For a triple CD designed for the masses to enjoy, I think it does a pretty good job. There's a lot of radio-friendly songs on there, although like probably everyone else here, I'd have preferred to have had the album without Kirky J's plastic coating.

There are so many songs that I've sneaked onto compilations I've done for friends that have gone down really well.

'The Holy River' is one that really impresses non-fans, as do 'Curious Child', 'Face Down' and 'The Love We Make'.

I remember initially being rather disappointed with the album because I was expecting a lot of the unreleased songs from the 94-96 era to be on it, but after a few listens I realised that it was just fine as it was. It's also unintentionally poignant given what happened to his child not long after and some songs are actually more moving given his personal circumstances at the time.

And the best thing about Emancipation is that you can pick it up, certainly in many UK stores, for less than £5.

Still can't work out why on earth he picked Betcha By Golly Wow as the first single though.

theghostoftonym said:

Tru Dat

We all know this would have been a better 2 Disc Set minus the bullshit like Mr Happy and We Gets Up etc. And an even killer single disc with all the fat gone. But of course, Prince feels like the bigger statement at the time was "See everyone! I can release three discs without even flinching now that WB is outta the way--I'm a prolific genius!"

Trouble is quality truly is better that quantity.

There's certainly far much more quality material there than just one CDs worth. The only tracks I personally really don't care for are "Mr. Happy" and "One Kiss At A Time" (altough its a pretty melody), and the inclusion of a "sampler track" from Kamasutra was a bit silly.

Maybe he could have truncated the whole thing to 2CDs, as CDs can hold 76-78 minutes of audio each. He was more obsessed about presenting a three-disc extravaganze for the public, even if there is still a well over fifty minutes of unfilled space on the CDs. It doesn't quite add up in that sense.

Yeah - the problem with emancipation is not the songs - people have already listed some great ones - it's the samey synthetic production. And when you have that kind of production without great songs you get New Power Soul. At leas when he released Rainbow children he cleansed himself of the plastic. 3121 is a return to more electronic synthy stuff but it sound a bit more organic and quirky, at least.

think I agree with just about everyone here. I think the thing that i like about the set is the Crystal Ball-esque it was put together. That bonus live version of "One of Us" on the third disk is OK. Problem is, it might be the "best mastered" track on the entire CD.
Overall, I'm glad its in the collection.

Yes, very much. Im still loving it

Haystack said:

If I was Prince I would have chose the following songs for singles
White Mansion
Joint to Joint
Holy River
Face Down
The Love we Make

The "singles" were originally supposed to have been:

Betcha By Golly Wow!
Sleep Around
Sex In The Summer
Damned If I Do
The Holy River
Let's Have A Baby
The Love We Make

At least these were the ones billed as the "singles" when they were played to media representatives at a pre-release event. Though I highly doubt, "Let's Have A Baby" would have made it.

novabrkr said:

Coulda been worse I suppose...'Mr Happy' could've been the first single.

All in all I think a lot of the negative sentiments towards the album are caused by something else than the songs themselves (it contains some of the most fluent pop songwriting of his caeer alongside with quite edgy electronic cuts - something we had been missing since "SOTT" or even "1999"). The cover art was downright horrible and tasteless. The song-sequencing didn't work that well. You can improve people's reactions just by giving some more thought on these simple factors, for instance.

We're easily manipulated. Also if there had been just two or three ballads less on the discs it would have given a completely different impression. But yeah, it stands as it is.
[Edited 1/13/07 13:23pm]

Emancipation was exhaustive, overlong, and indulgent for sure, but the first and second discs make this such a great effort. The production is strictly plastic, but it isn't dull. The songwriting was sharp and expressive, but it doesn't make the album stick together as a whole. I still liked some of the material of the album, even though it isn't one of my favorite P albums. The second disc would've been a killer, smash hit if it was released by itself and had some of the stronger songs from the first disc added. I guess Prince just wanted to make a huge statement that not only displayed the joys and happiness of his private life with his wife and unborn child, but his breakthrough from a turmoil relationship with a record label. Quite possibly, it's kind of like a poor man's version of Crystal Ball or Dream Factory. Sadly, it just couldn't stand on it's own merits because it had its flaws and missteps and much of the material just showed how egotistical Prince had become over the time, in my humble opinion.
[Edited 1/13/07 13:37pm]

it's not one of my favorites, but i think disc 3 is pretty enjoyable.

after a while, most of disc 1 grew on me, but i think it's second fiddle to disc 3.

disc 2 i simply cannot get with, other than 'joint 2 joint', which i think belongs on disc 1. disc 2 is too frilly, smooth soul, generic for me...plus i think it's kind of depressing in retrospect, since most of it is about his failed marriage and his deceased baby.

i DO love "human body" and "new world", though. they remind me of stuff like "thunder" and "the future" - i love when prince music sounds like that. danceable, smooth, a little techno, with all kinds of fun twists and curves.

I've really grown to enjoy this album. For a couple years after I'd purchased, I really enjoyed disc 2 and most of disc 3, but had written off disc 1 as being completely Prince-on-autopilot.

These days though, I really enjoy the album as a whole. I even like the slick plasticy production - It gives many of the songs a shimmery, glossy shine that works for me. Overall, I'd give it a B+.

My faves on the album:

Right Back Here in My Arms
Sex in the Summer
Soul Sanctuary
Emale
Dreamin' About U
Joint 2 Joint
Style
The Love We Make

Risico said:

I give it a moderate B+ too!

I only dislike about 2 songs per disc. So 30 good songs for me...

novabrkr said:

Some strong points, though I don't agree on the song sequencing aspect (I think that's quite good).

The whole marketing of Emancipation was horrible. The cover concept was good imo (the broken chains), but this orange colour - ughhh (just compare to the brilliant design of the Symbol album...)! But the biggest mistake was that people could only buy the 3-disc set, but no single discs (like with G'n'R's "Use your Illusion", for instance). That made the album rather expensive. I think that a release of all three single discs incl. one lead single for every disc at the same time could have worked, maybe with some minor changes in song sequencing. The 3-disc set could have been an extra option for the hardcore fans.

The dislike for Emancipation within the fan base is a different story. I just think that many old fans liked the stripped down, raw sound of the TGE era plus the whole renegade vibe to it, maybe because it reminded them of the early Prince and it was a welcome change for some after the more poppy efforts of D&P and also in parts the Symbol album. Emancipation was some sort of turnaround again - back to pop and melodies, less guitar adventures. I think people were expecting a 3-CD TGE, but they just got something different.

I don't judge any of his albums on the cover art - but I honestly don't think it's that bad. I get the orange color; it's meant to be the sunrise (the Dawn).

There are only a few duds on the album for me . . . We Gets Up, Da Da Da, Betcha By Golly Wow and La La La Means I Love You. I like the other 2 covers.

It's a lot of material to absorb, and I honestly don't feel comfortable rating it. I'd rather judge each song individually.

violectrica said:

The cover art for Emancipation makes it look like a budget computer game, something you can buy for a few dollars instead of the full-price commercial games. It doesn't look like the cover art for a musical recording.

The point on the stylistic transition from TGE to Emancipation is valid, and quite many of us experienced that firsthand too - myself included. Let's not forget also that it was his first record where there were the "One Kiss At A Time", "I Can't Make You Love Me"-type of slow R&B productions. We're quite used to them now, because he's had them on most of his albums since, but by then it was a letdown to those of us who were mainly listening to Prince for his edge.

Before that some of the ballads on the previous records might have been somewhat cheesy too, but they usually had something weird going on on them as well (i.e. the outro of "Arms Of Orion", and TMBGITW is pretty damn weird a song in the end). The slow numbers on "Emancipation" just weren't the type of material at all that had lead most of us into the music of Prince in the first place. In fact, they were rather the type of material many had fleed away from.

novabrkr said:

Sorry, but I can't follow you on this one. Hasn't Prince always made the slow cheesy falsetto bedroom stuff? I can't find anything edgy on "Do me, baby" or "Insatiable".

As much as I like this album,
can't remember the last time I listened to it.
It's been at least 2 years.

And when I see this triple disc in bargin bins for 5.99,
it hurts

EmancipationLover said:

Eh, they are full of screaming for starters. "Insatiable"'s instrumentation and rhythmic arrangement is very out of the norm, and so is the song structure. The melodic motifs of that track are hardly like anything else, and you can check that from the score. "Do Me, Baby"'s second part is... well, it's "Do Me, Baby"'s second part. I don't think Prince fans have to be reminded why the second part of that song doesn't exactly remind of a Babyface song.

Maybe with "Sweet Baby" etc. you'd have a point, but I really don't understand that comment of yours on my own part in return - why exactly would you pick those two songs for comparison?

Oh, I forgot "My Computer" from the above list of "singles" that were previewed to the journalists. It's been quite a long time since the days of that album.

novabrkr said:

The two pics I made were maybe not perfectly selected and thought out (I'm at work), but I wouldn't call these two songs THAT original either. "Insatiable" is 6/8 and the hookline is quite standard (actually, it's not that different from the one in "Friend, Lover..."), but you might have a point that the overall atmosphere of the song is quite unique and it builds up very slowly. "Do Me, Baby" probably shouldn't count as it is written by Andre Cymone anyway. "Sweet Baby", on the other hand, is quite unusual to me as it has the classic Rumba rhythm (something Prince doesn't do that often).

Point is: I don't see Prince getting as much into Babyface territory on "Emancipation" as you apparently do, but I have to admit that the percentage of ballads and slow songs is higher on it than on many other Prince albums. I just can't identify the general complete turnaround in his ballad and slow jam style on this album and its successors.

Eye really enjoy this cd. There are Good songs on each disc. but eye would have 2 say eye listen mostly 2 disc's I and II. II being my favorite. 2 me,there is some truly beautiful lyrics and music that are heart touching. eye do listen 2 Emancipation often