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)

Emancipation is truly Prince's last "Prince" album....

murph said:

how so?

errant said:

To me, it's the last project (besides The Truth) where Prince seemed like he was at his most natural musically...There's an easy flow...The songwriting on Emancipation gets a little cheesy at times, but for the most part the "songs" themselves represent some of his strongest work he's done in the '90s...

The good songs really work: In This Bed Eye Scream, My Computer, Curious Child, Emale, White Mansion, Right Back Here In My Arms, Style, Dreaming About U, Joint 2 Joint, The Human Body....Even the more cornier songs like Courtin' Time and Mr. Happy (the only "rap" tinged Prince track I like besides "Get Off") and Damned If I Do make me smile sometimes....

But most of all, Prince doesn't seemed constrained by some of the things that seem to trip him up today...It's a good old fashion "Prince" album: A one-man-band, genre-jumping piece of work that doesn't seem forced or contrived...
I'll take that Prince over the rock-centered Chaos & Disorder (besides Dinner With Delores) anytime, anyday....

The fact that most Prince fans that I know each have at least 10 different songs that they like on Emancipation speaks to how ridiculously diverse (and good) that album is...
[Edited 3/6/10 19:59pm]

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)

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.

skywalker said:

the overall quality of the album. Prince's legacy. I don't subscribe to the idea of quantity over quality.

at the time it was released? yes. awesome. give us everything you've recorded. give us the backlog of vault tracks that WB wouldn't let you release.

only problem is that 5 minutes after you hear some of this stuff, your mind immediately starts making cuts. and the discography would be stronger overall with LESS of the material than he released between 1996 and 2001. you can only go so long hearing his output before you realize only half of what's come out in the last 15 years has been above average. some songs were made to be outtakes. and appreciated as such.

just my opinion, of course.

errant said:

but I'll also say that if it had to be 3 discs no matter what, he could have done a better job of track selection. the dozen or so tracks that we've heard that were outtakes from this project are easily better than roughly the same number on it.

errant said:

I think the thing that gets lost here is everyone seems to have their own distinct list of songs that they would include in their own single disc...This is not case with most Prince albums...To me this speaks volumes. Mainly that it's less about the overall quality of Emancipation and more about someone liking a "Somebody's Somebody" more than "My Computer" (or vice-versa)...

To be point blank, Emancipation is Prince's most diverse project of all time, which poses problems for some Prince fans...To me, it's his best '90s project (the Truth is his second best of the 1990's)...When fans speak with reverence of the Chaos & Disorder or Undertaker project the real triumph of that decade is Emancipation...I still believe that most of the criticism of that project comes from the "sound" i.e. engineering and not the actual music...

Of course there are songs that I would take over others...But as a whole, Emancipation is ballsy, gutsy, impressive work...
[Edited 3/8/10 15:43pm]

skywalker said:

the overall quality of the album. Prince's legacy. I don't subscribe to the idea of quantity over quality.

at the time it was released? yes. awesome. give us everything you've recorded. give us the backlog of vault tracks that WB wouldn't let you release.

only problem is that 5 minutes after you hear some of this stuff, your mind immediately starts making cuts. and the discography would be stronger overall with LESS of the material than he released between 1996 and 2001. you can only go so long hearing his output before you realize only half of what's come out in the last 15 years has been above average. some songs were made to be outtakes. and appreciated as such.

just my opinion, of course.

I understand Skywalker this time...

Becuz: we can't agree on which 12 songs are great and should be on that 1-Disc,

One guy say Betcha By Golly Wow is terrible, the other guy was married to that song, or dancing to it on his wedding day, whatever...

I'm not a big fan of Sex In The Summer, but I have seen it chosen by some here:

so to choose those 12 songs.... it is just impossible to agree on.

Different opinions, maybe not a bad thing after all.

skywalker said:

the overall quality of the album. Prince's legacy. I don't subscribe to the idea of quantity over quality.

at the time it was released? yes. awesome. give us everything you've recorded. give us the backlog of vault tracks that WB wouldn't let you release.

only problem is that 5 minutes after you hear some of this stuff, your mind immediately starts making cuts. and the discography would be stronger overall with LESS of the material than he released between 1996 and 2001. you can only go so long hearing his output before you realize only half of what's come out in the last 15 years has been above average. some songs were made to be outtakes. and appreciated as such.

just my opinion, of course.

errant said:

It is your opinion. That is the problem. Different strokes, etc. Prince's legacy was not hurt by releasing this as a 3 disc set. Only Prince would be bold enough to release this as 3 CD's. Go to the prince-in-print and read some of the reviews..they say the same.

Do you honestly think that if Emancipation was 1 CD it would have boosted sales, acclaim, or chart position? No. Basically, you are saying that you would have liked it better...but only if it could fit through your filter of hand picked songs.

I think "Erotic City" should be on Purple Rain. Does my fan wishing help Prince's legacy or any of that? Nope. It is simply fan wishing.
[Edited 3/8/10 16:33pm]

skywalker said:

A person could speculate that a single album culled from 36 tracks would be more easily accessible & popular, even better, but Prince has enough single disc "flops" to prove that that is not necessarily the case.

murph said:

I agree. The songs are pretty even, actually, and my least favorite (Right Back Here in My Arms) will be someone else's favorite.

Gold gets all the love, but the songs are not far superior in terms of songwriting IMO, they are just performed with a bit more volume, dynamics & live drums.

The musicianship is not better on Gold either, with the exception of drums, which play a smaller role.

NDRU said:

but then again, he might have had enough above-average songs leftover from it to salvage NPS and Rave

skywalker said:

A person could speculate that a single album culled from 36 tracks would be more easily accessible & popular, even better, but Prince has enough single disc "flops" to prove that that is not necessarily the case.

NDRU said:

What it comes down to is this: Prince puts out the album the way he wants it to be heard, not the way you want it to be listened to. It's not just a product, it's art. Is Prince the kind of artists that wants to be easily accessible, and popular? No. Has he ever been? "Better", again, is your pov.

As far as "single disc flops"...Lovesexy could be described as one, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

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'm in the 'three disc' camp. The more, the better as far as I'm concerned. But 'what should be on a one disc Emancipation' is a great thread.

I started seeing a girl just after Betcha By Golly Wow came out, and we're now married. We had the song as our first dance.