Polling Emancipation

haha courtin time sounds like the band in the bar in star wars meets madonna in dick tracy.

one thing that separated this from most of princes 90s albums was that it sounded like he painstakingly created each song rather than just rush it out. but it still doesnt have the same inspired vibe of other tracks from the 90s like dinner with delores or eye hate you.

but theres still lots of tracks with production elements that marr the songs or just sound too much like overproduced R&B of the time.

I guess this is a key reason why many Prince fans don't count this among classic Prince albums. I do agree that the production isn't as original as on those 80s albums, but I do still like that mid-90s rnb sound in general, and Prince does it well enough that it doesn't ruin Emancipation for me. I think even those who don't like the sound might admit that the songcraft on it is just as tight as on those classic 80s albums.

"Soul Sanctuary," closely followed by "I Can't Make You Love Me," mostly for the "between my thighs" line. At one point I listened to this thing a whole lot, and can remember approximately half the songs now.

Disc 2 my favorite.

Bump.

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I can't wait
no moooohh

The fact jam o the year got the most votes (still only four though lol) suggests no one has listened to this lol

lol

lol I literally only remember “jam of the year”, “back in your arms” and the stylistics cover

pretty much all the worst songs then (though i quite like his voice on those old covers)

jam of the year is so subdued, how can anyone believe his claim that this is the jam of the year. such a sluggish opener.

I am 100% about "Slave", "The Human Body", "Eye Can't Make U Love Me", "In This Bed Eye Scream", "Somebody's Somebody", "Emale", "Face Down", and "Mr. Happy"

‘The Love We Make’ is phenomenal but didn’t realise cos I don’t think I made it past cd2 when it came let alone the last track

I was just coming back here to add “The Love We Make”

it is weird re listening to this now. while its got some tracks that are pretty bad (style, da da da), a lot that arent esp inspired, and none of it really hangs together despite the production, theres very little thats actively bad here either. weird. i like a lot of it as individual songs, just not sure its a great album.

lot of discussion on this in the gold experience thread.

i like a lot of songs on this, love quite a bit less.

but as a huge triple or double it just lacks the highs of SOTT as well as the kind of experimentation to make it interesting which an album this long needs.

i find it is easier to make it just a straight up album of prince doing 90s rnb more or less than anything more ambitious. also more fun that way, as it removes any big expectations.

i.e:
jam of the year, right back here, get yo grrove on, sex in the summer, emaile, mr happy, joint to joint, sleep around, somebodys somebody, one kiss at a time, saviour, friend lover sister mother wife.

and if i want a version of it thats a more 'mature', intimate, romantic version, and more like the kind of album i wished prince would have released as he got older (ie not just a mainstream idea of a prince album):

holy river (this has to be one of his all time greatest songs), soul sanctuary, curious child, dreamin about u, lets have a baby, the plan, cant make u love me, my computer, one of us, love we make.

My vote would've gone to "La La La," "Sleep Around," "The Human Body" or "Right Back Here in My Arms."

On second thought, it's not worth trying to rearrange this. Best to take it for what it is.