Emancipation is an interesting album and concept larded down by filler. A recent thread where one chose the best 12/13trax lead to about 30 different songs being listed. Now lets list the ones we like the least/hate or are most fillery and say why. Here are mine.

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PLEASE NO TROLLS if you don't have anything constructive about the thread to say, don't say anything.

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Mine are

1. Mr Happy - Prince's harmony is okay, but this is some painfully bad rapping by Scrappy Doo or whatever his name is.

2. Da Da Da, I don't know who scrap D is, but he needs to be stopped, he makes Tony M look like Nas or Ice T in comparison. This is painfully bad.

3. The Plan, again this muzak and nothing more, white noise designed to blend into the background of lift music and car park music. Unnecessary filler

4. Friend, Sister, Lover Mother/wife or whatever the fxxk its called - maudlin and dull, sometimes the soppy meaningless ballads are just too much, yes he loved Mayte but enough is enough.

5. Face down - gonna get hated on, but can't see anything good here, this bitch screaming "Dead like Elvis" and some morose expletive laden rap by the P man himself. This song truly squandered his legacy.

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I just find it interesting, as the album had some very fine songs on it like The Love We make, One of us, Holy River, Somebody's somebody and many other classics, but there was this filler he could have left off. We are all human and we all make mistakes, but these 5 songs are just embarrassing. Love to see what yours are.

[Edited 6/2/16 5:31am]

Adorecream said:

Adorecream said:

Emancipation is an interesting album and concept larded down by filler. A recent thread where one chose the best 12/13trax lead to about 30 different songs being listed. Now lets list the ones we like the least/hate or are most fillery and say why. Here are mine.

.

PLEASE NO TROLLS if you don't have anything constructive about the thread to say, don't say anything.

.

Mine are

1. Mr Happy - Prince's harmony is okay, but this is some painfully bad rapping by Scrappy Doo or whatever his name is.

2. Da Da Da, I don't know who scrap D is, but he needs to be stopped, he makes Tony M look like Nas or Ice T in comparison. This is painfully bad.

3. The Plan, again this muzak and nothing more, white noise designed to blend into the background of lift music and car park music. Unnecessary filler

4. Friend, Sister, Lover Mother/wife or whatever the fxxk its called - maudlin and dull, sometimes the soppy meaningless ballads are just too much, yes he loved Mayte but enough is enough.

5. Face down - gonna get hated on, but can't see anything good here, this bitch screaming "Dead like Elvis" and some morose expletive laden rap by the P man himself. This song truly squandered his legacy.

.

I just find it interesting, as the album had some very fine songs on it like The Love We make, One of us, Holy River, Somebody's somebody and many other classics, but there was this filler he could have left off. We are all human and we all make mistakes, but these 5 songs are just embarrassing. Love to see what yours are.

[Edited 6/2/16 5:31am]

I have to really agree on those totally especially 1 and 2. I'm not too crazy about the production on most of this record that is why I feel this one for some reason does not hold up for me, it's got a lot on it and obviously you can't please everyone. to the top 2 which would be mine also. I would add

3. We gets up

4. Damned If I Do

5. White Mansion

not really crazy about Disc 1 overall

To me, this was abundance of amazing music! I felt like a little kid returning home from Tower Records (really miss that store) and opeing up this collection...so much music that I had never heard b4.... so exciting! There were definitely tracks I played much more than others...but wow...the balls it took to drop this 3 cd set.... and he really seemed free (at least in his interviews) and happy (he seemed so happy in the Betcha By Golly video)... obviously such tragedy at the time 2....

As far as "bad songs"...I have always liked Friend/ Sister... really such an wonderful love letter to Mayte... and Face Down (that was, and still is, so funky). Now I really never cared for the non Prince rap parts in Da Da... but I would put on repeat Prince's rap ("ask yourself your destination...)...loved it!!! I need to listen to it today!!!

T added some NIN bass to Face Down back around this time and it made the song sound great IMO - gave it a different vibe. Similarly, the live version of the song was much better - he played some killer bass.

Slave

Human Body

New World (it just goes on and on and on and on)

Da Da Da (until Prince's verse) *
Emancipation

*As a note, if you remember back to 's talk with Mel B. in Beautiful Strange, she asked him about words upstairs, laid into the carpet. He said "that's all probably better left until another time" or something like that. Well, if you've ever seen pictures of that hallway, the words in the carpet are "Ask yourself the destination, what the source of your inspiration be", from "Da Da Da".

Adorecream said:

Emancipation is an interesting album and concept larded down by filler. A recent thread where one chose the best 12/13trax lead to about 30 different songs being listed. Now lets list the ones we like the least/hate or are most fillery and say why. Here are mine.

.

PLEASE NO TROLLS if you don't have anything constructive about the thread to say, don't say anything.

.

Mine are

1. Mr Happy - Prince's harmony is okay, but this is some painfully bad rapping by Scrappy Doo or whatever his name is.

2. Da Da Da, I don't know who scrap D is, but he needs to be stopped, he makes Tony M look like Nas or Ice T in comparison. This is painfully bad.

3. The Plan, again this muzak and nothing more, white noise designed to blend into the background of lift music and car park music. Unnecessary filler

4. Friend, Sister, Lover Mother/wife or whatever the fxxk its called - maudlin and dull, sometimes the soppy meaningless ballads are just too much, yes he loved Mayte but enough is enough.

5. Face down - gonna get hated on, but can't see anything good here, this bitch screaming "Dead like Elvis" and some morose expletive laden rap by the P man himself. This song truly squandered his legacy.

.

I just find it interesting, as the album had some very fine songs on it like The Love We make, One of us, Holy River, Somebody's somebody and many other classics, but there was this filler he could have left off. We are all human and we all make mistakes, but these 5 songs are just embarrassing. Love to see what yours are.

[Edited 6/2/16 5:31am]

I hate Da Daa Daa

The Plan, yeah just feels like a filler

Mr. Happy, yeah like Prince's vocals don't care for the rap

My computer and Emale, they are ok but two songs talking about computer related themes is an overkill

[Edited 6/9/16 17:27pm]

Emancipation would have made a killer 13/14 track LP.. No idea why there was a need to release a 3CD set.. Guess he was excited with his new found freedom

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I love Friend/Lover and find it the opposite of maudlin... I was listening to Emancipation today and had to turn it off because it brought me back to a happy, bygone time in my life for which it was partially responsible.

To this day I can´t really get into We Gets Up, Damned If I Do and Courtin Time. I just can´t listen to those songs.

But I have no problem with Da Da Da. I actually like Prince´s rap part a lot, and I don´t really mind Scrap D on it. He´s a nice guy and was an aspiring rapper in the mid 90s in Minneapolis, and Prince just gave him a shot. Good to know that he was trying to support some local rapper even though careerwise it probably would have been smarter to work with someone who is wellknown and popular. I met Scrap in 96 because we have mutual friends and we hung out a bit. The rap part is his creation, he didn´t want Prince to interfere or change the lyrics.

Of course I´d prefer a version without him but it´s too late anyway.

I like White Mansion, I also like Right Back Here In My Arms, I really liked Emancipation when it was released and still like it to this day except for those songs I mentioned above.

There are many songs on it that I don´t go back to but all in all it´s a good thing that he was free and he could release it instead of being told how long or short his album was supposed to be.

If he had gotten his will with Crystal Ball or The Dream Factory we´d be bitching and moaning about fillers , too.

Perfect timing for the thread... I've been listening to this album extensively these last few days. LOL. These 5 just don't do anything for me.

1. Courtin' Time
2. Betcha By Golly Wow
3. Emale
4. The Plane
5. The Human Body

The album overall I think is very solid. Lots of great songs, a few duds, and the rest are -- if not remarkable -- at least very well-produced and listenable.

injuredpinky said:

Perfect timing for the thread... I've been listening to this album extensively these last few days. LOL. These 5 just don't do anything for me.

1. Courtin' Time
2. Betcha By Golly Wow
3. Emale
4. The Plane
5. The Human Body

The album overall I think is very solid. Lots of great songs, a few duds, and the rest are -- if not remarkable -- at least very well-produced and listenable.

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i liked betcha by golly wow he did the cover justice.

Goofy and mid-90s as it is, I can think of no other artist who can make a melody out of "www.emale.com." "Damned If I Do" is grating.

h4rm0ny said:

injuredpinky said:

Perfect timing for the thread... I've been listening to this album extensively these last few days. LOL. These 5 just don't do anything for me.

1. Courtin' Time
2. Betcha By Golly Wow
3. Emale
4. The Plane
5. The Human Body

The album overall I think is very solid. Lots of great songs, a few duds, and the rest are -- if not remarkable -- at least very well-produced and listenable.

.

i liked betcha by golly wow he did the cover justice.

Agreed. It introduced me to the Stylistics who I've seen live.

mtlfan said:

Goofy and mid-90s as it is, I can think of no other artist who can make a melody out of "www.emale.com." "Damned If I Do" is grating.

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Damned If I Do always reminds me of Sonic Adventure on Sega Dreamcast.. that guitar part is so like japanee game music

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all of them except soul sanctury and the human body.

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correction:

Face Down
Friend, Lover, Sister Mother/ Wife



these are 2 of the best songs imho...

mtlfan said:

Goofy and mid-90s as it is, I can think of no other artist who can make a melody out of "www.emale.com." "Damned If I Do" is grating.

i love that song so much

the king takes the pawn

Adorecream said:

Emancipation is an interesting album and concept larded down by filler. A recent thread where one chose the best 12/13trax lead to about 30 different songs being listed. Now lets list the ones we like the least/hate or are most fillery and say why. Here are mine.

.

PLEASE NO TROLLS if you don't have anything constructive about the thread to say, don't say anything.

.

Mine are

1. Mr Happy - Prince's harmony is okay, but this is some painfully bad rapping by Scrappy Doo or whatever his name is.

2. Da Da Da, I don't know who scrap D is, but he needs to be stopped, he makes Tony M look like Nas or Ice T in comparison. This is painfully bad.

3. The Plan, again this muzak and nothing more, white noise designed to blend into the background of lift music and car park music. Unnecessary filler

4. Friend, Sister, Lover Mother/wife or whatever the fxxk its called - maudlin and dull, sometimes the soppy meaningless ballads are just too much, yes he loved Mayte but enough is enough.

5. Face down - gonna get hated on, but can't see anything good here, this bitch screaming "Dead like Elvis" and some morose expletive laden rap by the P man himself. This song truly squandered his legacy.

.

I just find it interesting, as the album had some very fine songs on it like The Love We make, One of us, Holy River, Somebody's somebody and many other classics, but there was this filler he could have left off. We are all human and we all make mistakes, but these 5 songs are just embarrassing. Love to see what yours are.

[Edited 6/2/16 5:31am]

Music is wonderful, the way it affects people in so many ways is just amazing. For instance, I think Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother, Wife is a beautiful song, really beautiful. And his voice towards the end is just so emotional, i absolutely love it. Yet you dislike it so much. This is something I find really interesting and I believe that it not only is a question of taste but also how we attach feelings/emotions to the songs and that makes us percieve things differently. If I told you I cry everytime i listen to the first chords in Bowie's "Moonage Daydream" you'll probably think I'm nuts, but that songs makes me cry like a baby. I'm pretty sure it's related to some unconscious association I make with it. Time, space, feelings, memory.

I always thought that Te Amo Corazón was a cheesy song. The idea of Prince singing words in Spanish sounded to me like those middle aged Spanish/Portuguese cheese crooners, but then I made myself listen to it and now I absolutely love that song. Not so much the lyrics, but the emotion Prince always conveys.

Mr Crappy

Da Da Da

Slave

One Of Us

Damned If I Do

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There is some seriously wack stuff on this album. Then there's some really cool stuff that suffers a lot from the production. It's amazing how something can sound so glizy and pristine, and so cheap and tacky at the same time.

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Also I'm giggling, because as usual some of my favourite tracks on the album come up repeatedly in these threads (Courtin' Time, New World, We Gets Up, Emale) and I can see why they get mentioned, but I just like them even if I recognise they aren't top drawer material - but Face Down? Nah, that doesn't belong in this thread!

NouveauDance said:

To be honest for it would be more easy to list the 5 best songs on Emancipation.

Anyway:

- Da Da Da: beat apart, this is mess good maybe for some kind of EP release, surely not for a proper album

- Style: I find it overlong and boring

- Courtin' Time: obviously a failed attempt for P to explore different style of music

- The Human Body: if this is an indication of what it sounded the entire unreleased"techno" album.... come on

- I Can't Make You Love Me: recycled sounds in a un-emotional renditions that absolutely pales in confrontation with the George Michael's version

"Slave" and "Face Down" are in my top five from Emancipation.

Worst five:

Soul Sanctuary

Betcha By Golly Wow

One of Us

The Plan

Da Da Da

jodznsez said:

Emancipation would have made a killer 13/14 track LP.. No idea why there was a need to release a 3CD set.. Guess he was excited with his new found freedom

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I am grateful for all the songs, I can always make my own version of the CD that I like, but at the same time, those other songs still exist. Any Prince music is better than no Prince music. I would much rather he put these so called filler songs on these 2 or 3 cd sets than have them just be thrown in the vault for nobody to ever hear.

Curious Child - WTF

My. Happy - Mr. Happy's here and we're BUGGIN!! Yeah, hasn't aged well...

Emale - Yeesh...

One of Us - One of the worst covers of all time

White Mansion - Meh.

lynx said:

Curious Child - WTF

My. Happy - Mr. Happy's here and we're BUGGIN!! Yeah, hasn't aged well...

Emale - Yeesh...

One of Us - One of the worst covers of all time

White Mansion - Meh.

Love Curious Child.

jillybean said:

"Slave" and "Face Down" are in my top five from Emancipation.

Worst five:

Soul Sanctuary

Betcha By Golly Wow

One of Us

The Plan

Da Da Da

Holy shit. I love Soul Sanctuary.

Face Down is one of his best songs in the 90s. Also love Curious Child.

the onyl ones I never listen to is Mr Happy and emale.