Prince is back with a vengeance! Planet Earth takes us back to a time when Prince was looked upon as a musical genius, those were the days of 1999, Purple Rain, Sign o’ the Times and Graffiti Bridge. Since then he has seemingly gotten lost within his own mind as he fought with music labels, released his albums via the internet only, and finally went back to the labels. Last year saw him do something not many entertainers have been able to do, not only entertain during the Superbowl half time show, but create more buzz then the game itself.
Planet Earth see’s Prince not re-inventing himself, but going back to his roots. He jams brisk pop with late night jazz and funky neo-soul to fill tracks that glitter and glide with reminiscent sounds like that which we would find in a long gone era. This is Prince going mainstream, or at least as main stream as Prince can go. There is no bubblegum pop anthems here. But we do have the soothing trademark styling on songs such as the ballad “Future Baby Mama.”
The album kicks off with political element to his song which discusses the future of the planet and all who reside on her. His voice is smooth and jumps into high gear creating a soulful movement in the song and one of the high points on the album. Princes falsetto is as strong as it has ever been when he lets it loose on “Somewhere Here On Earth.” This as close to a torch song lament that allows us to envision sitting in a night club as Prince himself sits behind a white piano dressed in a purple suit and pounds out old hits. This album finally lets us see and hear how much Prince has matured over the years. It is almost as if he has finally come to an agreement within himself and is allowing his maturity to take part in his songwriting.
The album’s first single “Guitar” is a hard edged styled, up tempo song. When Prince screams out “I love you baby, but not like I love my guitar,” it’s Princes way of saying, that’s right, I remember how to throw out licks reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix. “All the Midnights in the World” is a mid-tempo song which spotlights some brilliant piano and “Mr. Goodnight” will leave you thinking about sitting around late at night with a bottle of wine. Planet Earth is a good spin back for the Purple Prince of funk, and we can only hope that this brings him full circle.