Planet Earth - Prince

Prince Rodger Nelson the artist formerly know as Prince but now formally know as Prince is back

The music is unpredictable as the man himself ranging from the funk rock of the lead single Guitar, the r’n’b ballad of Future Baby Mama and the fusion of rap and soul in Mr Goodnight.

Also unpredictable is the quality of the tracks themselves, which range from the great to the cringe worthy. The unashamedly funky Chelsea Rodgers with its brilliant baseline providing the foundations for Prince to wax lyrical about arguably his favourite subject, women, with triumphant sounding trumpets thrown into the mix heralding the arrival of another quality Prince track.

Guitar also stands out, comparisons have been made with early U2 but I haven’t heard any early U2 so I couldn’t possibly comment. All I hear is a quality track and a obvious choice for the albums lead single, the melody is simple and immediate unlike most singles it doesn’t get old, no doubt down to the two excellent solos that grace the track and make it clear that Prince does indeed love his guitar and remains us what a underrated guitarist he is.

However the rest of the album does not fair as well, the remainder of the album drifts apathetically between mediocre and cringe worthy, as Prince indulges in some stripped down ballads which only serve to remind you how weak he is lyrically without any funky bass lines or guitar riffs to hide behind.

From Prince hopping on the same eco warrior bandwagon that fellow 58’ babies Madonna and Michael Jackson have long been members of with his Earth Songesque song to save the world Earth, title track Planet Earth. 50 years from now what will they say about us here?
Did we care for the water and the fragile atmosphere? Like Earth Song its come across as quite corny and like Madonna asking Wembley Stadium to “Jump if you want to save the planet” slightly condescending and insincere, nice bit of guitar at the end though..which is nice.

All in All it is another ‘ok’ Prince album, he has definitely recovered from his near suicidal dip in the 90’s and continues to maintain a respectable form since his comeback with Musicology. Had it not been for the masterstroke or ‘sell-out’ depending on how you look at it of taking a lump sum from the Daily Mail to give away this album for free this album would have slipped into the bottom half of the charts with little buzz or interest. The mismatch between Princes music and the profile of the Daily Mail raised a few eyebrows but this album for the most part is quite average easy listening, something that you could imagine the 50 something readership of the Mail enjoying.

Perhaps Prince is feeling his age.