Prince Album: “Emancipation”

Three hours of perfect Prince is hard to believe. Here it is. All the grooves are present. All the funk. The indulgent boudoir ballads. The ambiguous spirituality. Cameos of soul & gospel & rap. If you've ever liked any Prince song, then you're bound to find another favourite on this explosion of creativity.

Of course there's a reason this album is so overwhelming, both in terms of quantity and quality: it represents the best of five years of songwriting. Allegedly in 1991 or so Prince walked into the Warner Bros. offices and dumped five albums' worth of music into their laps, thus fulfilling his 'contractual obligations' for the next five years. He then went home and continued to write songs. Once 'emancipated' from WB, free to form NPG music, he released this treasure trove. Without normal distribution, however, it "only" reached No.11 on the Billboard Album Chart, and spawned only one single. Crazy stuff. There's enough musical genius here for three or four chart-topping albums and a host of singles.

There are DVDs available of Prince's more recent lives shows, featuring consumate musicians, such as Maceo Parker and members of The Family Stone, but none more distinguished than Prince himself - his performances are terrific and showcase his enormous talent. Music is his life. He can play virtually any instrument, sing, write, arrange...dance. What's more, he enjoys himself on stage - and it's hard not to share in it all. The DVDs are ideal complements to this CD set.

I think this is one of his best ever albums, and one of the best pop albums of all time. Having heard almost all his work, this would be my desert island recording. I've wondered why the praise for it has been less than universal and concluded that in a strange sense it is "too good" - there are at least twenty songs that could have been Top 10 hits, and which beg to be treated as 'favourites' - normally, I'd listen to an album and come back to 2 or 3 songs repeatedly - here, that makes for a difficult choice - what's more, since these songs have been starved of airplay they don't bring that welcome nostalgia of a popular hit, no memory of dancing to this or that at a party - it's almost like listening to a great new song for the first time. Also, there's no filler, nor is there a "theme" which allows for half-attentive listening - every four minutes another great tune shouts out and demands to be heard! It's so good that it's almost hard work!

This was without a doubt the most anticipated album of its year for me. I was in high school and was really the only hardcore Prince fan in my clique of homeboys, and, boy, I couldn't wait to hear what he was gon' sound like after bein' granted full artistic freedom. An' three full-length albums of it. Thas' jus' too much to swallow. There's no true concept behind any one'a these discs, but you can certainly feel the cohesiveness of the songs as they flow one behind the other and it's far from slapped together in spite'a what you may have heard. There is soooo much great material here like 'White Mansion', 'Soul Sanctuary', 'Curious Child' and 'Let's Have a Baby' that you forgive the occasional throwaway like 'Courtin' Time'. I mean some'a these songs are unsung and unheralded CLASSICS like the cool, slick n' dirty multi-layered funk of 'Joint 2 Joint' (listen to the way he incorporated that Savion Glover tap in there! End of innovation? Ha!), the moving spiritual imagery of 'The Holy River', the bad-ayyyess drummer march of 'Slave', and the pure heartbreak of his perfect, an' I mean PERFECT version of 'I Can't Make U Love Me'. This album can do so much for the right listener; the listener lookin' for substance an' soul; the listener lookin' for some music by an' artist as devoted to makin' it as they are to livin' by it.

The following summer after this came out I saw Prince in concert on his 'Jam of the Year tour' and was floored. It didn't have the bombastic stageshow or the over-the-top vulgarity of his previous tours. In hindsight now, my wisdom has shown me that it was a symbol (no pun intended) of a man who was now so immersed in his art and his music he had completely let go of "style" as a part of his creative process. Dayyyuumn! He is tha MAN, y'all! An' ya KNOW this! Listen to him sangin' on the title cut which closes the third disc of this epic. He comes full circle tellin' us he'll see us "in the purple rain". This was far from a dyin' breath. This was a new beginning for a creative and restless genius.

I don't understand why the press was all over the idea that last year was the "year of Prince's comeback". It made me think back to 1996 when this 3-CD epic was released and was being championed as, well, pretty much the same thing. Hell, even way before that the Batman soundtrack was touted as "Prince's comeback". Why don't we just accept the fact that he never really goes anywhere and that our shallow selves just take his genius and creative complexity for granted a lot. Well, hopefully it will never happen again.

Like most Prince fans (...), while I had heard a few of his singles in the late 70's & early 80's, it was seeing "Purple Rain" that turned me into a permanent fan. While I love the next few albums to different degrees, his next real masterpiece was "Sign O' The Times." After a few more releases, he blew me away again with "The Gold Experience," and although the narration between the tunes sometimes interrupted the flow of the album, the tunes were absolutely killer.

Then, on a hot summer night in a hot tub in 1997, my wife I and listened to this set for the first time. How the hell he came up with 3 hours of music this good is truly beyond me. I feel the word is used FAR too loosely these days, but the guy really is a freakin' genius. No matter which of his styles you enjoy (pure funk, jazz-funk, ballads, hip-hop, tunes to have sex to, dance tunes, etc.), you will be MORE than satisfied.

Not-so-hardcore fans were alienated by the switch to "The Symbol" when this one came out, plus the fact that not as many folks are willing to slap down the extra $ for a 3-disc set. It's too bad, because by rights, this one should have been HUGE. I'm glad to see all the renewed interest after the Grammy and R&R Hall of Fame performance...I just hope that as old fans play catch-up with his post-80's stuff, that they'll put this one in their shopping cart. You won't be disappointed.

Maybe I did not hear the same CDs everyone else did but these CDs have a few good songs but nothing like I would have expected from such a hyped up CD. Too many mediocre songs with no depth. Too many boring songs that obviously are only pleasing to him. Don't get me wrong there are a few songs that are good but not worth the price of the entire CD collection. Hoped it would be a lot better especially from a long time Prince fan.

Making a 3 disc was probably a mistake. It's not like Prince isn't used to releasing "lost" songs(see Crystal Ball, Black Album and Vault). Why not make this a two disc and release the leftovers as time went on.

In all honesty, the second disc is probably the best overall. The first one has some gems on it, his cover of I Can't Make You Love Me is nothing short of fantastic. He made it his own and it was exactly what we expect, greatness.

I'll say it again, take the best songs and make a two disc album...then it'll be a sold album. Take the absolute best tracks and make one disc and it's a 4 star album easily.

Don't sell this one too short, it's got some real gems and even when it's not one of his best songs he throws something in there that makes the song so much better.