Hello Orgers!

In my my opinion Emancipation is one of Prince's worst albums and I was shocked to learn that some people on here love it. It's been said before & I agree that it should have been one disc as I believe that a vast majority of the record is awful, almost the whole of disc 2 is unlistenable to me and I find it is the most dated of ALL his work.

I would be interested to see what you guys would pick out of the 36 tracks to make a pretty good single album, in the order you would want it to be..... Here is mine:

EMANCIPATION

1. Face Down
2. The Holy River
3. Courtin Time
4. My Computer
5. Betcha By Golly Wow!
6. Damned if I do
7. la-la (means I love U)
8. In this bed I scream
9 .The Love we make
10. Emancipation

(as a side note I would also want it to be remixed and mastered, such a horrible plastic sound to this record)

I made a single CD of Emancipation once. Here's the tracklist:

1. Somebody's Somebody.
2. Betcha By Golly Wow!
3. I Can't Make U Love Me
4. Soul Sanctuary
5. Curious Child
6. Dreamin' About U
7. The Holy River
8. Friend, Lover...
9. La La (Means I Love You)
10. One Of Us
11. Emancipation

Trouble is, I still had to put songs I hate on there to get to a reasonable full album length.

In truth I only like 5 or 6 songs from that whole album. I like a few unreleased ones that missed the cut too though.

Trouble is, I still had to put songs I hate on there to get to a reasonable full album length.

In truth I only like 5 or 6 songs from that whole album. I like a few unreleased ones that missed the cut too though.[/quote]

Same here, picking 11 was a hard task :0
Friend, lover was an option and one of us (although the original is better)

I think it works just fine as a triple album and on the whole I think it is possibly his very best work of the 1990s. I think the production style suits the material and I particularly like a lot of the recurring elements, such as the clipped off vocal samples from the Poet 99, especially on Right Back Here In My Arms and Joint 2 Joint. There are some songs on there which I don't particularly care for but as with other longer albums which bring up this discussion frequently (The White Album et al), I think you lose something of the personality and appeal of the album by cutting it down. For the sake of delicious argument though here would be my selections:

Jam Of the Year
Right Back Here In My Arms
Somebody's Somebody
Mr. Happy
Sex in the Summer
Joint 2 Joint
One Kiss At a Time
My Computer
Emale
Face Down
White Mansion
In This Bed I Scream

I'm going to give it 18tracks without trying figure out how much would fit on an 80 minute CD, because frankly, it's been a long time since I worried about it and I'm not fussed enough about it to sit down and work out the math. Besides that, a lot of the songs on that album have some kind of coda arbitrarily attached to them to fill out the 12-song/60-minute gimmick.

but anyway... in no particular order...


Jam Of The Year
Right Back Here In My Arms
Somebody's Somebody
White Mansion (if 18 will fit)
In This Bed I Scream
One Kiss At A Time
Soul Sanctuary
Emale
Dreamin' About U
Joint 2 Joint
The Holy River
Saviour
Slave
Face Down (that is if he'd have spent a little time living with it and remixed it into something that sounded anything remotely funky as the live version)
Sleep Around
My Computer
One Of Us (if 18 will fit)
The Love We Make

Good Lord, not this thread again...Emanciaption was a great 3 CD set that needed to be 3 CDs.

If, if, if. If my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle.

Brofie said:

Come on, there's not much else to talk about, you gotta admit making this a 3 disc set was a huge MISTAKE

aiden said:

get real!

disc 2 is the best disc you fool! dreamin' about u, soul sanctuary, emale (funky!), saviour etc etc... are some of his most obscure, experimental works

then theres the seductive ballads like one kiss at a time and lets have a baby

emancipation is a bit too depthy for fans like you

RumAndRaisin said:

especially when he's got 2 covers and awful crap like Courtin' Time and Damned If I Do on there.

those 4 are automatic out-takes if this thing is to be whittled down to 1 disc.

but that's what happens every time this topic comes up. everyone has different favorites. I'm sure there are a few crackheads out there that would put We Gets Up on it.

Brofie said:

I agree

Thibaut said:

Even with the 90210 theme song on it?

Right Back Here In My Arms
Somebody's Somebody
Courtin' Time
Emale
Curious Child
Joint 2 Joint
The Holy River
Slave
New World
One Of Us
The Love We Make
Emaciation

RumAndRaisin said:

'Depthy'?

That album is the weakest, most lightweight load of rubbish he's put out. Awful, 'poppy', weak instrumentation, throwaway lyrics, and some of his very worst songs are on those 3 discs. To me it should be whittled to 5 or 6 songs, then Prince goes back to come up with 5 or 6 more decent songs and it's released as a single CD. No depth in Emancipation.

Fauxie said:

I think there is depth to the instrumentation & vocal arrangements (nothing new for prince), that there is not on, say Chaos & Disorder. But it is not obvious because of how plastic it sounds. Listen closely and there are a million things going on that you might not notice because they are not done in a showy way, but rather in a way that tastefully serves the plastic whole.

I agree the songwriting was a little disappointing. Actually the whole album was disappointing, initially, for how free it did NOT sound. After many listens I grew to love it actually, and found that there was a purpose to the bland surface of it. It does not grate on the nerves (mine anyway) in a way that 3 hours of 3121 might.
[Edited 3/5/10 16:12pm]

NDRU said:

Thinking about it more, you make some good points. It is the plastic sound that overwhelmingly dominates my thoughts when it comes to this album.

My wife really likes the album for that last point you make, it's an easy, pleasant listen, sonically. Not abrasive, not an ounce of live energy kind of feel to the production or playing. Just stops short of sounding like a midi rendition (or polyphonic ringtones) of a Prince album with vocals over it.

The tracks I do like I really, really like. That's for their pleasantness though. It's why unlike you I can't love any track on the album. They're just nice when I was that bland pleasantness. Goes no further than 'like' for me, without that extra energy in performance and production.

Fauxie said:

I know a few people who feel that way, they say they never get fatigued with the sound.

I like that "just short of midi" comment. It's true, but there is actually a lot of real playing on it, it just happens to sound computerized.

My love for it is more out of respect for the whole thing--three different sounding discs that still fit together as a whole, mostly played by one guy--than a love of individual songs. I do really like some songs. But mostly I think that it is a very impressive achievement.

Still, I'd have to say that when people can't hear the quality of the music because the overall sound is "plastic" then it can't be deemed a huge success. In the end I, like most folks, will take the more abrasive White Album over Emancipation, despite any tasteful keyboard arrangements.

aiden said:

Wow, really? Personally I'd ditch the covers and put in Style, Joint 2 Joint, and We Gets Up. I get the feeling We Gets Up is a bit of a widely hated song, a bit like Jughead, I've seen it dissed to death on the org previously. I really like it. But then again, I like Jughead too.

Oh, and One Kiss at a Time is a must. That can replace 'my computer'.

I have thought about this question a few times. I'm not sure I've come up with an answer that satisfies me.

here's one attempt

Jam of the Year
Somebody's Somebody
Get Yo Groove On
New World
Human Body
We Gets Up
Joint 2 Joint
White Mansion
Style (I don't like this song so much, but I like the long groove)
My Computer
In This Bed Eye Scream
Emancipation

Actually I could make quite a few mixes of this album.

I think the songs are not so much strong as they are "not-weak" but I could listen to almost any of them in a mix.

Slave is the only song worth keeping. Make it a single with Goodbye as a b-side.

NDRU said:

Only two songs from my compilation. And only one of those I really like ('Somebody's Somebody'). Amazing how differently fans view this album.

Fauxie said:

I was going for a more upbeat mix, but I could easily do a slow one, too, and it would basically be the same songs as yours

I'm not crazy about I Can't Make U Love Me, but mostly because I got burned out on Bonnie Raitts version. But it is actually pretty good. And Dreamin About U is not my fave.

I might substitute The Love We Make & Emale, possibly

aiden said:

I wont - it is a Prince masterpiece in my opinion. Only Prince could have made that.

Brofie said:

I just can't get my head around this. I respect it (kinda ), but just can't see how anyone could rate it so highly.

Emancipation's my favorite Prince album, and therefore I couldn't cut it down to a single disc. However, there are a few songs that I would cut OFF of it...

Get Yo Groove On
Courtin' Time
Betcha By Golly Wow!
Let's Have a Baby
Savior
The Plan
New World
The Human Body
The Love We Make

... those could get cut, bringing each CD down to 9 songs a piece.

Fauxie said:

so well said! There's more depth in new kids on the blocks first record! No there really is
[Edited 3/6/10 2:44am]

wouldn't even be good as a sinle CD, but some peoples choices on here are shocking. i mean who likes courtin' time? it's rubbish

anybody heard "slave to the system"
It's much better than Slave

aiden said:

2 idiots