AMG Review of Planet P Project [Bonus Tracks]

Tom Demalon
All Music Guide

Planet P Project, known originally as simply Planet P, is the studio brainchild of producer Peter Hauke, and an American expatriate living in Germany, Tony Carey, who had played for a while with Deep Purple. Carey wrote all of the songs and played various instruments on the band's 1983 debut album Planet P Project. The music is layered in synthesizers and has a decidedly dated feel to it, while Carey's lyrics tend toward bleak expressions of isolation. The album did spawn a modest radio hit in the thumping "Why Me?," which even made inroads at Top 40. Nothing too special going on here, although Carey does exhibit a good sense of melody on tracks like the propulsive, delusion-of-grandeur tale in "King for a Day" and the dreamy "I Won't Wake Up." [Renaissance's 2008 reissue included four bonus tracks.]