It's a great triple disc. The production seems to be heavily influenced by what was happening in hip-hop at the time (he even sampled an Ice Cube song on "Mr. Happy") . . I really think the cover is what keeps people overlooking this great work. Such a solid collection of tracks. Perhaps his best album of the 90's

what do you guys think?

Well, to be honest, I am not really into this album, and haven't been for quite some time.

There has actually never been a time - not since its release - that I thought this was the album 'Prince was born to make'. There just are too many mediocre tracks on it (especially on disc 1), and the production on quite a few songs is just not my cup of tea.

My taste does tend to shift over the course of time. I haven't listened to D&P for the longest time, and have recently started listening and appreciating it again.

My all-time favorite tracks from Emancipation is fairly short list:

Curious Child

Dreamin' About U

Let's Have A Baby

Saviour

Style

My Computer

The Love We Make

Typical: there are many Emancipation tracks I used to love, but, as I said, I've grown tired of them quite some time ago, and I'm still not feeling them anymore:

Jam Of The Year

Right Back Here In My Arms

Betcha By Golly Wow!

In This Bed I Scream

Sex In The Summer

Emale

Joint 2 Joint

Face Down

Style

...

They all just sound so ... dated ... at this moment.

Hopefully, it will change, and, like D&P, I can start enjoying them again.

BTW, I do love Emancipation as a product, with the booklet, the branding, ...

Great Album...ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!

There's filler on it, but less than I thought a couple of years ago. I like all of cd 2 but, for example, skip tracks 5-10 on disc 3.

These days I love to listen to The Holy River, The Love We Make, Saviour. Brilliant album.

I have been singing the praises of this album since it came out. I fucking love it always

Underrated to whom? I hope not fans, since the day I bought it back in the late 90's I was in love with that album.

I have always considered it among Prince;s greatest albums. Criminally underrated. I still bristle when I hear some knucklehead talking about how it would have been better as a single disc. There is no one left who could make a solid multiple disc set (Stevie used to do this but not anymore).

Saying it sounds dated doesn't wash with me either. Dated compared to what standard? Every Prince album sounds like what Prince sound like when he made it. The same could be said about 1999 and Purple Rain based on faulty logic that they should be comparable to music released in the last few weeks.

I agree with that. Although my opinion is probably not very objective because I first saw Prince during the Love4OneAnother Tour so this Album and time period is particularly special to me. Somebody's Somebody is one of my favorites especially when he did it live (I was lucky enough to see it). I wish he would have resurrected it on subsequent tours.

As said before, the problem with "Emancipation" are essentially 2:

1) The plastic production already old at the time of release and aged very bad;

2) The inclusion of too much filler material only to reach a triple CD to live up the expectations.


Anyone here at the org has a favourite selections of tracks of "Emancipation" to obtain a great 1/2 CD releases, so I will not post mine here again.

But I have to admit that my feeling for it haven't changed in the years; it is still one of the P releases which I return to less. Simply for me it didn't work as I hoped.

I think thematically it was Prince's most (and probably still is) mature adult album. The production however was lazy and of course at 36 tracks was in need of serious edit. Easily the weekest side-one of Princes career. The good stuff is somewhat buried.He had just fired the NPG and it shows in some of the routine arrangements and lack of sizzle but seems he was just so happy to not have anyone to answer to he just threw it all out there.

Unfortunately the project was cursed and shortly after released the cornerstones of the album, his marriage to Mayte and birth of son, all ended much too soon.

I get a bit sad when I listen to this one especially Sex in the Summer (featuring the heartbeat of his baby), Lets have a Baby and Friend Lover Sister Wife...such great tracks but then just brutal reality.

[Edited 5/6/16 6:46am]

There was just a thread on this album a few weeks before Prince died.

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It's good(ish), and in general I like it. But there is far too much mediocrity for it to be essential, and it's one of the first Prince albums that sounds 'generic'. Stylistically, rather than leading the pack, it sounds like he's now trying to catch up. Hence, it now sounds dated 20 years later. To make the 3-CD concept yet more unnecessary, he clearly (along with Kirk Johnson) padded out most of the songs in order to make each disc exactly 60 minutes.

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For all it's flaws, though, it's still really fascinating and akin to a (admittedly controlled) sprawl through the Purple One's brain -- like reading the edited, spell-corrected diaries of a serial killer. [Okay, maybe my analogy is poor.]

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Of course it would be better (pound-for-pound) if whittled down. By the way, my own favorites are:

- Jam of the Year

- Somebody's Somebody

- Courtin' Time

- White Mansion

- Damned if I Do

- In This Bed I Scream

- Sex in the Summer

- Soul Sanctuary

- Curious Child

- The Holy River

- My Computer

- The Love We Make

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Would those 12 tracks have made an awesome album? Of course! But even so, the style and sound aren't really Prince at his best. Sometimes his mannered falsetto and 'smooth R&B lizard' voice kind of turn me off, on this record.

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I think 'In This Bed I Scream' is a good example of a track that's under-served by the Emancipation style and production. It's a cool enough song, and I like it (basically an apology to Wendy & Lisa, and maybe Susannah, too). But the vocal isn't that good. Here I miss the mid/late-80s voice. Even more than that, I wish the modest 'hook' of this song -- the riff that kicks in at the end of full verses, and after the 'In this bed I scream' refrain -- had been played on guitar by the 1981 or 1988 touring bands. It should be higher in the mix, rawer, and more attention-demanding. On Emancipation, everything sort-of gets lost and smoothed out in the R-Kelly production style.

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Yet it remains Prince's most fascinating '90s release.

I agree with the "generic" statement. I didn't like the "plastic" drum sounds and loops..A lot of fans (in the 'purple and black org days') were hoping that Kirky J would leave and Micheal Bland would come back... I also agree with the "catching up" statement too. But I do like the variety on "Emancipation"..musically speaking, there's something on there for everyone.

ThePanther said:

To make the 3-CD concept yet more unnecessary, he clearly (along with Kirk Johnson) padded out most of the songs in order to make each disc exactly 60 minutes.

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Yeah, that's something that has always bothered me about this album. Why did each disc have to be exactly 60 minutes? Padding out songs with unneccesary crap to achieve that is just madness. Songs like Sleep Around or The Human Body would be so much better if he'd shaved off the last two and a half minutes of each. I usually like Prince's long extended jams, but these two just go on and on and on without doing anything particularly interesting.

[Edited 5/6/16 8:00am]

I just dont get how he could go from such fantastic drums with Michael Bland to such bland drum programming from Kirky J. In an obvious hurry to get it out for some reason (3 months after Chaos and Disorder?) and handing over the drum programming was a huge mistake.

[Edited 5/6/16 7:55am]

friend2001 said:

I just dont get how he could go from such fantastic drums with Michael Bland to such bland drum programming from Kirky J. In an obvious hurry to get it out for some reason (3 months after Chaos and Disorder?) and handing over the drum programming was a huge mistake.

[Edited 5/6/16 7:55am]

Well, it's the difference between a live drummer and a drum programmer. Did Kirky J play any live drums on Emancipation? Does he even play the drums?

Not a great album for me. Could possibly have made a decent single album, but it's got far too much filler.

Lianachan said:

Not a great album for me. Could possibly have made a decent single album, but it's got far too much filler.

Go on then, give us your single disc version. Lets see if I agree with your edits!!!

"New Power Soul" would be a great 4th disc of "Emancipation".

It has more or less the same good and bad things.

Question..MUSICIAN MAGAZINE-"Your drummer, Kirk A. Johnson, co-produced much of 'Emancipation'".......Answer by P; "That stems from his being a drum programmer. He's good at using the computer to put a rhythm track together. I don't like setting that kind of stuff up, because a lot of times the song will leave me while I'm doing it. But when Kirk and I work together, we can keep each other excited....from Musician magazine 1997.

BoraBora said:

"New Power Soul" would be a great 4th disc of "Emancipation".

It has more or less the same good and bad things.

Come On, Wasted Kisses, Until Ure in my Arms Again, and The One are all great tracks. Emancipation is always nice when I give it a spin every few months. Not a classic, but appreciated nevertheless.

Disk 1 is good on its own. You can hit shuffle on that thing, and it works in just about any configuration. Try it.

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I think some of the tracks, on all 3 disks, were extended just for the sake of having each disk be 1 hour in length. That's where some of the songs lost their strength. Disk 2 and 3 (mostly 3) is where I find some filler trackers, more than Disk 1.

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Songs I could do without:

Slave

The Human Body

The Plan

Joint 2 Joint (only some of the longer drawn out parts)

New World

Da Da Da

Emancipation

Mr. Happy

Dreamin' About U

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Take those out, edit a couple of the other long songs down a tad (JOTY, GYGO, J2J), and you have a really strong 2 CD set.

TrivialPursuit said:

Disk 1 is good on its own. You can hit shuffle on that thing, and it works in just about any configuration. Try it.

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I think some of the tracks, on all 3 disks, were extended just for the sake of having each disk be 1 hour in length. That's where some of the songs lost their strength. Disk 2 and 3 (mostly 3) is where I find some filler trackers, more than Disk 1.

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Songs I could do without:

Slave

The Human Body

The Plan

Joint 2 Joint (only some of the longer drawn out parts)

New World

Da Da Da

Emancipation

Mr. Happy

Dreamin' About U.

Take those out, edit a couple of the other long songs down a tad (JOTY, GYGO, J2J), and you have a really strong 2 CD set.

Those are some of my favourites on the album. New World and Joint 2 Joint especially. You see, this is why this 2CD set never works, because nobody can agree on what tracks to include.

TrivialPursuit said:

Preach. I absolutely love Emancipation and is definitely in my top 10 favorite Prince albums. Emancipation is dear to me as well because it is this album that begun my journey into becoming a full fledged fan of his music. Sure, there are a few tracks that aren't that great, but overall, I love the album. Back when it came out in '96 (when I was in high school), I played the 3rd disc to death and "Somebody's Somebody" was (and still is) my favorite. At the time, I really loved "Sleep Around", however, these days, I play a combination of discs 2 and 3 a lot. And for the past two weeks, I've had "Saviour" on repeat. It's that song that has helped calm my emotions during my grief.

But overall my favs are:

Somebody's Somebody

Saviour

The Love We Make

Emancipation

Sex in the Summer

Style

The Holy River

I Can't Make You Love Me

One of Us

Sleep Around

Betcha By Golly Wow!

La,La,La Means I Love U

Dreamin' About U

Slave

The ones I still skip to this very day:

We Gets Up

Mr. Happy

Soul Sanctuary

Curious Child

Joint 2 Joint

The Plan

The Human Body (feel kinda guilty about this one; didn't he use his baby's ultrasound for the beat?)

Da,Da,Da

missfee said:

McD said:

It would make a great 2 disc album. I'd toss almost everything from Disc One, save Right Back Here In My Arms. At time it came out, I considered it the weakest single CD of his career. Now I think I'd put Lotus, MPLSound and 20Ten beneath it. But Disc 3 is hit and miss in the best, crazy way. And Disc 2 is simply gorgeous. And whoever decided to lead off with Betcha By Golly Wow (Prince?) shot the album in the heart.

I'm sure that was Prince. It seems that beginning around 1991, Prince often made odd choices for lead singles - Gett Off, MNIP, etc... and stronger tracks were skipped over or released later when radio had grown tired of the album by then.