Se7en said:

leecaldon said:

feeluupp said:

AGREE!!

I mean I've seen endless posts where some fans say 1999 is a bad album, or SOTT isn't on his TOP 5, or Planet Earth is better than Purple Rain...

Yeah, but the point is, albums are made for fans, and if each fan can take an album or two worth's material out of Emancipation that they like, then it has earned its right to be 3 CDs.

P.S. There is someone on here that thinks Planet Earth is better than Purple Rain??

They aren't necessarily made for fans.

Se7en said:

Looking back, I probably would've left off (or cut down) the cover songs. I don't think he needed them at that moment.

I agree.The four cover songs are disappointing.Philly soul classics like "Betcha By Golly Wow" and "La La Means I Love You" are timeless classics that can't really be improved.Many people have covered these songs,but no one really brings anything new to the songs,not even Prince.The other two remakes ("I Can't Make You Love Me" and "One Of Us") are decent but unremarkable.

SoulAlive said:

Se7en said:

Looking back, I probably would've left off (or cut down) the cover songs. I don't think he needed them at that moment.

I agree.The four cover songs are disappointing.Philly soul classics like "Betcha By Golly Wow" and "La La Means I Love You" are timeless classics that can't really be improved.Many people have covered these songs,but no one really brings anything new to the songs,not even Prince.The other two remakes ("I Can't Make You Love Me" and "One Of Us") are decent but unremarkable.

Yeah I agree re: doing w/o the covers. I like I Can't Make You Love me, not necesaarily sure if it should stay because you know mood, sequenecing, and sonics, but it's a solid rendition. Though I will say it probably would have fit more on New Power Soul. One of Us is forgettable.

As many have said on here already, the actual sound of the drum machines and whatnot just sound like... well every other 90's programmed drum machine oriented style of music. That is my one complaint about Prince's 90's output - it was a mixture of so much that sounded very similar. There are some great gems in songs and albums though

Emancipation took me a long time to really get to. I would turn it off after the first disk because so many of the songs just lacked the songwriting spark and all had a similar sound to it

SoulAlive said:

Se7en said:

Looking back, I probably would've left off (or cut down) the cover songs. I don't think he needed them at that moment.

I agree.The four cover songs are disappointing.Philly soul classics like "Betcha By Golly Wow" and "La La Means I Love You" are timeless classics that can't really be improved.Many people have covered these songs,but no one really brings anything new to the songs,not even Prince.The other two remakes ("I Can't Make You Love Me" and "One Of Us") are decent but unremarkable.

Completely disagree with you on "Betcha By Golly Wow". Norman Connors version with the late Phyllis Hyman on lead vocals is considered one of the best musical remakes period.

GhostChick said:

SoulAlive said:

I agree.The four cover songs are disappointing.Philly soul classics like "Betcha By Golly Wow" and "La La Means I Love You" are timeless classics that can't really be improved.Many people have covered these songs,but no one really brings anything new to the songs,not even Prince.The other two remakes ("I Can't Make You Love Me" and "One Of Us") are decent but unremarkable.

Completely disagree with you on "Betcha By Golly Wow". Norman Connors version with the late Phyllis Hyman on lead vocals is considered one of the best musical remakes period.

really? generally though, dude's right, classic cuts don't need no tinkering. I can't think of many that are better in remake form but I can think of a lot that make me think they ruined a great song.

what wrong with u people...do u agree with Rick James ????

It was the first Prince album I ever bought. (How's that for a start?)

I once heard Elton John say in regards to the album that Prince should have edited himself. If he would have made an album of pop stuff he thought people wanted to hear / a "safe" album, would it have fit the title "Empancipation"?

To me, the album title sums it up. You wouldn't expect any limitations on the production, song writing, musical variety. And it's the album's variety that still makes it a fine album to this day. I mean, he's got "Courtin' Time", "Facedown", "Let's Have a Baby" all on the same album (though different disks). Sounds like freedom to me.

Note: And who can overlook the tremendous track "The Love We Make"...

Doozer said:

I might have agreed with the OP in 1996. The unfortunate reality now is that there are no new recordings - ever. So bless all 3 disks of Emancipation. If one wants to pear it down to something more succinct, it's easy. We have 180 minutes to pick from. . Imagine if Emamcipation HAD been just on disk, an amazing one, even, and we were sitting here today clamoring for the 120 minutes of additional Emancipation-era tracks rumored to be in the vault. . A shorter version of this album wouldn't have changed Prince's legacy or popularity. . Amazing that this album is 20 years old. It was produced closure to For You than his final album.

I am on board with what Doozer said in this post. I personally was not wowed by Emancipation I bought it when it first came out. And I have listened to it more after Prince's passing. I admit there are some songs I like more than others. But I do like that Prince's albums were not always similar and he tried new things, new sounds. I appreciate that and especially since his passing, I am holding on to every single song and giving it a new set of ears to really feel it. It's ok to not like the entire album, but sometimes songs "grow" on you after really listening and feeling it. So for anyone not feeling Emancipation, give it another try with a new set of ears.

op nailed it. its overproduced and lacking rawness

funkaholic1972 said:

I agree with the OP that the production is a huge problem on this album. It sounds lifeless, dull and plastic-y. Unlistenable for me and I am a huge Prince fan.

Besides the production issues I also think there are way too many ballads on Emancipation. Also perhaps a 3 disc/180 minutes set is a bit much to take in as a listener (unless it was really good maybe, but I don't think Emancipation was very good at all). And the artwork of the album was atrocious, so tacky, I hated it.

This combination of issues makes Emancipation a really difficult album for me. I hated it when it came out and thought Prince's 'freedom' was a huge disappointment. After my faith had slowly started waning from Lovesexy on, this was the moment where I lost faith in him completely. The run of uneven albums before Emancipation was worrying, but Emancipation made me stop following Prince closely.

I also hated his clothes/hair at the time, Prince and his new music didn't fit in with the zeitgeist at all IMO. At that time I was deep into electronic music like triphop, breakbeat and drum&bass and music in these genres sounded much more innovative and exciting to me than these sirupy Emancipation ballads.

The Rainbow Children surprised me and was an exciting album to me, altough slightly flawed by the deep voice and all the religious mumbo jumbo. An interesting record though musically and great production, unlike Emancipation.

i couldn't say it better so i'll co-sign.

++++what was with the white parka over every outfit? maybe pyshologically he needed protection from the tragedies he was dealing with. i loved the camel coat/outfit in 'somebody's somebody' video. much better look,imo.

I just listened to all 3 discs and its a masterpiece. One of the best albums of his career. How can you call yourself a Prince fan and not like this masterpiece. All of the elements of everything he ever did is in there. He was obviously very inspired by Mayte

the songs are cool, but the production is too safe and conservative for me. The "Somebody's Somebody" live cut vs. studio cut illustrates it pretty well. If there had been more people arounto push or challenged Prince, it could have been as great as he said it would be.

.

As it is, it stands right next to the Star Wars Prequels as a great example of why you shouldn't give artists unlimited freedom and resources to indulge every whim.

The artwork is AWFUL the whole project is a huge fucking mess. One thing everyone agrees on is that as it is ... it sucks .. no one wants to listen to the whole thing .. too many songs no one wants to hear again ... everyone wants it shorter ... but its main problem is the previously mentioned mess that this album is .. who the fuck follows Face Down with La La La means I love you .. most of the record is pretty love songs but we get the orange slave gunk on the cover .. and the star trek production is annoying enough to skip over some of the best songs on the records ...

orange is an angry color ... it represents the tiger which is quarrelsome in fen shui .. here we have thoughtful love songs mixed with vitriol towards his record company ... it just does not work .. the lost chapter cd is so much better in so many ways ... and what an insult to the record company that took a chance on prince with a 3 cd release .. for the entire theme to be a big winey fest towards his last record company ... his first non wb record should have been a statement on prince not a bitchfest ...

had he focused on the love songs and trimmed the angry songs he may have had better results .. but again the songs production is stale all the way up until holy river, at which point my ears actually feel like they are listening to something real again .. real instruments not sound effects that should be in a sci fi movie or something ... joint to joint is a great example of prince just cramming it all in .. the ending is a mess .. the whole project is a mess ... too bad cuz some of the songs are great .. they just sound so fucking generic ... and the title song .. the song we waited 3 hours to hear .. fucking crap!

TrevorAyer said:

The artwork is AWFUL the whole project is a huge fucking mess. One thing everyone agrees on is that as it is ... it sucks .. no one wants to listen to the whole thing .. too many songs no one wants to hear again ... everyone wants it shorter ... but its main problem is the previously mentioned mess that this album is .. who the fuck follows Face Down with La La La means I love you .. most of the record is pretty love songs but we get the orange slave gunk on the cover .. and the star trek production is annoying enough to skip over some of the best songs on the records ...

orange is an angry color ... it represents the tiger which is quarrelsome in fen shui .. here we have thoughtful love songs mixed with vitriol towards his record company ... it just does not work .. the lost chapter cd is so much better in so many ways ... and what an insult to the record company that took a chance on prince with a 3 cd release .. for the entire theme to be a big winey fest towards his last record company ... his first non wb record should have been a statement on prince not a bitchfest ...

had he focused on the love songs and trimmed the angry songs he may have had better results .. but again the songs production is stale all the way up until holy river, at which point my ears actually feel like they are listening to something real again .. real instruments not sound effects that should be in a sci fi movie or something ... joint to joint is a great example of prince just cramming it all in .. the ending is a mess .. the whole project is a mess ... too bad cuz some of the songs are great .. they just sound so fucking generic ... and the title song .. the song we waited 3 hours to hear .. fucking crap!

.

HA! Love this; don't disagree. You have a way with words.

Doozer said:

I might have agreed with the OP in 1996. The unfortunate reality now is that there are no new recordings - ever. So bless all 3 disks of Emancipation. If one wants to pear it down to something more succinct, it's easy. We have 180 minutes to pick from. . Imagine if Emamcipation HAD been just on disk, an amazing one, even, and we were sitting here today clamoring for the 120 minutes of additional Emancipation-era tracks rumored to be in the vault. . A shorter version of this album wouldn't have changed Prince's legacy or popularity. . Amazing that this album is 20 years old. It was produced closure to For You than his final album.

Nice post, I agree with this.

"What's a man to do?"

but can we all agree that da, da, da , emale and my computer shouldnt be on it?!?!

^^^ No.

There is no problem with Emancipation

Starting the week of Prince's birthday, I listened to all of his albums start-to-finish one after the other (not skipping any tracks). Overall, between work and home, it took me 3 weeks.

Emancipation was the only one that was tedious to get through. Blame that more on the length, but the slower songs really did drag on during Disc 02.

I still love the album though.

Se7en said:

Starting the week of Prince's birthday, I listened to all of his albums start-to-finish one after the other (not skipping any tracks). Overall, between work and home, it took me 3 weeks.

Emancipation was the only one that was tedious to get through. Blame that more on the length, but the slower songs really did drag on during Disc 02.

I still love the album though.

Consider each CD a seperate album, that should help.

[Edited 7/15/16 6:54am]

soladeo1 said:

I think we all agree that Emancipation, instead of a sprawling 3 CD set, would have made a real excellent 2 CD set...and one FANTASTIC 1 desk set...

But even that would not be enough to make Emancipation a True Classic Prince album no matter how good some of the songs are given a glarring weakness of the album...

It's flaccid Overall Production and Mix Design.

It's hard to put a finger on the problem but that's the root of it, isn't it?

Many of us have said things to the effect of, "I really like some of Emancipation but for some reason I never listen to it..." or "...it just doesn't sound good, for some reason..."

I think the root of the issue is that Emancipation sounds too "clean". There is no grit or passion in the record (albeit there are some very fine vocal performances). If you compare Emancipation to albums like Dirty Mind or Purple Rain it sounds so clinical and precise and "fussy".

Where are the RIPPING and SLASHING rhythm guitar chords? The hint of aural danger and menace of stuff like Computer Blue and All The Critics?

Nothing sounds organic and spontaneous, right?

It's soudns like a Prince Algorythm Made the Record...or an Prince A.I...

* Moderators Note

People have the right to discuss albums/album configurations. The OP was not nasty nor did they create a flame/bait thread. No reason to display disgust if you don't like the topic. There are many others to click on.
If we start shutting down people desire to critically discuss the music, in a year or two the Org won't have many discussion.