Released as a tie-in to
Public Enemy
's deserved 2013 induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the 2013 compilation
Planet Earth
is a little confusing and for more than one reason. First, it largely chronicles
PE
from 1990 on, with only "Louder Than a Bomb" dating from anything earlier than
Fear of a Black Planet
, and the cuts from that 1990 album and anything released after aren't exactly pristine. Everything here is just slightly off: either the mastering is brickwalled or samples are excised, but if things are re-recorded -- and it often seems like they are -- they're close enough to the originals to fool. Which is frustrating, as there are some songs that are indeed the originals ("Public Enemy No. 1") but others just feel not quite right, and the liner notes never bother to explain why things would sound so different here. It's all still pretty good -- the originals are great and
still retain muscle years later -- but it's hard to endorse an album that seems to purposely skate around its origins, plus, there are many big songs that should've been here ("Bring the Noise," "Don't Believe the Hype," "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos," "Night of the Living Baseheads," all selections from
It Takes a Nation of Millions
, are missing). So,
winds up falling short of the celebration it intends to be but there are still enough masterworks to make it a serviceable sampler even if it never transcends that designation. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine