Emancipation (studio album) by Prince

From Brandon8 04/15/2020 18:59

The production on this album may be the worst of any Prince album. There is one very good album here if you take the best songs from each disc. For me the 1st disc is by far the best. The 2nd probably the least favorite and the 3rd is pretty inconsistent with the worst production of all. Freedom had a price.

From Tamthebam 02/08/2020 08:46

As just about everyone has said "It's too long" back in the day of cassettes I managed to get all my favourite tracks and my self edited tracks onto a 90 mins cassette. The stand out tracks for me are Right Back Here In My Arms, Betcha By Golly Wow, Sex In The Summer, One Kiss at A Time, Soul Sanctuary, Sleep Around, One Of Us, Joint To Joint, Holy River & Human Body. For me the third disc is by far the strongest and Disc 1 the weakest. although it is a close call between discs 1&2. Lastly it has not stood the test of time as well as Parade or Sign O The Times or Lovesexy.

I used to be a big Prince fan. That said this album is a mess. If there is a "concept" it escapes me. Pretentious, self indulgent and oh so long. There is way to much filler material on this 3-disc set. Oh and, really a "Slave" that lives in a Mansion, give me a break. Stop whining, shut up and play already, damn!

I've listened to this album three times. But looking at the track listing, the only one I recognize is Jam of the Year. There's simply too much material that just all runs into one generic three-hour piece of music.

From paladisiac 12/13/2011 16:30

It\'s a good 3 disc offering, but could\'ve been a great one if whittled down to 2 CDs or even 1 of the best stuff. Emancipation represents the new prince sound that he\'d carry on with varying subtle flavors going forward. You\'ve heard this sound in small quantities on diamonds and pearls, 0(+> and the gold experience, but with 3 discs that run the gamut from uptempo prince rockers to his not-so-subtle love/sex ploys, he exhausts the \"new prince sound\" palette to where there\'s nothing really left outside of that palette. At the time, this was 3 discs of sheer delight. There are a lot of good songs in these 3 discs -- \"jam of the year\", \"right back here in my arms\", \"somebody\'s somebody\", \"get yo groove on\" (those first 4 lead off disc 1), \"betcha by golly wow!\" (cover), \"we gets up\", \"white mansion\", \"mr. happy\", \"in this bed i scream\", \"sex in the summer\", \"emale\" (www.emale.com), \"curious child\", \"joint 2 joint\", \"the holy river\", \"slave\" (possibly the best song in the set recalling 0(+>-era prince along with \"pope\" from his hits package), \"new world\", \"the human body\" (pretty good too), \"face down\" (just like elvis), \"la, la, la means i love u\", \"style\" (another pretty good song, although it overstays its welcome), \"sleep around\" (good song that goes on a bit long), \"da, da, da\", \"my computer\" and \"one of us\" (cover), but this should\'ve been whittled down to 1 album or at least 2. The 3rd disc is the strongest -- 2nd the weakest. Another annoying trait of this album is that every disc is the same song length. Well, this just doesn\'t happen naturally in the wild -- a bunch of songs have an extended ending i believe just to fill up time so that each disc is of equal time duration, with an equal amount of songs (12). So some good songs drag on after what should\'ve been their expiration time (like \"get yo groove on\") with either talking skits mixed in or unending choruses or instrumentals at the end. But there\'s just so much, both good songs and not-as-good-filler, that it overwhelms in the \"do i really want to listen to this -whole- album?\" way.

From lightmyway 05/10/2012 04:01

A Prince triple-album! Oh my heart! Obviously it's way too long, but at the same time the main reason I like it so much is that it's way too long. There are a lot of good songs and a lot of bad ones, but it's a great voyage.

From paladisiac 12/13/2011 16:44

It's a good 3 disc offering, but could've been a great one if whittled down to 2 CDs or even 1 of the best stuff. Emancipation represents the new prince sound that he'd carry on with varying subtle flavors going forward. You've heard this sound in small quantities on diamonds and pearls, 0(+> and the gold experience, but with 3 discs that run the gamut from uptempo prince rockers to his not-so-subtle love/sex ploys, he exhausts the "new prince sound" palette to where there's nothing really left outside of that palette. At the time, this was 3 discs of sheer delight. There are a lot of good songs in these 3 discs -- "jam of the year", "right back here in my arms", "somebody's somebody", "get yo groove on" (those first 4 lead off disc 1), "betcha by golly wow!" (cover), "we gets up", "white mansion", "mr. happy", "in this bed i scream", "sex in the summer", "emale" (www.emale.com), "curious child", "joint 2 joint", "the holy river", "slave" (possibly the best song in the set recalling 0(+>-era prince along with "pope" from his hits package), "new world", "the human body" (pretty good too), "face down" (just like elvis), "la, la, la means i love u", "style" (another pretty good song, although it overstays its welcome), "sleep around" (good song that goes on a bit long), "da, da, da", "my computer" and "one of us" (cover), but this should've been whittled down to 1 album or at least 2. The 3rd disc is the strongest -- 2nd the weakest. Another annoying trait of this album is that every disc is the same song length. Well, this just doesn't happen naturally in the wild -- a bunch of songs have an extended ending i believe just to fill up time so that each disc is of equal time duration, with an equal amount of songs (12). So some good songs drag after what should've been their expiration time (like "get yo groove on") with either talking skits mixed in or unending choruses or instrumentals at the end. But there's just so much, both good songs and not-as-good-filler, that it overwhelms in the "do i really want to listen to this -whole- album?" way.