE... The most dull Prince album ever recorded. For those saying AOA sounds plastic... Then Planet Earth is mold.

This is an album for those mid age house wifes that enjoy opening the windows on a spring day doing some chores and cleaning. Nothing memorable to stop to sing and dance, only to listen as background music to pass the time, and never have the craving to willingly pull this album out and play it again.

PopcornFetus said:

I worked at a book/music store when this came out. In keeping with tradition I bought it as soon as I came in on release day and put it on in the receiving room while I worked with the other employees. In 12 years of voracious fandom it was the first time I was ever just plain embarrassed by sharing an album with people. Now the albums get a screening before a public share. So very corny.

I was embarrassed as well... No Prince album has ever been this boring before... This is the exact antonym of PRINCE.

Agree totally. Feeble effort compared to rest of catalogue. Super dull.

I enjoy the album.

HardcoreJollies said:

Agree totally. Feeble effort compared to rest of catalogue. Super dull.

That's why this album is that bad... No Prince album has been this bland and dull... Even as bad as MPLS is... It's not dull at least.

Here's a review that really describes why this album is just plain... DULL.

" We always expect too much of Prince, because it's difficult to accept that somebody who made records as astonishing as he did in the 1980s could repeat himself as egregiously as he has for the past 15 years or so. He hasn't been doing r&b-by-numbers or rock-by-numbers, which is why he gets away with it; he's just been doing Prince-by-numbers. And yes, he still brings it live. But his albums used to send everyone scrambling to catch up; now they're self-evidently whatever he deigns to knock out.

Most of Planet Earth, though, is textbook bad Prince. It's one thing to work from the assumption that he's the hottest thing on two legs, because he's never lost that. But when he works from the assumption that his political thoughts are deep and meaningful, he bricks. The title track is an ecological anthem so dopey it makes saving the world sound like a questionable idea; the closer, "Resolution", is an antiwar anthem so self-righteous it makes peace sound smug. "The main problem with war is that nobody ever wins," goes the first line, and as above-all-you-mortals as prime-period Prince's politics could get (remember "Hello"?), at least he never tried to tell us what the main problem with war was.

The rest of the album is stuff he's done before and better. "The One U Wanna C" is a blatant rewrite of "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" (right down to the declaration that "you ain't no one night stand") without the emotional depth, subtlety, or musical eccentricities. "Guitar", a reminder that he plays guitar, doesn't even have much of a riff. "Chelsea Rodgers" is an incoherently moralistic disco jam that squashes its groove between big, dangling quotation marks, as if it came to the West End Records sound by way of an Of Montreal tribute band. Where is the Thinker of Weird Thoughts who gave us "Raspberry Beret" and "Starfish and Coffee"?

V10LETBLUES said:

Its not the greatest album but far better than AOA. That one is corny and badly made. Boring maybe because you have more juvenile tastes in music. I'll take something with at least one redeeming quality and PE has besides Somewhere Here on Earth, guitar, and to some extent Chelsa Rodgers. All well recorded and produced tracks. AOA on the other hand is sonically repulsive amateurish and corny almost all the way through. If you find PE boring and AOA "better" there is nothing wrong with that, nothing at all. Play it loud. I just can't.

There's no taste in Planet Earth... Everything on that album has been done before, and this time it's just done so blandly...

AOA as a whole flows well. Is it a great album? Ofc NOT. Is it that bad and plastic, no, because it does flow, weither not to your liking it still forms a concept. Is there one stand out song on AOA that really strikes me as a Prince fan, honestly not really, but let me say this, if you think people that like AOA have juvenile taste in music, than I will say people who like Planet Earth as a PRINCE ALBUM are way up their in age.

At this point I don't even want to debate if Planet Earth is BAD or The Worst like I said in the title, or comparing which albums are better than Planet Earth or as worse...

I want to know... If there are any other albums that are not as BORING, DULL and BLAND as Planet Earth not including his instrumental albums...

Bad albums are not BORING at least... "Plastic" albums are not BLAND at least... Forgetable albums are.

If QuestLove thinks Planet Earth is boring... Then you know this album is BORING...

Yeah, quit posting post after post just to 'bump' your thread.

Let others have a chance to give their opinions. Or it might get the - Thanks.

Future Baby Mama...

I don't like the rest of the album... boring indeed.

Guitar is = a U2 song, I Will Follow, except the original is great and Prince's attempt is rather awful..

Worst leading single ever.

When this album came out, I was taking care of my father at his home for three months. He had terminal cancer and the nurse visited maybe once a week, so it was up to me and my mom to do everything.

Well I could have used a semi-good Prince album -- or even just two or three songs that were okay but Planet Earth had maybe Chelsea Rodgers but it felt really old time disco. Somewhere... nah you can't take care of someone who's dying and listen to ballads, power or not. Somewhere... is probably a good song I just never took to it. Everything else felt formal and boring.

He was tryng to be too "tasteful" and "grown up" on that one and it shows.

luv4u said:

I enjoy the album.

It's a solid album. I'll take it over Kama Sutra, Xpectation, or N.E.W.S. any day.

luv4u said:

bluefish said:

luv4u said:

I enjoy the album.

It's a solid album. I'll take it over Kama Sutra, Xpectation, or N.E.W.S. any day.

I never understood the hate for the Planet Earth song--I really enjoy it.

purplethunder3121 said:

.

[Edited 10/2/15 20:10pm]

I like it.

Mr Goodnight is a bit too corny for me. Guitar is just ok. I like the rest.

PopcornFetus said:

luv4u said:

Yeah, quit posting post after post just to 'bump' your thread.

Let others have a chance to give their opinions. Or it might get the - Thanks.

Kind of absurd if the dude can't respond to people in his own thread. You like the album. Bully for you. Let the rest discuss the reasons it sucks. 2 posts on a subject 2 minutes apart do not a 'bump' make. Especially when the 'era praise' threads consist of 1000 posts in a row quoted from princevault with no room for conversation.

Thread Bump:

In online forums and other online discussion spaces bump is the word used to describe an action (e.g. a message post) so that a particular thread is returned to the top in the list of threads. Some users may even post a message with only the word "bump" to indicate they are posting only to bump the thread to the top of the list where more users will see it.

http://www.webopedia.com/..._bump.html

I like "Future Baby Mama" and a few other tracks but yeah,I agree,this isn't one of Prince's best albums.

I like it all except for Chelsea Rodgers which I replaced with PFUNK.

For me the bland and boring album is Musicology.

I'll take Planet Earth over Musicology, 3121, the NPGMC compilations, MPLSound, 20Ten any day.

luv4u said:

PopcornFetus said:

luv4u said: Kind of absurd if the dude can't respond to people in his own thread. You like the album. Bully for you. Let the rest discuss the reasons it sucks. 2 posts on a subject 2 minutes apart do not a 'bump' make. Especially when the 'era praise' threads consist of 1000 posts in a row quoted from princevault with no room for conversation.

Thread Bump:

In online forums and other online discussion spaces bump is the word used to describe an action (e.g. a message post) so that a particular thread is returned to the top in the list of threads. Some users may even post a message with only the word "bump" to indicate they are posting only to bump the thread to the top of the list where more users will see it.

http://www.webopedia.com/..._bump.html

It's called a thread bump when the "bumping" post itself has little value and is just designed to keep the thread on top. So long as the post contributes to the discussion, I consider it appropriate. He's not preventing anyone from giving their opinion. You're too strict IMO.

Allow me to disagree;

I actually like Planet Earth more than Musicology and 3121.

Musicology could have been better, if the first two songs hadn't taken out the fun of listening to it start to finish. The rest of the album isn't really concise.

3121 is an album for 18 year olds.

Planet Earth is at least a little modest, with quite some songs I thoroughly enjoy. It's more of grown-up Prince, writing about some more wordly topics. Finally, it has some nice nostalgia to it; it reminds me of those sunny days I went to London to see Prince in the O² Arena.