Publication: Detroit Free Press [US]
Date: December 1, 1996
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Title: Sound Judgment section
Reviewed By: Brian McCollum

The Artist Formerly Known as Prince
"Emancipation" (New Power Generation)
4 stars

The problem with critiquing the Artist's new three-disc opus is one of perspective. Do you (A) line it up next to his recent work, the half-intentionally shoddy stuff he pumped out as he squirmed out of his Warner Brothers contract; (B) compare it with his older work; or (C) view it in context of today's music?

So you try all three -- and the answers are easy:

(A) It's stellar; (B) it's darned good; (C) it's stellar.

"Emancipation" is a whopping reminder that the former Prince is one of the most creative musical innovators of the late 20th Century -- at least when he feels like it. And that's not just hyperbole. "Emancipation," with its 36 tracks, could easily have emerged sprawling, unwieldy and cumbersome. It's not. Taken as a whole, it's as well-crafted as the infectious songs themselves, laying down moods and reining them in with purpose and precision, touching down on hip-hop, graceful funk, slow-burn sensuality and sweet soul.

Delicious cover songs pop up: An old-soul take on the Delfonics with "La, La, La Means I Love U"; an urgent, steamy rendition of the Bonnie Raitt hit "I Can't Make You Love Me"; a stirring romp through the Stylistics' "Betcha By Golly, Wow." But it's the new stuff that goes back to the funk and injects the juice, led by a heaping helping of solid tracks: the fluid "Somebody's Somebody," the hot "Sex in the Summer," the electronic club fare of "The Human Body," the hip-hop-trip-hop "Face Down."

The familiar Prince themes -- sex, spirituality, sin and redemption -- are here, along with a new strain of anti-corporate sermonizing. In "Slave," "Style" and the disc-closing title track, the Artist sings of "breaking the chains," taking snarky aim at the Warner company and individual (though unidentified) label staffers.

Held up to any light, this is one of Prince's best, certainly tops since 1987's "Sign 'O' the Times." And it doesn't take a critic to know what a good Prince album means.