Apart from C&D and NPS, Emancipation is the only Prince album I have yet to buy. I fully expect a lot of filler, but does it have at least a handful of good songs?

I like the first and second cds, can't stand the third. I got it for only £3.99 in a sale and that's why i bought it, i wouldn't wanna pay anywhere near the full price it had listed which was £26.99!! (between $40-$50!!!!)

Yeah, I don't think I'd be happy paying full price. I guess I'll head to ebay...I've already looked in nearly every second cd shop in London....

It's got some filler, mostly on Disc III (just to be expected with a three disc album), but there are a lot of really moving, really fantastic songs here overall.

It should also be said that some fans, myself included, consider Disc II to be some of the best work he's ever done.
[This message was edited Sat May 22 4:45:18 2004 by PurpleKnight]

It's MOSTLY great stuff, except it would have been better trimmed to 2 cds instead of 3.

And I'm sick of threads that say it should fit on one CD....there are far too many other good songs just to fit on one CD. 3 is too many; 2 should have been enough.

phillipt said:

there's some pretty tacky songs on the 1st cd in particular and I agree the 2nd is great but how can you not like the WHOLE 3rd disc? What about New World, Sleep Around, Face Down?

If you like plastic: you'll love it!

If you like real music: you'll hate it!

mrdespues said:

my favs from Disc 3 were "New World", "Sleep Around" and "The Love We Make." The rest was filler on Disc 3

JimmyPinkerton said:

You can get Emacnipation for under £10 or $20 from most online retailers now... and it is definitely worth getting.....albeit you're rigfht about having to wade thru a lot of fillers....
but you get about half a dozen top class trax .... especially "The Love We Make".... one of the greatest Prince songs ever...

Last I saw Play247.com were doing in at 6.99 and Asda were doing it at 3.99
[This message was edited Sat May 22 6:27:04 2004 by Persian]

interesting post - interesting responses ....

my comment is - i never liked Emancipation - and i furthor do not think that Prince liked that album too much ... it was a time in his life when Mayte was #1 clearly ... and the "freedom " thing was overwhelming ... (whining "please give my my masters back " etc ... like he didnt have enuf $$$$$)

Because it is 3 discs- it does have something for everyone .... all three discs are admittedly different in scope and musical texture ....

I saw Prince in 97 on the tour , and he only played "face down" and "JOTY" live ... well ... maybe he also played "sleep around " i forget ... but my point being that i didnt think he was really feelin alot of that music at the time ... and because it was such a HUGE STATEMENT (puttin out 3 discs --- unheard of !) --- i woulda thought he woulda played more tunes off of that album

As you can see there is no "general consensus"

JimmyPinkerton said:

the cd is at overstock.com for like $10.99
http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi

I paid full price for it the day it came out, something like $40 at the local wrecka stow. I didn't listen to anyone then and I still don't. I love that album no matter what anybody says about it! I say it's worth it.

I think emancipatioN is as musically strong as SOTT (talking about material originality, not comparing the two LPs)...

YES...play it for yourself & you'll see...
[This message was edited Sat May 22 10:42:33 2004 by Starmist7]

there are some pretty great songs on there.

some of my favs:
Right Back Here in My Arms
Somebody's Somebody
In This Bed I Scream
Soul Sanctuary
Joint 2 Joint
The Holy River
Saviour
Face Down
Sleep Around
The Love We Make

The covers he does are pretty unforgivable.
SoTT has only 16 songs ... Emancipation has 36. Had he trimmed the filler, he could have made a classic double alblum. Instead we have a bloated 3 disc set, but that doesn't detract from the fact that there are some great songs on there.

... come upstairs to my room ...

Well, I personally love Emancipation. I had just got into Prince with Chaos And Disorder around the time that Emancipation came out. Yes it is long (3 hours) but I think it is very underrated. Many people complain about the production but I don't think it takes anything away from the songs, many of which are great.

hIsMiRRoR said:

Ditto.

it is worth buying it.

it has the song JOINT 2 JOINT.

like WOW !

I want my 25 bills back for this album,excluding 7 or 8 songs I remember.

funkaholic1972 said:

basically

JimmyPinkerton said:

About forty five minutes of strong material. If "Emancipation" was one disk, and a short one at that, it would be a four star record, better, IMO, than either "TGE" or "TRC."

Can't stand emancipation. Tried several times to get into it. Possibly the most unmemorable, tuneless record of his career

Has some good songs, whatever your taste for Prince music is.... get it!!!!

I guess I'm glad I own it, though it's hard for me to make it the whole way through Discs I or III. There's not too many outright bad songs, but the problem for me is that most of it just falls right in the average camp....not enough of the jaw-dropping P moments we're used to.