Love it the way it is. Its one my fave albums. I like Bob Dylan and McCartney too.

so the haters r complaining that they have basically 2 great cds and a 3rd of "outtakes"?

MattyJam said:

I'll never understand the fans that completely dismiss Emancipation in its entirity. There's just too much music there and it's simply too diverse to make such a blanket statement. How can you be a Prince fan and not find at least something to like out of those 36 songs?

.

"There are some tasty fruits buried amongst all this manure! So that's a win, right?"

aluminimum said:

you couldn't even make an ep out of it. Worst P album ever!

I'm with you on this one. Maybe a small EP...

aluminimum said:

you couldn't even make an ep out of it. Worst P album ever!

That's just the usual snobby nonsense.

Aerogram said:

aluminimum said:

you couldn't even make an ep out of it. Worst P album ever!

That's just the usual snobby nonsense.

minus about 3 songs, Emancipation is a masterpiece....there I said it.

zobilamouche said:

kewlschool said:

Change the production of this album and it would be 10 times better. I like this album.

Agree,

I was actually shocked when I first listened to it because I was so eager to hear it (him being free, triple disc to go totally creative) to then hear that this sounded so very very safe.

Same here, I couldn't believe what I was hearing on that first listen. Way too many sugary siropy ballads and midtempo blandness, not enough funk, no edge. But worst of all was the production: it sounded horrible then and even worse now. I also strongly disliked the artwork. I thought Prince had completely lost it.

I just couldn't believe how the almighty Prince could fuck up his first 'free' record this bad. Three discs long and there was not one song that grabbed me on that first listen. I left the recordshop in disbelief without buying the album, in fact it was the first Prince album since 1984 that I didn't buy on the date of release.

I bought the album a few years later from the bargain bin, tried listening to it a few times but I never got into it. I hate the album with a passion.

To answer the OP's question: I dont think a one disc set would have made me happier. It would still sound plasticky and sirupy and not to my liking.

funkaholic1972 said:

zobilamouche said:

Agree,

I was actually shocked when I first listened to it because I was so eager to hear it (him being free, triple disc to go totally creative) to then hear that this sounded so very very safe.

Same here, I couldn't believe what I was hearing on that first listen. Way too many sugary siropy ballads and midtempo blandness, not enough funk, no edge. But worst of all was the production: it sounded horrible then and even worse now. I also strongly disliked the artwork. I thought Prince had completely lost it.

I just couldn't believe how the almighty Prince could fuck up his first 'free' record this bad. Three discs long and there was not one song that grabbed me on that first listen. I left the recordshop in disbelief without buying the album, in fact it was the first Prince album since 1984 that I didn't buy on the date of release.

I bought the album a few years later from the bargain bin, tried listening to it a few times but I never got into it. I hate the album with a passion.

To answer the OP's question: I dont think a one disc set would have made me happier. It would still sound plasticky and sirupy and not to my liking.

Well, I hated it back then but can listen to it now, though I'm still not passionate about the music. What I did like back then was his passion that he put in it. Musically he was on another wave-length than what I would appreciate but you could feel the love and passion he felt while making it. The booklet (despite being a photoshop horror indeed) had info in there and he would actually say things (at times) that made sense. You could feel he was really behind this record until tragedy struck.

These these i don't think his music is better, and worst of all, there's no passion there. He's posing, playing a role, having a young kid-producer have his break etc. Now he's a nagging old man repurpossing his hate for labels and desperately trying to pretend he lives in the now and is only interested in young people and young music. I don't think he bothered to check whether the young people are actually interested in him these days.

He might be free, but more then ever, his work seems like a product and fans are treated as consumers.

If Emancipation was reissued as a one-sided flexidisk containing just one song I'd actually quite like it. Can't stand that album at all. "The Holy River" is the only song I can listen to.

Nasalhair said:

If Emancipation was reissued as a one-sided flexidisk containing just one song I'd actually quite like it. Can't stand that album at all. "The Holy River" is the only song I can listen to.

But what if that song was Da, Da, Da?!

[Edited 10/5/15 8:56am]

BartVanHemelen said:

TheEnglishGent said:

KingSausage said:

Emancipation might be damn near dead last when it comes to which album I choose when I feel like listening to Prince. It's not just the 36 songs or the production sounding so similar across all three hours. It's also the lack of enough standout tracks. There's no destination song that makes me want to skip ahead. It's like driving through Indiana and the next four rest stops are all so far apart and all they have is a Burger King and a few broken toilets.

Exactly... and not sure how not liking an album makes that someone a snob? It was a very personal album for Mayte and it should have stayed that way.

Yes, but everyone's final edit would be different. There's a lot of fat to be trimmed off of Emacipation for sure but I prefer it that way. Too many Prince albums are 2 great songs, 3 good ones, 3 average ones, 3 turds and 1 WTF song. I wish he'd do another triple CD song dump again frankly just because it takes so long to get tot eh good stuff - or the stuff I personally like anyway.

zobilamouche said:

kewlschool said:

Change the production of this album and it would be 10 times better. I like this album.

Agree,

I was actually shocked when I first listened to it because I was so eager to hear it (him being free, triple disc to go totally creative) to then hear that this sounded so very very safe. On second listen these songs are not so bad at all but the edge was taken off and they polished it into a very safe sounding record.

That polishing can work at times, but I think some songs need an edge to them.

Emancipation is a mixed bag.There are some great songs,some filler,and some pointless remakes.

The production on many songs is surprisingly mediocre.

Inspired by this thread I made a Best of Emancipation playlist. 16 tracks, including everything from CD2 minus the KamaSutra clip. Just listened back to it - wow, what a single album that coulda been.

I wouldnt change anything on Emancipation. In fact, considering what he is doing today, it looks like a Prince masterpiece.

The only thing I would change is to remove the covers, or at the very least had fewer of them.

Emancipation is the "Planet Earth" of the 90's... Just a boring album as a whole... Yes there are a couple ok tracks, some tracks that give it energy, Somebody's Somebody is a standout. But there are no GREAT tracks on this album. Too much filler. One of my least listened to Prince albums.

FUNKYNESS said:

MIRvmn said:

FUNKYNESS said:

I wouldnt change anything on Emancipation. In fact, considering what he is doing today, it looks like a Prince masterpiece.

I agree, this album is much better than most of his post 2000 albums

It's not that it's because it's BETTER, but because his post 2000 were so below standard...

feeluupp said:

There's great stuff on this record. Among his best. "Soul Sanctuary", "Face Down", "Right Back Here in My Arms", Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother", "In This Bed I Scream", "Dreamin About U", the title track...I'd put those songs up against anything on any of his albums. There's consistency, production and editing issues for sure but I like how he dumped just a whole litanny of styles and sounds, enough to satisfy everyone. Even when I weed out the songs I dislike, there's still a damned fine double CD there.

I had just landed at Heathrow after being abroad for a few years and walked into HMV and saw the symbol on the organge background. I got really excited, and then to see it was a triple album.... well, it just made my day. As I was walking to the check out I saw a blue/grey album cover with a symbol on it too. Confused, I picked it up and read Chaos & Disorder. Well, fuck me, ANOTHER album.

Put on Emancipation first when I got home. Skip... skip.... skip... Oh dear. This wasnt turning out well. Half way into disc 2 I had had enough and put on C&D. So much energy and life compared to the other album.

So for me, the saving grace for Emancipation was C&D. To this day I rate C&D as the 2nd best 90's album, second only to the awsome Symbol album. I also thought that NPS's saving grace was The Vault album (or was that the saving grace for the Rave album? Cant quite remember).

Anyway, Emancipation was, and still is, an album I never listen to...