Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Jam Of The Year
2. Right Back Here In My Arms
3. Somebody's Somebody
4. Get Yo Groove On
5. Courtin' Time
6. Betcha By Golly Wow
7. We Gets Up
8. White Mansion
9. Damned If I Do
10. I Can Make You Love Me
11. Mr. Happy
12. In This Bed I Scream

Disc 2:

1. Sex In The Summer
2. One Kiss At A Time
3. Soul Sanctuary
4. Emale
5. Curious Child
6. Dreamin' About U
7. Joint 2 Joint
8. The Holy River
9. Let's Have A Baby
10. Saviour
11. The Plan
12. Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother/Wife

Disc 3:

1. Slave
2. New World
3. The Human Body
4. Face Down
5. La, La, La Means I Love You
6. Style
7. Sleep Around
8. Da, Da, Da
9. My Computer
10. One Of Us
11. The Love We Make
12. Emancipation

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20356 in Music
• Published on: 1996
• Released on: 1996-11-19
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Album Description
Prince's first album after leaving Warner Brothers. Originally released in 1996, this three CD set runs exactly three hours which easily makes it one of the longest albums of all-new original material ever released by a popular artist. Long deleted in the States. Standard triple jewel case. EMI.

Amazon.com
As long as the stalemate between Prince "Symbol" Nelson and Warner persisted, there was no way to tell who was right: were the vaunted unreleased tracks inferior efforts, better left in the can, or, were they great songs, unwisely repressed? Now that the impasse has been broken--Nelson has left Warner and started his own label, NPG--the answer is clear. Nelson's first post-Warner release, "Emancipation," offers three full hours of music on 3 CDs, and none of it seems extraneous. Instead, every disc contains some of the catchiest melodies and most danceable rhythms of Nelson's career. It's as if a dam had cracked and a flood of pent-up creativity had been unleashed. --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews

a HUGE and very excellent collection of songs
I'm personally glad that Prince has the courage to release such a gargantuan album. I'm not going to describe every song/disc, because simply that would take too long.

But as I had been reading the reviews of some people about this album I can't help but to throw my own two cents in.

First of all, Prince doesn't/never needed a comeback, as a few level-headed reviewers have said.

You Purple Rain obsessers were upset from 'Around The World...' and every sequential release by Prince, and you call yourselves fans?

When I first heard of this album, I was said to myself 'Oh my god! 36 tracks!' and I couldn't have been happier. Prince's work lies both in the regions of quality and quantity. He could sneeze a b-side good enough to be a single.

I can't stand people calling this album 'overwhelming'... geez, just take the music in song by song, and you'll be able to appreciate all there is. This isn't the era of records, people can make big albums now, and finally someone is embracing the fact.

Some of the tracks are a bit lacking, sure, but there's enough material on here to satisfy everyone's tastes. I personally enjoy his electronic-oriented pieces, so I give this album a good plenty spins. In comparison, I'd say the music sounds/feels like a lot like Gold Experience, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of these tracks were rejected from that project, not to say of course that they were bad, but GE is basically a concept album, so you can't expect everything to fit into it.

This? Indulgent?
This three-hour, thirty-six song triple album is my favorite Prince release - and yes, I've heard Purple Rain, Sign o' the Times, 1999 and Dirty Mind. All are good to great. This tops 'em all. Think of it like this: 36 tracks, and out of the 36, one filler. Holy frig.
The best thing about Emancipation, other than the song quality (which is very high) is the variety. Prince touches on several styles of music here: funk (Jam of the Year, Get Yo Groove On, We Gets Up, Damned if I Do, In This Bed I Scream, Sex in the Summer, Joint 2 Joint, Slave, Emancipation), ballads, sometimes with huge climactic endings (The Holy River, my favorite Prince song EVER, Let's Have a Baby, I Can't Make U Love Me, Friend Lover Sister Mother/Wife, Soul Sanctuary, with an amazing falsetto, Saviour, a stunning religious song), old-school R&B (La-La-La Means I Love You, Betcha By Golly Wow - both covers of Philly Soul classics given stunning rearrangements), rap (Da Da Da, the only loser, White Mansion, Style, emale), even a bit of big-band jazz (Courtin' Time) and house music (most of disc 3). How many other artists have released an album this varied? Not even The White Album reaches that level of variety, though it comes close. (This is a bit of an aside, but the only artist I can think of who's explored more styles than Prince is Zappa). He even makes What If God Was One of Us sound good, okay? Yes, the same What If God Was One of Us that inspired all kinds of parodies, from the Bob Rivers parody right down to my cousin's version, "What if I was one of us!" I thought that song was a piece of toxic waste until I heard Prince's cover. Good stuff.
Yet another reason why I love Emancipation is because of Prince's musicianship. He plays most of the instruments, as always: Guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, as well as obviously singing, and his guitar solos throughout are well worth listening to. Every guitar solo is good.
What can I say? Prince is the man. This might cost you quite a bit (then again, because of the joy of used record stores I got my copy for a mere $11.99 - a bargain!) This is a concept album of sorts, or at least the second disc is, as it deals with Prince's marriage and how happy he was with it. I like the music Prince makes when he's happily married.
Another point I'd like to make is that I love this album's liner notes. If there's a Grammy award for "best liner notes", I hope this took the '96 award home.
P.S. My absolute favorite songs on it are Jam of the Year, Get Yo' Groove On, Courtin' Time, Betcha By Golly Wow!, We Gets Up, Mr. Happy, In This Bed I Scream, Sex in the Summer, Dreamin' About U, Joint 2 Joint, The Holy River, Let's Have a Baby, Saviour, The Plan, Friend Lover Sister Mother/Wife, Slave, The Human Body, La-La Means I Love You and Emancipation. And that's just the metaphorical tip of the figuarative iceburg.

PRINCE'S BEST ALBUM SINCE SIGN O TIMES
This album is 3 hours of the most creative, catchy, and lyrically prolific music from the Artist since Sign O Times.

This album will keep you jamming for hours...

Favorite Tracks:

1. Jam of The Year
2. Friend, Sister, Lover, Mother/Wife
3. Face Down
4. Somebody's Somebody

Those are just my personal favorites, but the album is packed with great music!