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Did Emancipation live up to Prince's 3 Disc Dream? It's been reported that Prince was very frustrated when he couldn't release Crystal Ball as he originally intended - the 3 LP set. Instead reworking it into the shorter 2 LP set, Sign O The Times. It seems to always have been a desire of his to create these expansive records that allow him the opportunity to venture into whatever areas his musical mind see fit. Interesting then to hear your views, +ve and -ve, regarding the first album that Prince did get to release as a sprawling 3 Disc set, Emancipation. Billed as the album he was born to make, it's clear Prince was very happy and optimistic about the record. I remember reading in interviews at that time, that he thought there were a number of hits on it. He even suggested that this music would have more commercial appeal than R. Kelly. Personally speaking, I think the set is brilliant only failing in one aspect - it's marketing and promotion to create any commercial impact. That aside, Prince succeeded in creating the album ranging from the nasty funk of Face Down, pop rock of The Holy River and disco soul of Sleeping Around to the gorgeous ballads of Friend Lover Sister Mother Wife and Dreaming About You to the experimental edges of Joint 2 Joint and Human Body. Add to that, brilliant fun with Courtin Time and the jazz humour of Style, and I think there's a record almost all of us overlook. What do you think - musical success or failure? | |
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that record relied a bit too much on cover versions of other ppl's records..."i can't make u love me" was great but witha song that well written(lyrics and melody) how could any 1 w/ an iota of talent fuck it up?...we all know how gifted prince is...but that track is a classic no matter who sings it | |
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Personally I found Emancipation a rather hit and miss affair.Great in parts,uninspiring in others JMHO
Much love  Pochacco | |
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I think it was a musical success. I am just recently rediscovering it and appreciate it more today then I did when it first came out. Like a fine wine it gets better with age.   Proud member of Prince's cult for 20 years! | |
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i love it and i'm ready for another3- or 4- or 5- disc set
bring it on!  _________________________
shut up already... DAMN! | |
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Disc 2 is my favorite.
Discs 1 & 3 are so-so. I could live without "Mr.Happy", "Da, Da, Da", & "Get Yo Groove On". It could have easily been trimmed down to a 1 or 2-disc set & not lost anything. | |
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YES. It did, and does for me. | |
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I doubt it! i love some of the songs, definately NOT my favorite prince music. havent played it 4 over 6 mo. prince gets excited over ALL his new babies, and tended 2 b overzealous on this one. i mean, verbally, to the media/public. now, he doesnt do any talking to them about his releases. i'd say, thats wise, bcause i always go by "dont expect much and you wont b disappointed"...however, now if his music is loved (as with TRC), it speaks 4 itself. he dont need & probobly dont want lots of costly promotions. he knows he's cool! May the BELLS ring 4 U even when ur not in love.   | |
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? [This message was edited Wed Feb 26 3:32:25 PST 2003 by IstenSzek] and true love lives on lollipops and crisps | |
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Did it live up to his 3 disc dream? Well, 1+1+1=3, right? But it can be said that even though there are so many styles, a lot of the CD does sound the same. I can't wait for Crystal Ball II or something like it - that includes songs, styles & production from a variety of points in his career. Emancipation is a great collection, but at times, it seems as if Prince spread himself too thin in order to fill it. | |
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I love "Sex In The Summer" and "In This Bed Eye Scream"
but a lot of it sounds way over produced and too slick,also the project suffered due to poor single choices!"Betcha By Golly Wow"? easily the worst 1st single choice of his career | |
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XtrueX said: Disc 2 is my favorite.
Discs 1 & 3 are so-so. I could live without "Mr.Happy", "Da, Da, Da", & "Get Yo Groove On". It could have easily been trimmed down to a 1 or 2-disc set & not lost anything. Yeah, I think disc 2 had some obvious hits on it, there's some 'very' underrated tunes in the entire Emancipation collection. Personally...I love it. Disc 2 taught me alot! Listening to it as a 16 year old. Some things he suggested I try sexually, made my girlfriend a very happy girl 
But I agree with you Anji,that it didn't have much commercial backing. I like Mr. Happy 
(In his 'old man' voice) "Turn off that weak jam man, come on, Mr. Happy's here and we're buggin!" Then the pickup to the song is "Fuunnnkkkyyy!" Blue 
Drink Purple Kool-aid  Blue  | |
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IstenSzek said
Well, I think that is the exact problem that most people have with this album. Altho all those styles you mention are supposed to be represented on the set, it actually feels like all the songs belong in the same hybrid bag. They all sound too much alike. All middle ground and no single one reaches beyond the state of plastic production. --- Well, I definitely have to agree with you on that one. I think we can safely apportion the blame on Prince's decision to anoint Kirky J as producer of that album... One of the most obvious reasons for peoples disappointment with the set, I think, is the fact that we were expecting something in the vein of Come, The Gold Experience and yes, even Exodus and Chaos & Disorder or The Undertaker which all sounded hard and edgy with lots of guitar and live band cuts. --- Oh yes, The Undertaker, nothing Prince has done since then has quite sounded like that record...Then again that could have been the point, huh?. Perhaps nothing that Prince does in the future will quite sound like 'Emancipation' either. I suppose the songs would sound a lot better if they'd been cut with live drums and a more organic sounding production. --- Maybe the answer lies in never allowing Kirky J anywhere near a studio console ever again... "You don't frighten us, English pig dogs. Go and boil your bottoms, sons of a silly person." | |
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For me Disc II was the weakest. I think the whole LP could've been sufficiantly cut down to 2 discs and then it would've been great. The rest of the tracks could be B-Sides. I find that there were far to many 'love songs 4 Mayte' on Emancipation. Curious Child and In this Bed are good but FMSLW is weak as is Let's Have a BB. Most people I know agree that the cover of OOU is crap and I find that LaLaLaLaLameansIloveU and IcantMakeUloveMe I could've easily done without. The best tracks go without saying: SexIntheSummer : Face Down : Style : Holy River...
For me the best part of that whole thing was the fist 6 tracks on disc 3. I was really stoked that Prince broke out the 808 and tried to do some solo house. | |
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PrincPDC said: For me Disc II was the weakest. I think the whole LP could've been sufficiantly cut down to 2 discs and then it would've been great. The rest of the tracks could be B-Sides. I find that there were far to many 'love songs 4 Mayte' on Emancipation. Curious Child and In this Bed are good but FMSLW is weak as is Let's Have a BB. Most people I know agree that the cover of OOU is crap and I find that LaLaLaLaLameansIloveU and IcantMakeUloveMe I could've easily done without. The best tracks go without saying: SexIntheSummer : Face Down : Style : Holy River...
For me the best part of that whole thing was the fist 6 tracks on disc 3. I was really stoked that Prince broke out the 808 and tried to do some solo house. Man...I couldn't disagree with you more. I guess we're just different in the sense, that I love Prince's love ballads. What do I care, whom they're addressed too...they're beautiful...period. Disc two; two me is one of the better disc out of the set. Disc 3 is ok, but it's the last I listen to. Disc 2 is a beautiful compilation of love ballads, one of my favorite (slow groove, chillin' at home discs) Blue
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IstenSzek said Well, I think that is the exact problem that most people have with this album. Altho all those styles you mention are supposed to be represented on the set, it actually feels like all the songs belong in the same hybrid bag. They all sound too much alike. All middle ground and no single one reaches beyond the state of plastic production. There are a few moments of shine on the set. But there are only 5 or 6 real good strong songs on there. I totally agree with IstenSzek on this. It's ok but not outstanding ... the type of release you expect from other, less adventurous artists. I also agree that there are 5 or 6 really wonderful songs, and probably more but I just don't get into them because, like IstenSzek, I find the production rather bland and unimaginative (my words, not his!). I felt it would've been better as one CD. As three CDs, I'm afraid, there was too much music and too little inspiration for me. | |
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I love the album. How could I not when it begins with Jam of The Year. Man if you turn that joint up and pretend no one lives within miles of your crib, you'll c what I mean. | |
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TheBluePrince said: PrincPDC said: For me Disc II was the weakest. I think the whole LP could've been sufficiantly cut down to 2 discs and then it would've been great. The rest of the tracks could be B-Sides. I find that there were far to many 'love songs 4 Mayte' on Emancipation. Curious Child and In this Bed are good but FMSLW is weak as is Let's Have a BB. Most people I know agree that the cover of OOU is crap and I find that LaLaLaLaLameansIloveU and IcantMakeUloveMe I could've easily done without. The best tracks go without saying: SexIntheSummer : Face Down : Style : Holy River...
For me the best part of that whole thing was the fist 6 tracks on disc 3. I was really stoked that Prince broke out the 808 and tried to do some solo house. Man...I couldn't disagree with you more. I guess we're just different in the sense, that I love Prince's love ballads. What do I care, whom they're addressed too...they're beautiful...period. Disc two; two me is one of the better disc out of the set. Disc 3 is ok, but it's the last I listen to. Disc 2 is a beautiful compilation of love ballads, one of my favorite (slow groove, chillin' at home discs) Blue
Drink Blue Kool-aid Well I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I like Princes' ballads, but I really like him most when he gets down, raw and funky. The reason I like the ballads for Mayte the least is because they're really self-depricating on his part. They seem like (and don't take this personally I'm not trying to be overly harsh) something a 15 year old would write when he was in his first 'real' relationship. 'Let's have a baby' to me is disturbing. Like that Duran Duran song says 'too much information'. But we also need to recoginze that I have never wanted to have children myself, and am scared to death of the idea so maybe that's the real reason I don't like it. Either way, I think Holy River and Curious Child are sweet, but give me Pink Cashmere, Crucial, It's Gonna Be Lonely, Sweet Baby*, and a host of others over anything else on Emancipation. On the otherhand there aren't any other tracks out there like Human Body, Style, or Mr. Happy. Those are the reasons I like that record. *yeah, I know that Sweet Baby is about Mayte, but it's a different time period so it doesn't count. lol. | |
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JAMIESTARR said: but a lot of it sounds way over produced and too slick,
That's exactly why I rarely play the album. It just doesn't have that raw, soulful spontanaeity that I love about Prince. It sounds so freaking sterile, like he recorded it in a hospital room. "In This Bed I Scream" is my favorite track, but I'm one of those suckers who longs wistfully for the days of the Revolution, so I'm probably biased. | |
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well the project made prince $12 million his cut..
so why complain.. but if you ask me.. I think it should have been 2 tight disks.. instead of the middle of disk one being weak & most of disk 3 is weak. | |
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IstenSzek said: Anji said: . It seems to always have been a desire of his to create these expansive records that allow him the opportunity to venture into whatever areas his musical mind see fit. That aside, Prince succeeded in creating the album ranging from the nasty funk of Face Down, pop rock of The Holy River and disco soul of Sleeping Around to the gorgeous ballads of Friend Lover Sister Mother Wife and Dreaming About You to the experimental edges of Joint 2 Joint and Human Body. Add to that, brilliant fun with Courtin Time and the jazz humour of Style, and I think there's a record almost all of us overlook. What do you think - musical success or failure?
Well, I think that is the exact problem that most people have with this album. Altho all those styles you mention are supposed to be represented on the set, it actually feels like all the songs belong in the same hybrid bag. They all sound too much alike. All middle ground and no single one reaches beyond the state of plastic production. There are a few moments of shine on the set. But there are only 5 or 6 real good strong songs on there. One of the most obvious reasons for peoples disappointment with the set, I think, is the fact that we were expecting something in the vein of Come, The Gold Experience and yes, even Exodus and Chaos & Disorder or The Undertaker which all sounded hard and edgy with lots of guitar and live band cuts. Especially since rumour had constantly been spread from the Prince camp that this set would contain the best of the best material written during the period of contractual turmoil with WB. The stuff he considered too good to give to Warners. Well ehrm, ok... So, you can see how one could be a bit shocked to find that this album which you'd been waiting for for over a year proved to contain none of the gold/come/exodus/undertaker style songs you were expecting and instead was comprised out of all r&b wannabe plastic popditty material. I suppose the songs would sound a lot better if they'd been cut with live drums and a more organic sounding production. Like the live studio version of "Somebody's Somebody". But the way it sounds, Emancipation never made much more than a decent 10 track album IMO. . [This message was edited Sat Aug 31 2:17:05 PDT 2002 by IstenSzek] I totally agree with you, Emancipation is a plastic sounding piece of boring crap. Maybe some of the songs could have been saved with live drums and a more raw production. But I think Emancipation is just too much of mediocre (subpar) music... RIP Prince: thank U 4 a funky Time... |
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locoarts said: well the project made prince $12 million his cut..
so why complain.. wow..thats an interesting comment...i dont tend to mix art and commerce when evaluating the art...so for me, the question is justifiable... heck, Kevin Costner got more money for making Waterworld...doesnt increase the quality of the film. | |
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Anji said: Add to that, brilliant fun with Courtin Time
:O never thought id see brilliant used to explain Courtin Time... i guess we all enjoy our own flavors..  | |
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The main problem with 'Emancipation' is,it's simply too much music! When you're trying to fill three CDs with new music,you begin to recycle ideas and grooves (the tired phrase "party all night long" appears in the chorus of two songs),and you lose the ability to edit yourself properly.
If you get rid of the four unnecessary remakes,take out crap like "We Gets Up","Style","La Da Da",etc,you would be left with a stunning 2-CD set that sounds focused and consistent.As it is,I rarely ever listen to the 3-CD set all the way through. | |
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SkletonKee said: never thought id see brilliant used to explain Courtin Time...
Well, if you don't like music then perhaps... | |
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Novabreaker said: SkletonKee said: never thought id see brilliant used to explain Courtin Time...
Well, if you don't like music then perhaps... LOL...I actually like "Courtin Time".Reminds me of those early 80s "rockabilly" songs that Prince used to do. | |
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the best cd he has ever done. what area of music did he not cover? everthing is on it something 4 all 2 hear. still jamming it. why he does not cover any of it in concert is a question i would like answered. but what a phat lp. wish he would release more of the same. stickman | |
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If I was on an Island by myself with nothing but Banana's and water, and maybe a fishing pole and a CD Player with unlimite supply of batteries, and If I could only have one album to listen to for the rest of my life. It would be emancipation. It would be like having your own personal Radio Station, with the different styles of music on the CD set I would never get bored and tired of listening to it. To me it is not just Prince's greatest work but it is the greatest work ever to be recorded period. I have the original and the clean version and it could never be replaced until maybe an emancipation II. (maybe) Peace. How you gonna get my back when you fronting. | |
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To me , its funny that everyone thinks the album is too long.If EMANCIPATION had been cut down to 2 discs and the 12 or so other tracks were left off, you can bet everybody here would have been killing themselves trying to aquire the outtakes from bootleggers.No two fans can ever agree which tracks from this or any other Prince album are best .Im happy to get the 3 disks and edit according to my preferences . This has always been my approach to Prince's output. "...all you need ...is justa touch...of mojo hand....." | |
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Many people claim to love Prince's music but now everyone claims to be a music critic.
Emancipation would be considered a classic if Warners would have released it.Why? Because it would have sold 4 million albums,5 songs would have been top 10 hits & slick well produced videos would still be on Mtv . When the above didnt happen the album suddenly sucked. Stop trying to "front" as critics and admit that you are still slaves to the system. NWPWR ,holla if ya hear me !!! |
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