1996's "Emancipation" is one of Prince's more infamous releases; coming towards the end of his bitter feud with Warner Brothers, the enigmatic artist was determined to burn through his contract and put the nail in the coffin with the label that launched him into a megastar. He did so in the sort of overly ambitious manner that only someone of his calibre would dare attempt: a three hour, 36 song collection that would, in a fell swoop, knock out the last three albums he owed them.
Predictably, "Emancipation" is a trying affair; given that its primary purpose was to have enough material to make three albums in one in order to fulfill the remaining obligation, there's a disregard for quality control that rears its head multiple times throughout each of the discs. Compounding that was Prince's growing habit of chasing commercial trends as opposed to following his own muse, which results in several songs that share virtually the same structure and rhythms, with Prince trying to be R. Kelly, Keith Sweat, or whomever the big R&B stars of the day were at the time. Finally, each disc is an hour or more, which means songs that would've been fine at three minutes go on for five, six or even seven minutes.
The problems are apparent right from the start of the first disc; "Jam of the Year" is a great opener for about three and a half minutes, but it goes on for another three minutes that don't really do anything to justify their existence. The next songs all blend into each other, with the exception of the out of nowhere swing experiment, "Courtin' Time." Perhaps an unfortunate indicator of the album's overall quality, the covers of "Betcha By Golly Wow" and "I Can't Make You Love Me" are among the best tracks; Prince keeps the essence of both songs while adding his own unique touches, and they actually wind up as something respectable rather than just filler. Songs like "White Mansion" and "Damned If I Do" aren't great, but there serviceable, with catchy choruses and nice hooks. Thankfully, the first disc finishes strong with the excellent "In This Bed I Scream," a riveting reflection on regret and forgiveness with one of Prince's most impressive vocals, as well as surprisingly personal lyrics that essentially extend an olive branch to the then estranged Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman.
Disc 2 starts off with the embarrassingly generic "Sex on the Summer," the type of song that would be a fun guilty pleasure for a lesser known artist, but downright sad for Prince's standards. That said, this disc is probably the best of the three thanks to the ballads; "Soul Sanctuary" is a lovely, mellow number that is on of the more unique tracks on the album, while "Curious Child" is one of the most unique and haunting songs Prince ever created. The real crown jewels, however, are "Saviour" and "Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother / Wife," majestic tributes to then-wife Mayte with sophisticated arrangements and two of the most insane finales of any Prince song vocally, recalling the power packed intensity of "Do Me, Baby" and "The Beautiful Ones." These songs manage to make up for the amorphous blob of similar sounding tracks that form the middle half of the disc; if you put a gun to my head and asked me to remember or differentiate "Emale," "Joint 2 Joint," or "One Kiss at a Time," you'd never see another review from me.
Disc 3 is the worst disc by a fair margin; "Style" may have the worst lyrics of any song Prince ever wrote, with gems such as...
"Style is not something that comes in a bottle
Style is more like Jackie O. when she was doin' Aristotle
Style is not a logo that sticks to the roof of one's ass
Style is like a second cousin to class"
….as well as:
"Style is buying your moms a house
Style is a clean mouth
Style is puppy breath
Style is no fear of death
Style is Ali's jab
Style is hailing a cab (Style)."
Other disappointments include the excruciating "Da, Da, Da" (Prince barely does anything on this song), as well as "My Computer," which wastes a potentially awesome collaboration with Kate Bush by relegating her to barely audible backing vocals.
There are some saving graces to be found; "Face Down," a successful attempt at hip hop with some of Prince's wittiest lyrics aimed squarely at Warner Brothers; this songs boasts a great musica structure as well, with moody strings on the chorus highlighting the anger at the heart of the song. This is Prince at his most vicious, ending with Prince telling WB as well as fair weather fans, "*** all y'all." I also really enjoy "The Human Body," even though it's a tad monotonous and features one of the more annoying incarnations of Prince's falsetto.
The record does manage a strong finish in the final lap; Prince's cover of Joan Osborne's "One of Us" is actually very good; Prince sings with conviction and gets some nice guitar work in. "The Love We Make" is well known among Prince's fans and for good reason; it's the closest the album has to a "Purple Rain" or "7" type of anthem, with heartfelt lyrics and a gorgeous melody moving it along. Finally, the title song is great, probably the most successful of the album's most modern sounding songs, with a classic Prince hook moving it along.
Although it accomplished its primary goal of freeing Prince from Warner Brothers and allowing him to create freely and put out material at his own pace, "Emancipation" is really the inauguration of Prince's most fallow period, ushering in some of the worst records of his career as well as perhaps his most distant and maligned public image. That said, there are more than few flashes of brilliance throughout, which makes plumbing through the dregs of the disc worthwhile at least once; just make sure you have a few blank cds on hand to distill it into your own personal, solid single disc album.
