FUNKYNESS said:

Emancipation was too much to comprehend and digest properly for general public that has grown shorter on attention span, taste, and appreciation for real music since the early 90s.

Speak for yourself.

purplepolitician said:

Poplife88 said:

New Power Soul and The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale. Both have aged well imo and get solid play to this day in my house.

Mine too.

Come.

BoraBora said:

N.E.W.S.

Musically one of the best P album, but a lot of fans seem to not value as it deserves only because of the fact that P doesn't sing on it.

The less sophisticated faction of the Prince fan base totally missed it

KeithyT said:

TRC, Rave, and NPS, are probaby the three most maligned (some of the latest albums are getting there but too early to be in the race yet).

TRC is the one that stands out to me as the most unfairly maligned. At the time I thought that was Prince at his most musically accomplished, mature and cohesive. It really is a masterpiece but unfortunately some found the message/religious and political undertones/overtones/lyrical content etc alienating. Jeez there was some mud flying around at the time.

The Rainbow Children is the answer for me.

Excellent choice supported by intelligent reasoning.

TheDigitalGardener said:

FUNKYNESS said:

Emancipation was too much to comprehend and digest properly for general public that has grown shorter on attention span, taste, and appreciation for real music since the early 90s.

Speak for yourself.

I just did.

TheDigitalGardener said:

FUNKYNESS said:

Emancipation was too much to comprehend and digest properly for general public that has grown shorter on attention span, taste, and appreciation for real music since the early 90s.

Speak for yourself.

What's there to "comprehend and digest" about an average R&B album.

I don't rate Emancipation because if I wanted to listen to a good R&B album I'd look for one under the R&B section and not the P for Prince section.

databank said:

Honestly? All of them. While constructive and educated criticism is reasonable most of what I read is excessive, exaggerated, unexplained and uneducated statements such as "Album X is crap/a turd", which I believe is irrational and very, very arrogant. And it is shown pretty obviously by the randomness of the tracklists on the "make Emancipation a single record" threads that pop-up every 3 months or so: there are as many tracklists as people, which isn't as if a consensus could be reached as to which tracks are the 12 "good" tracks and which 24 are the "bad" ones.

NPS and Emancipation are among my favorite Prince albums, a lot of people totally missed their respective point if u ask me. So I'm totally with u on that one.

However no, Prince isn't the only artist left who can produce multiple discs albums, but he may indeed be the only mainstream artist left who can do it.

Databank you done read my mind.

callimnate said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

Speak for yourself.

What's there to "comprehend and digest" about an average R&B album.

I don't rate Emancipation because if I wanted to listen to a good R&B album I'd look for one under the R&B section and not the P for Prince section.

But in my local stores I found that P for Prince section in the R&B section (annoyingly enough, in my opinion--I think he should at the very least have a section in both R&B and Pop/Rock, but whatever. He didn't.) Along with a lot worse albums, and some of the talk would suggest that I couldn't have found much that was worse if I looked, which is flat out untrue. It ain't my favorite album, but it really ain't that bad.

Is the Rainbow Children really shit on? Lyrics aside, most things I've seen written about it are pretty positive. I'd say it's more forgotten than maligned.

Killer album though.

NewPowerSoul and MPLS.

TrevorAyer said:

RJOrion said:

TrevorAyer said:

I can't get down with the notion that these records are fully underated .. It's more that among the worst of his rubbish happen to he some of his best work Mnplsound for example is bad over all ... But HERE and OLD SCHOOL COMPANY are miles better than anything on the highly overated Lotusflower Eye love but dont trust on rave should never have appeared on record next to Undisputed Nps has its lows but THE ONE COME ON WASTED KISSES are better than anything on Emacipation Rainbow 3121 lotus or gold experience So if u judge by overall appeal the mediocrity reigns If you judge by the caliber of the few good songs p puts on the record and ignore the bad songs than you get different results I am happy with phase 1 only because 1000 hugz is his best release in decades ... The rest of the record is rubbish i cant stand .. Still ranks higher than rainbow or gold because the one good song is better than anything on those other overrated records

"Here" is one of the most underrated and overlooked songs in P's catalog... it sounds like it could have been on any of his first 7 or 8 albums...the trademark Prince timing on the synth riffs, is magic...

Yup, i've been a CONSISTENT cheerleader for Here. STELLAR GEM of a song! and don't let me start on BWT. MPLS gets dissed hard here. Same with 20Ten though ppl LOoooooVE Lavaux, SLG, and FFS (the "chest voice" blah, blah, blah)

callimnate said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

Speak for yourself.

What's there to "comprehend and digest" about an average R&B album.

I wasn't talking about Emancipation. I should have edited more carefully.

Batman & The Rainbow Children.

Batman: Often considered a throw-away album and some don't even acknowledge it as a 'proper' Prince album. I like it for the straight forward beat and groove of the tracks. There's little pretention on this album and there's a whole load of hard beats and rockin guitar going on throughout.

The Rainbow Children: Pigeon-holed for it's religious theme, the music is amazing. Listened to this one just last week in the car on my way to Sydney for the Opera House show so it's fresh in my mind. Some one his best production, song craft and and complete album themed collection of songs since LoveSexy.

And maybe C-Note....although again is this maligned or just ignored?

Unfairly maligned?

One Nite Alone (Piano)

One Nite Alone Live

Emancipation

Chocolate Invasion

Slaughterhouse

Xpectation

Third Eye Girl

The last four have quite a bit of respectable material on them, but they're certainly not perfect.

Properly maligned

New Power Soul (The word soul is still waiting for an apology)

MPLS Sound

Planet Earth

3121

All utterly vapid in my opinion

[Edited 2/27/16 17:12pm]

[Edited 2/27/16 17:15pm]

RJOrion said:

"Here" is one of the most underrated and overlooked songs in P's catalog... it sounds like it could have been on any of his first 7 or 8 albums...the trademark Prince timing on the synth riffs, is magic...

Just recently I discovered exactly how wonderful this song is. I'm in love with it now. In fact, I don't see how I could have ever overlooked it. If it came out in the 1980s it would have been a hit, or at the very least universally recognized for it's brilliance.

I don't know if it's unfairly maligned or just unfairly forgotten but

Exodus

Prince really messed this one up by screwing with the tracklist until it was unrecognizable. The idea of NPG being his Funkadelic was a good one. There's a bootleg out there with the early tracklist and it's a fun little ep. Replace 'It Takes 3' with 'Return Of The Bump Squad' and it's really good. All together the final release is kind of a bloated mess but the songs are all on point.

RJOrion said:

TrevorAyer said:

I can't get down with the notion that these records are fully underated .. It's more that among the worst of his rubbish happen to he some of his best work Mnplsound for example is bad over all ... But HERE and OLD SCHOOL COMPANY are miles better than anything on the highly overated Lotusflower Eye love but dont trust on rave should never have appeared on record next to Undisputed Nps has its lows but THE ONE COME ON WASTED KISSES are better than anything on Emacipation Rainbow 3121 lotus or gold experience So if u judge by overall appeal the mediocrity reigns If you judge by the caliber of the few good songs p puts on the record and ignore the bad songs than you get different results I am happy with phase 1 only because 1000 hugz is his best release in decades ... The rest of the record is rubbish i cant stand .. Still ranks higher than rainbow or gold because the one good song is better than anything on those other overrated records

"Here" is one of the most underrated and overlooked songs in P's catalog... it sounds like it could have been on any of his first 7 or 8 albums...the trademark Prince timing on the synth riffs, is magic...

It's a special song for me because when it got released I was going thru exactly the situation it describes with an ex of mine. I could have written it word for word at the time so it rang a hell of a bell for me!

Rainbow Children - Muse 2 The Pharaoh is one of my fav Prince songs.

Diamonds and Pearls (by fans more so)

Rave un2 the joy fantastic - Some great R&B prince

FUNKYNESS said:

Rainbow Children is brilliant - a Prince masterpiece. I have stood by that since it was released.

I always liked NewPOwerSoul - people will tell you how bad it si but then tell you how good half the tracks are (THe One, Wasted Kisses, Come ON, and Mad Sex).

Emancipation was too much to comprehend and digest properly for general public that has grown shorter on attention span, taste, and appreciation for real music since the early 90s. People immediately want to jump up and dictate how great a single disc of the best tracks would be when a multiple disc album is released - especially when it is Prince who is the only artist left who can actually do this.

i love rainbow children.interesting and fun.

Emancipation (i'm a simple guy, when P said that was d album he was born to make...i believe it I read a lot about how it's a great idea album but 'production' killed it...i'm not a producer or a musican, so i don't know about that things. But i feel that when someone opens an album with something impeccable as JAM OF THE YEAR...i know something special is happening there.

And as it seems. a lot, but a looot of post 00's material is totally and unfarily mligned...i can't even start...

stpaisios said:

Emancipation (i'm a simple guy, when P said that was d album he was born to make...i believe it I read a lot about how it's a great idea album but 'production' killed it...i'm not a producer or a musican, so i don't know about that things. But i feel that when someone opens an album with something impeccable as JAM OF THE YEAR...i know something special is happening there.

And as it seems. a lot, but a looot of post 00's material is totally and unfarily mligned...i can't even start...

Emancipation would be so good with a bit less sterile production, tons of more rawness to it, and if it was cut/narrowed down to a one disc record.

Replica said:

stpaisios said:

Emancipation (i'm a simple guy, when P said that was d album he was born to make...i believe it I read a lot about how it's a great idea album but 'production' killed it...i'm not a producer or a musican, so i don't know about that things. But i feel that when someone opens an album with something impeccable as JAM OF THE YEAR...i know something special is happening there.

And as it seems. a lot, but a looot of post 00's material is totally and unfarily mligned...i can't even start...

Emancipation would be so good with a bit less sterile production, tons of more rawness to it, and if it was cut/narrowed down to a one disc record.

I love Emancipation...agree the production was less than stellar, but overall a very enjoyabloe album. I DO think this is the one that should've been paired down to a double instead if the original Crystall Ball.

I agree on Emancipation. It's true, the production hasn't aged well and there's a good deal of filler, but there's a lot on there I like. And it did seem to me that he was trying to go in new directions at the time, which I appreciated

How come Emancipation gets slammed for its overblown production but The Gold Experience gets away with sounding like a superhero cartoon, anyway??

I enjoyed "Emancipation" for what it was. But when I read the titles like "Jam Of The Year" and "Get Your Groove On", I was expecting some killer funk. I dug the loose, Sly-like funk on "Face Down"...And P's vocal on "The Human Body" reminded me of the "Controversy" era for some strange reason.

SPYZFAN1 said:

I enjoyed "Emancipation" for what it was. But when I read the titles like "Jam Of The Year" and "Get Your Groove On", I was expecting some killer funk. I dug the loose, Sly-like funk on "Face Down"...And P's vocal on "The Human Body" reminded me of the "Controversy" era for some strange reason.

Face down, In this bed i scream, Somebody's, Holy River,One of us atr great.