Album Review: Prince - "Planet Earth"

Planet Earth is amazingly Prince's 24th studio album, but not only has the Purple One not lost a step, he appears to be getting even better with age. The album's definitely better than some of the material he released very early in his career and as good as anything he released in the 1990s and earlier this decade. Everything about the album - the songwriting, musicianship, singing, originality, you name it, everything - is far better than average. This is by far one of the most impressive and creative albums of 2007. Thanks to Prince, real music is still alive and well.

One of the most impressive things about Planet Earth how diverse and eclectic it is. The album's got traditional romantic ballads like "Future Baby Mama" and "Somewhere Here on Earth," then there's also the rockers "Guitar" and "The One U Wanna C" and the overwhelming Funk of "Chelsea Rodgers," plus the sugar-coated pop of "Resolution."

Two of the more impressive tracks on the 10-song album are the aforementioned first single, "Guitar," and the sexy "Mr. Goodnight."
"Guitar" is about how Prince loves only one thing more than his women, and that's his music. "I love ya baby - but not like I love my guitar," he sings. "Mr. Goodnight" is a simple, smart, well-written and well-performed song about - what else? - Prince wooing a woman. "Call Mr. Goodnight, he'll make you feel allright, make you throw your head back & holler, it's so nice," the chorus goes.

Another of the many great things about that album is that it doesn't sound like a rehash of his older material. Despite having released a plethora of material dating back to the 1970s, Planet Earth sounds just as fresh and contemporary as can be. There are points, obviously, where portions of songs will echo his material from the past (for example, "Somewhere Here on Earth" sounds like something from the Under the Cherry Moon album) but those moments are rare.

In fact, Prince shows how progressive and up-to-date he is on the album's first song/title track, which is a social commentary about global warming, the war in Iraq and other issues. This song and others proves that Prince is still a timely, relevant artist.