Oh no, I have an (admittedly resistable) urge to buy Prince's "Emancipation" set!

get wild was kind of corny but i liked good life.

to clarify, this:
http://www.largeroomnolight.com/pics/exoduscd.jpg

not this:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4166E3PC5GL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

I think I have Exodus hidden in my house somewhere, I will have to look.

I don't have Exodus :(

Yes, if it counts, Crystal Ball stands tall.

Listening to Emancipation now thanks to this thread. Echoing Alfred's comment upthread, I also find something new to love each time I put this on. "Saviour" is it right now.

the songs on this new lotus flower site about about as bad as anything prince has ever done:

http://www.lotusflow3r.com/

Yeah, pretty terrible. Nice use of his classic Linn sound at the top of one of the songs there but then it devolves to some sub-"My Name Is Prince" boasting. And that "Crimson And Clover" cover is foul. The free track "PFunk" that popped up a year or two back seems to be the last decent thing he's put out.

i didn't even know he had a new one coming out. maybe it'll be bad (i was not feeling Planet Earth), but i still stand by 3121 so i know he's got it in him.

That reminds me, I still haven't gotten myself a copy of 3121 even thought I've meant to do that for ages. Is the rest of that album as good as "Black Sweat"?

hmmm

While those four tracks will appear on Lotus Flowe3r - considered to be the guitar album of the trio - MPLSOUND will explore Prince’s classic funk while Elixir will showcase a collaboration with Bria Valente. Perhaps more intriguing about this ambitious undertaking is it’s been reported that Prince has said he will self-release all three albums. For all his out-of-the-box methods, this move should come as no surprise as Prince has been more than vocal over his distaste for the music industry. At this point, though, the Purple One has gone full-blown rogue by setting up a new site, Lotusflow3r.com - still under construction though three new tracks from each upcoming album have been posted for streaming - where fans can purchase music, concert tickets and such.

his production these days sounds really cheap. i dont think he should explore his 'classic funk' anymore. unless its via archive releases.

Tuomas, I really, really liked about half of 3121. Other half was not bad.

You know what song I just realized I should play a lot more of? "Cinnamon Girl"

YES. And "Chelsea Rodgers" off the last one.

"Chelsea Rodgers" is the only Prince song I've truly liked over the course of the last three albums. "Black Sweat" was a close call, but not quite.

Come is THE overlooked Prince album. Batman is kinda close.
I will cop to being mistaken on 'One of Us'; I thought Prince wrote it.
Never quite got Planet Earth, but 3121 has the title track, Incense and Candles and Black Sweat which is the best thing Prince has released in years.

That song does sound like Prince shoulda wrote it.

How have I missed this thread till now? Jeez.

A project I've always wanted to make for myself: find all the reviews of new '90s Prince albums that pronounced him as "back" or it as "his best since Sign O' the Times" (RS on I'm Going to Change My Name to the Title of This Album, Charles Shaar Murray in Q talking about Chaos & Disorder) or if it was Greil Marcus talking about Come in Artforum, since Dirty Mind.

Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic is completely unmemorable. I loathe The Rainbow Children, and Dan doesn't. And I adore Emancipation--need to re-acquire it on the cheap sometime soon, I think, it's been long enough.

secret hits on 3121: 'lolita', 'love', 'satisfied'

New Wendy & Lisa has a couple of great tunes. "Balloon" is one.

Never did get around to actually playing this!

"The Love We Make," people.

Even now, I haven't.

Don't know where it is, even.

Funny, yesterday I was thinking: Did he ever release anything since that Daily Mail Freebie CD?

The first time I heard Emancipation, I thought the "romance" disc (disc 2) was the worst, but the more I've listened to it, the more I feel it's actually the best. That mid-90s r'n'b sound fits the slower tunes better than the uptempo ones, and the songcraft on that disc is really impressive. IMO "Soul Sanctuary" is the most beautiful ballad he's ever released, alongside "Sometimes It Snows in April".

I'm sorry. As much as I've wanted to love this album, I mostly hate it. "Sleep Around" is about the only redeeming part of it for me.

Finally bought yesterday for $5 at Mr. Cheapo records on Long Island. Will kick it with during the coming wkend.

Just found it.

Still in it's shrinkwrap.

A month ago I asked...

Did he ever release anything since that Daily Mail Freebie CD?

― Mark G, Friday, 28 May 2010 15:04 (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

And I haven't played his Daily Mirror one either...

Has any artist lost his "legend" status as much as Prince, without actually falling from grace?

i feel like most 'legend' acts are in more or less the same position tbh

HMV Piccadilly Circus are selling a pile of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/21-Nights-Prince/dp/1847373836

at £5 a pop.

Bargain or overpriced?

despite being under my desk for a month, i've still not cracked the shrinkwrap on 21 nights.

and its too bloody heavy to carry home.

Check the reviews: It's a nice Programme for the gigs, that's it.

The CD is worth the £3. Having said that, I'd get one and never read it, going by past...

"Soul Sanctuary" is heartstopping.

Yeah, IMO it's the best Prince ballad of them all, alongside, "Sometimes It Snows in April". Just gorgeous.

Ha, looks like I said the exact same thing in this thread 3 years ago. It's still true, though.

anyone read that new toure book on prince? i just did. kind of didn't like all the gen X stuff at the start but it picked up steam in the second half. recommended!

got this in the post today for a grand total of £1.27. The length is daunting, but halfway through the first disc, it's pretty good.

Anyone got any further thoughts on this monstrously-long album?

i made a CD of it as thus -

Courtin' Time (wish the drum machine on this didnt sound so plastic)
White Mansion
Damned If I Do
I Can't Make U Love Me
In This Bed I Scream
Soul Sanctuary
Curious Child
Dreamin' About U
The Holy River
Let's Have a Baby
The Plan
slave
My Computer
One of Us
The Love We Make

theres lots of other good songs on this, but for some reason, i wasnt that into his funkier tracks on this album (jam of the year is good but it just doesnt really sound like prince is that into partying). the ballads are all great. but theres maybe too many of them. its a weirder album than i thought actually. its meant to be triumphant but theres this slightly, not deflated exactly, but a sort of tempered, or cautious feel to it. it sounds sort of humbled. lacking in energy. his best crafted album of the decade by a long shot, but the supposedly happy songs like sex in the summer for some reason dont quite ring true. theres a sort of hollowness or sadness about the album. i might be projecting, but i wonder if he knew things werent looking too good for his son while recording, and if this maybe filtered into the album. or maybe all the record label battles just left him tired. and he wanted to make this a big celebration, but he just didnt really feel that way deep down.

bought this on cassette today

There's a lot of good stuff on Emancipation, eye think... but eye do remember at the time that the general feeling was that it kinda justified WB's stance on Prince releasing "2 much music"

will no 1 stan for "Emale"

WB were quite right about swamping the fans, we only have a finite amount of available time to listen to stuff, and other musics are also available. Even quality concerns don't enter the equation.

All of which means, yep I never did get around to playing this.

I really should, now, should not I? Hang on, I'll find out where it is.. Plastic Box 01

sleep around is the best george michael song george michael never wrote.

i think having slave at the start would make for a good opening.

the weird thing is that yes, WB were right that prince shouldn't flood the market with material as it diminishes the value of his music

but that was 1996, long before the bottom fell out of the record industry. soon enough the value of recorded music would be greatly diminished in ways WB could scarcely have predicted. and the negative impact of flooding the market with new music would be seriously mitigated by this. the idea of releasing a ton of music to a smaller but super-eager base of aficionados is not such a bad scheme these days when the wider "casual" audience just isn't very interested in buying music in almost any form. but of course prince wouldn't have known this in 1996 either, so we can't really credit him with being a visionary.

anyway the biggest objection i have to this album is the godawful artwork.

((maybe not /long before/ -- just a few years before, really))

it is the tragic start of prince's descent into albums with almost uniformly terrible artwork (barring a few exceptions)

I had never noticed the two fists until recently, thereby making the terrible artwork that much worse:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prince_emanc.jpg

"Joint 2 Joint" is p. terrific BTW.

I really should, now, should not I? Hang on, I'll find out where it is.. Plastic Box 01

― Mark G, Sunday, April 24, 2016 8:48 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Went for "Sign ☮ the times" instead.

The artwork really does feel like a Lyndon Larouche poster:

http://www.loriferber.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/l/a/larouche_for_president_poster.jpg

after revisiting this, i have discovered (after 20 years of having it), that nearly every other song seems to have these weird, unnecessary endings. a song will seem like its about to end.... and then it will suddenly come back with a new vamp, or a latin section, or some other unnecessary instrumental breakdown or flourish. at first i thought it was something to do with him trying to just stretch out (sometimes its memorable like the end of in this bed i scream), which might be the case, but sometimes it just seems like irritating filler. and then i read that there was something about him needing to make every disc 60 mins (i suppose if it was less than it wouldnt constitute a triple album in the CD era), and it suddenly made complete sense. argh. why, prince, why. lot of good songs on here, but not that many that i think are 'great'. if he had just released the second disc and left it there, i think it might have been better. the ballads and slow jams are def the most inspired stuff on here. the christgau review seems to have it about right -
"Yet although there's not a bad track in the 36, I bet he himself would have trouble remembering them all"

Listened to nearly all Emancipation yesterday. Yikes. Don't think I can handle that much again. Custom playlists would be appreciated here.