Emancipation-hope you will too

dance4me3121 said:

I never look at a two or three disk Prince album as a waste of music. I would never say it should be chopped down. That was Prince vision To have a three disk Cd a concept album, Celebrating his release from Warner Bros. as well as his marriage to Mayte ,Three discs, each containing 12 songs with exactly 60 minutes per disc. Prince obviously put a lot of planning in this concept more so than many of his releases. For u to say it needed to be narrowed down is a slap in the face to him.

I swear U people are so selfish to tear down his vision like this. My favorite is the 2 disk. Dedicated to his then wife Mayte. The album also included Prince first time including cover versions of songs. He was very happy with his new Valentines Day marriage and upcoming birth. I had never seen him so happy during this time period.He also experimented with different sounds and even house music. But again all U can think about is how he could have narrowed it down. It also is the fourth best-selling triple album ever in the United States.

I really saw Emancipation as quite a visionary concept the 3 cd set and the balance of material on them! Loved the packaging and the artwork which all embraced a certain flavour of musical release with some more atmospheric almost trance music and immensely eventful moments for the artist himself!

ernestsewell said:

Too bad I already have it. Nothing's better than when music I LOVE is marked down because few others feel the same about it.

I think that vocally, he's great on this album.

It really divides me still, every time I listen to it.

I think of Emancipation exactly what I thought of it when I first bought it in 1996: it would have been a HUGE hit if he could have self-edited that sucker down to one disc. Then he could have had a couple singles with some nice b-sides to go along with it. Also, I think a couple of the unreleased songs from this period are equal to, if not better than, anything on it.

The CD arrived !

I think about 1/3 of it is fantastic and is really the last Prince release I took seriously.

I don't need to love the whole thing, I just appreciate that he gave us so much material that there's something for everyone.

dance4me3121 said:

This is one of my favorite albums from Prince. My least favorite is "It's Courtin' Time" and only because it sounds kinda "odd" ... LoL

I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars, just to be liberal

PurpleLove7 said:

"Courtin' Time" always reminded me of like an old Broadway show, or like some TV variety shows big dance number or something, lol.

What I love about Prince is; even with a song that may be odd, he pays exacting detail to the arrangement and mix. My biggest wish has always been to just be able to sit in the studio and watch Prince produce a song from beginning to end. He could duct tape my mouth and tie my hands behind my back if it would get me in Paisley Park to watch him work, lol.

For me, a good set of headphones is essential when listening to Prince, for the detail he weaves into the arrangements. Though I would agree, "Courtin' Time" is quirky, lol.

"Emancipation" provides lots of moods to move through.

Courtin' time is very broadway i agree! Prince can always put on a different track to the theme of a cd like this to great effect

Cerebus said:

I never understood the fascination some fans have with the charts and havin hits. Is it so they can justify the love of prince's music, and so people don't think u'r weird or something? Hits and charts are marketing tools and nothing else, along with MTV and radio playlists. It's not like the lack of hits has stopped Prince from doing what he does.

vegasE said:

I feel exactly the same way. I don't care if the entire planet absolutely hates a song, or if it never charts or ever gets played on the radio... if I like it, then it's a big hit... to me! I don't require the approval of others to justify, or make me feel better about, what I like, or to indicate to me what I should be listening to.

Plus, if Prince had edited "Emancipation" down to one disc as some suggest, then people would be complaining about the other 2 discs worth of music that was edited out that they didn't get to hear, asking questions like "...when will Prince EVER release the other two discs that were cut out of "Emancipation", lol.

I'm not a big fan. I do think there are a lot of well-written songs on there, but it just doesn't seem to catch fire.

I like My Computer, White Mansion and funnily enough, Courtin' Time. Holy River is nice I guess, and Betcha By Golly was already a pretty song and he did it well. But as somone already referred to, I really don't like the production on it and I guess I just find it a bit boring.

vegasE said:

Mmm, you took my statement someplace I wasn't expecting. But I think I probably worded it poorly, so let me try again. I don't care about charts or hits. What I was trying to get across is that it would have been more accessible and cohesive as a single disc, thereby increasing the chances of being a more successful release overall. I know Prince fans who still haven't fully ingested Emancipation, fifteen years after it's release. I think there's at least a CDs worth of really GREAT songs on that set. If those songs had been presented to the public as being just that, "the next great Prince album!" It would have worked better for me, and probably been a huge success. But the way it happened back then, "Prince is free to do whatever he wants - here's THREE DISCS of new material", never felt quite right for me. Especially after I tried to listen to it and kept skipping tracks. There really isn't much argument for the fact that being allowed to do whatever he wants hasn't always turned out exactly how Prince expected. For me Emancipation falls into that category of releases.

PDogz said:

That's a silly argument. Chances are good that if he hadn't released them nobody would know. However, I'll say again, a couple of the known unreleased tracks from the Emancipation era are some of my favorite unreleased Prince songs ever. So IF they had leaked, maybe you'd be right.

Interesting that there's still such a clear split on this album so many years after it's release. In a lot of ways it feels like the dividing line for classic and not-so-classic Prince.

annastesia101 said:

I Love Curious child!!! One of my favorite songs on the album

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

My sentiments exactly ...

Cerebus said:

Like no one knows about "Roadhouse Garden" right? After all, it was never released. And no one knows there's music in his vault, right? I mean, it was never released, right? Ah, but I'm making silly arguments again - my bad.

PDogz said:

People who quote out of context to try and make a point get zero respect from me. Did you even read the rest of what I wrote? Or did you think I wouldn't remember it? Please.

Cerebus said:

You're not being clear, please explain. Help me to understand your point.

PDogz said:

Not sure if you're serious or not. But what I actually said before was...

That's a silly argument. Chances are good that if he hadn't released them nobody would know. However, I'll say again, a couple of the known unreleased tracks from the Emancipation era are some of my favorite unreleased Prince songs ever. So IF they had leaked, maybe you'd be right. lol

I still think it's a silly argument. But I wasn't trying to insult you and I even said if they did leak you'd be right. *shrug*

Cerebus said:

Yes, I'm serious, and neither am I trying to insult you. Thanks for attempting to clear up your point, I appreciate it.

UPDATE-I listened to Emancipation for a week but not in its entirety,just the songs I already knew and loved. But now its on the shelf,I recently got 2 new cds from amazon though. Michael Jackson's 2 disc History album (which I ADORE) and the Prince COME album. I like 7 out of ten tracks. I dislike Come,Race,and Dark (I prefer "So dark" better).

That's a great price for Emancipation. I paid about 4x as much when it came out, but I enjoy the hell out of that album so it's no big deal. Some of the best songwriting and singing are on that album.

It got a lot of negative reviews for its "plastic" production feel, but I think it works. The NPGMC downloads were far more plastic, but most of those are good too.

dance4me3121 said:

UPDATE-I listened to Emancipation for a week but not in its entirety,just the songs I already knew and loved. But now its on the shelf,I recently got 2 new cds from amazon though. Michael Jackson's 2 disc History album (which I ADORE) and the Prince COME album. I like 7 out of ten tracks. I dislike Come,Race,and Dark (I prefer "So dark" better).

And that about sums it up for Emancipation! Not even interesting enough to listen to (or wanna listen to) all the way through.

I can't sit through about 3/4 of this album, and a lot of this has to do with the production. There are a couple of good tracks on here, I won't lie, but as a whole, one of the most disappointing albums in the Prince canon, especially coming right after the hard-hitting Gold Experience! I was highly disappointed upon listening to this album the first day it came out. I was like, "OK, disc 2 is gonna be where the good stuff is!" Then, I just knew the third disc was gonna be the classic one. Nope, nope, and nope.

Se7en said:

That's a great price for Emancipation. I paid about 4x as much when it came out, but I enjoy the hell out of that album so it's no big deal. Some of the best songwriting and singing are on that album.

It got a lot of negative reviews for its "plastic" production feel, but I think it works. The NPGMC downloads were far more plastic, but most of those are good too.

I feel the exact same way. And this is coming from someone who thinks New Power Soul and Rave are two of his worst albums.

I can not believe how much venom there is for the NPGMC trax. I will concede that there are a few real clunkers, but by and large I thoroughly enjoy the lion's share of the tunes.

dance4me3121 said:

I recently ordered this 3 disc set for about 10$ from Amazon.com and its NEW and not used. I know I'm gonna enjoy it. I should have it by the weekend. I remember getting the 3 cassette version for my 7th birthday and Prince was all over tv,i actually remember recording the Oprah appearance on vhs. But,i was a bit too young to understand the songs on the album. So,whats your opinion of the album as a whole? favorite songs? worst songs? please tell me,thanks.

disc 2 is the best. most of it sounds like it was meant to go together anyway. discs 1 and 3 could have been whittled down and combined into one making the whole album a lot better. those 2 discs have a lot of filler and are a little schizophrenic, IMO.

overall, the production is too plastic for my tastes, but a lot of the songs are pretty good.

like most 2-3 cd set albums from any artist people will always say it would have been better as a ____set, the Beatles White Album comes to my mind as one everyone always says should have been a single album, but as Paul McCartney says "its the beatles shut up already". So for this record i have seen tons of different ideas for 2cds and 1cd, everyone is always to disagree on Prince post 80's it seems, i mean I think "CHaos and DIsorder" was one of his strongest albums in the 90's others feel it was his worst ever, so that sums up opinions on Prince. With Emancipation the thing that i had most trouble with was the production, way too plastic and just so empty, and coming off of Chaos and Disorder which was so raw sounding for the most part, this was a big drop off, but with that said, i wouldnt change anything because of what i said early in the post, and to qoute him "theres a something on there for everyone" and i agree. so with that my faves would be

In this bed i scream

Soul Sanctuary

Curious Child

Dreamin bout u

The Love we Make

Saviour

The Holy River (though i hate that ending)

Joint 2 Joint

Friend Lover

would be at the top for me and many fall into the middle, there are some that i cant even listen too anymore, like dadada and white mansion