Efan said:

It's so hard for me to boil it down to just one. I hate most of the ballads on Emancipation.

Friend/Lover has to be the worst thing Prince has ever written, though, followed very closely by Let's Have a Baby. Those are just horrid. And the remakes on the album are absolutely useless.

I like Mayte but she just got the worst dreck written for her.

that song is beautifull how the backing vocals speak 2 each-other and himself...reinforcing the love hes expressing.........also check that vocal at the end...WOW!...on of his best fallestos that dosent turn in2 a gravely screech...and (apart from Adore) the most beautiful opening lyric ever "If I Ever Held A Hand...It Was Only Becuz I Neva Held Ur Hand"....awwww sooo cute

[Edited 1/3/11 15:28pm]

TheDigitalGardener said:

Spinlight said:

The Human Body

Is that not a ballad? Cuz I hate that song. Really really dislike it.

The Human Body is the musical equivalent to a blocked toilet.

I literally remember when I first listened at home, my jaw dropping in disbelief that this was on a Prince album. I don't know if I've ever made it through the song. If I did, it certainly wasn't intentional.

Yeah, no. I just cannot even fathom what he was thinking releasing that song.

millwall said:

errant said:

I Can't Make U Love Me. he completely butchered a really beautiful, tender song.

your havin a laugh.

a murdered version was george micheals

George's is pretty faithful to the original

TheDigitalGardener said:

Spinlight said:

The Human Body

Is that not a ballad? Cuz I hate that song. Really really dislike it.

The Human Body is the musical equivalent to a blocked toilet.

When it came out I thought the weakest ballads were "One Kiss At A Time", "Soul Sanctuary" and "Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother / Wife". In retrospect, all those songs have their own redeeming qualities (although only the rawer demo version of "Soul Sanctuary" really does the song's musical ideas justice) . The worst must be "Betcha By Golly Wow!", which sounds sort of embarrassing with the cheesy production. I'm not sure why I'd want to listen to "Let's Have A Baby" either, although at least it's not a paint-by-numbers a Prince R&B track.

Mind you, "Emancipation" was the album when he first started doing more contemporary R&B type of material. We're used to that now, but before that there really wasn't much of it on his records (well, excluding his first two albums, but those were entirely different type of productions altogether).

I actually like both of the Bonnie Riatt & Joan Osbourne covers

"Betcha By Golly Wow" & "La La La Means I Love You" were the unnecessary ones IMO.

PurpleLove7 said:

Roxanne123 said:

Or your least favorite.

I feel all the ballads on Emacipation are 'brilliant' ... [img:$uid]http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/3.gif[/img:$uid]

I do, too. In fact, I still think Emancipation is one of the 3 most underrated Prince albums ever (along with The Rainbow Children and 3121).

Dreamin About U is probably my fav ballad though.

As much as I like Mayte and think that she's a nice but not too bright girl - she had to be the worst "muse" for Prince. Emancipation is one of the weakest Prince albums (CD 2 especially) in my opinion. Even Rainbow Children had more of a musical pull if you just ignore the lyrics and try to refrain from murdering the Jehovah Witnesses knocking on your door.