Emancipation

Publication: Toronto Star [Can]
Date: November 16, 1996
Title: Toronto Star Review
Summary: Leave it to this guy to make a record release seem like a combination of Lincoln freeingthe slaves, the Allied liberation of Paris and the raid on Entebbe.

Publication: New York Daily News [US]
Date: November 19, 1996
Title: "Three chears for The Artist Formerly Known as Kaput"
Summary: Our ‘Emancipation’ proclamation: Triple album reassert purple reign Who but The Artist Formerly Known As Prince would force his fans to absorb a triple-CD set crammed with three full hours of new music at the commercial death point of his career?

Publication: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [US]
Date: November 19, 1996
Title: Post-Gazette Review
Summary: I think I know why recent Prince records have ranged in quality from not-quite-inspired to downright embarrassing: The Artist Formerly Known as Prince has been hoarding his best songs for when he'd be released from his multi-record deal with Warner Brothers.

Publication: Minneapolis Star Tribune [US]
Date: November 19, 1996
Title: "’Emancipation’ Proclaims Prince’s New Maturity"
Summary: Prince's "Emancipation" proclamation is a bedazzling three-hour assertion that he is the most prolific, expansive, visionary and musical pop musicmaker since the Beatles.

Publication: Los Angeles Times [US]
Date: November 20, 1996
Title: "A Work of Self-Liberation and Devotion Fit for a Prince"
Summary: The Artist Formerly Known as Prince has been whining a lot over the past few years, as guys trapped in unsatisfying relationships--in this case, a record contract that he felt stifled his productivity--are prone to do.

Publication: Boston Globe [US]
Date: November 20, 1996
Title: "New Prince A Release Of Love"
Summary: It's a surprising declaration considering that I've never been overwhelmed by Prince, whose career often seemed an effective combination of hype and talent that was more artful than art. His copious musical output over the last 18 years has been erratic at times; for every solid disc such as "Sign O' the Times," there's a clinker like "Lovesexy."

Publication: Edmonton Sun [Can]
Date: November 20, 1996
Title: "The Artist's Emancipation Self-indulgent"
Summary: EMANCIPATION: The Artist Formerly Known As Prince (EMI) -- He's a prolific songwriter, a powerful singer, a fine musician and a seasoned producer all rolled into one.

Publication: USA Today [US]
Date: November 21, 1996
Title: "'Emancipation' proclamation: Outstanding"
Summary: Only a slave to the beat could create the liberating sonic spree on Emancipation (**** out of four). Released Tuesday, the three-hour, three-CD set by the artist formerly known as Prince is astounding in both its stylistic breadth and disciplined focus.

Publication: Now [Can]
Date: November 21-27, 1996
Title: "Emancipation Offers No Salvation"
Summary: To get some idea of just how low 's stock has sunk, Rolling Stone magazine was granted a ridiculously rare one-on-one interview with the Artist Formerly Known As Prince in the inner sanctum of his Paisley Park recording studio complex for the current issue, yet decided to put Eddie Vedder's brooding mug on the cover for a frivolous investigative muckrake.

Publication: Nieuwe Revu [?]
Date: November 21, 1996
Title: "Lots Of Freedom, Lack Of Joy"
Summary: Hooray, a triple-album by Prince. Or The Symbol, or Tora Tora, or TAFKAP, or The Artist, or whatever you like to call him. Not so long ago, on American TV, 'The Ego' was suggested - nice one too!

Publication: Pioneer Press
Date: November 21, 1996
Title: "Fresh (ex) Prince"
Summary: Meet the new , same as the old Prince: lush, warm, funky, effortless, romantic and in it for the long run.

Publication: London Times [UK]
Date: November 22, 1996
Title: "David Sinclair Salutes the Artist Recently Known as Duff On His Three-Hour-Long Return to Superstar Form"
Summary: HE MAY be the most prolific superstar in the history of pop, but as Prince enters a new phase of his career with his first record for EMI, his stock is at a low ebb. His previous album, Chaos and Disorder, a desultory kiss-off to his former record company, has sold fewer than 40,000 copies in Britain, a dismal result for an artist of his stature.

Publication: Chicago Tribune [US]
Date: November 22, 1996
Title: "There’s No Mystery About Prince’s ‘Emancipation’: It’s His Best Work of the ‘90s"
Summary: So what to make of an artist who has just dropped three 60-minute CDs of new music on an already glutted pre-Christmas album market? Is he a self-indulgent egomaniac, a genius, a crackpot or a little of all three?

Publication: The Dallas Morning Star [US]
Date: November 22, 1996
Title: "TAFKAP Throws A Great Party: But ‘Emancipation’ Celebration Is Too Long"
Summary: When the Artist Formerly Known as Prince painted the word "slave" on his cheek, he did it to mock his record label, Warner Bros. But Symbolman could also have been referring to himself.

Publication: Miami Herald [US]
Date: November 22, 1996
Title: "Former Prince"
Summary: After a drawn-out battle -- and little more than four months after the 11-song, 39-minute kiss-off Chaos and Disorder -- The Artist Formerly Known As Prince is marking his independence from Warner Bros., his long-time record company, with Emancipation, a three-CD, 36-song collection on his own NPG label.

Publication: The Guardian [UK]
Date: November 22, 1996
Title: "Sign Of The Times"
Summary: After all the huffing and the puffing, the sulking and the name changes, the artist whose name is now a registered trademark celebrated his freedom last week with a concert at his Paisley Park studios. Boyz II Men were there to listen to his half-hour set, so were Donatella Versace, D'Angelo and, er, Grateful Dead wannabes Phish. The party food was Captain Crunch, the newly liberated one's favourite breakfast cereal. What a strange affair.

Publication: Dagbladet [?]
Date: November 22, 1996
Title: Dagbladet Review
Summary: Once there was an artist called Prince who always was at the leading edge in popular music and its many half-brothers. Now he's lagging behind.

Publication: NRC Handelsblad [?]
Date: November 22, 1996
Title: "New Triple CD By Former Prince: The Music Wants To Do What It Wants To Do"
Summary: The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, nowadays better known as The Artist, has been quarrelling for years with his record company Warner Bros. They had a unique conflict: The Artist wanted to put out more records than the record company could handle.

Publication: Microsoft Music Central [Internet]
Date: November 23, 1996
Title: Microsoft Review
Summary: The man is a machine. A compulsive verse-chorus-hook generator. A pop scholar who transforms the most ordinary phrase into a refrain that hangs around way too long in your brain.

Publication: Sunday Times [UK]
Date: November 24, 1996
Title: "The End of the Purple Patch"
Summary: It is hard to believe that nearly 10 years have passed since Prince unveiled his Meisterwerk, Sign 'O' the Times. The previous decade had seen him systematically rewrite the pop rule book on a series of brilliantly bold albums, which included Dirty Mind, 1999, Purple Rain and Parade.

Publication: Washington Post [US]
Date: November 24, 1996
Title: "For the Ex-Prince, `1999' Is Auld Land Syn"
Summary: As its title announces, the ex-Prince's new album marks his "Emancipation" from his lucrative contract with Warner Bros.; he now records for his own NPG label, distributed by EMI. The wantonly prolific singer-songwriter, who changed his name to a psychedelic male/female glyph in 1993, complained that his former label wouldn't release his albums as frequently as he wished.

Publication: Time Out [US]
Date: November 25, 1996
Title: Time Out Review
Summary: An album launch beamed by sattelite across the world; top-security access to tracks before release; a continued insistence that the artist's name is a symbol which looks like a piece of cheap gay jewellery and, most significantly, making an album three CDs long when the world has yet to hear a decent, justifiably double album....

Publication: Salon Magazine [US]
Date: November 25, 1996
Title: Salon Magazine Review
Summary: Overabundant creativity is both the blessing and bane of Prince Rogers Nelson, a.k.a. The Artist Formerly Known as Prince (TAFKAP). Compulsively driven to conjure up endless songs and detailed soundscapes, his talents have led to glorious musical triumph and to years of well-documented strife with his record label Warner Bros.

Publication: Oor [?]
Date: November 27, 1996
Title: "Master Turn-On"
Summary: 'Emancipation: equality for the law, make free.' The Artist feels free. At last he has the rights and future of his music in his own hands. 0(+> celebrates the end of his much talked about creative 'slavery' with no less than 36 songs on 3 cd's.

Publication: Yush [?]
Date: November 27, 1996
Title: Yush Review
Summary: Now that His Purpleness has managed to shake free his former label, Warners, the title of his triple-album debut for EMI finds him celebrating his artistic freedom.

Publication: The Globe & Mail [UK]
Date: November 28, 1996
Title: "Emancipation receives ***1/2 on 4"
Summary: Faced with any triple CD package, the instinctive critical response is to look for the filler and then complain that there's a pretty good single CD hiding under all that flab.

Publication: Rumba [Fin]
Date: November 29 - December 12, 1996
Title: "The Artist Keeps On"
Summary: Phew. Three CDs and three hours of music. Risen finally from the captivity of the Warner deal, Ex-Prince (or Symbol or nowadays The Artist) doesn't start his new time of liberation too modestly. The good news, however, is that Emancipation is the Artist's best album in a long long time.

Publication: Billboard [US]
Date: November 30, 1996
Title: Billboard Review
Summary: With the coming of "Emancipation," it's time all concerned parties were granted a pardon.

Publication: San Francisco Chronicle [US]
Date: November 30, 1996
Title: "Prince Puts It All Together"
Summary: The stubborn, sweet-voiced songwrite who made a splash in the 80s with lavish funk pieces like "When Doves Cry" and "Kiss" celebreates his release from a debilitating Warner Bros.

Publication: Baltimore Sun [US]
Date: December 1, 1996
Title: Sun Review
Summary: Now that his long fight with Warner Bros. is finally over, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince has shaved the word "slave" off his face and announced his own "Emancipation."

Publication: Detroit Free Press [US]
Date: December 1, 1996
Title: Sound Judgment section
Summary: 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?

Publication: Houston Chronicle [US]
Date: December 1, 1996
Title: "Formerly Prince, still prolific: Bulky 'Emancipation' Includes Artist Best Work This Decade"
Summary: There are two ways to look at TAFKAP's new three-disc release. You could be buying three pretty good albums for the price of two, which is a baragain.

Publication: Sunday Age [US]
Date: December 1, 1996
Title: Sunday Age Review
Summary: The Artist Formerly Known as Prince continues to occupy a unique pedestal in modern pop. 'Emancipation', his confident joyfully bitter-sweet and irreverent three-CD set, is an extraordinary example of what makes his music so valuable.

Publication: Herald Sun [US]
Date: December 4, 1996
Title: Herald Sun Review
Summary: This could easily have spiralled into --- like most grunge albums, for instance --- a tawdry, chest-beating sermon on loathing the record company and other trendy, downer topics-of-the-week.

Publication: Scene Magazine [US]
Date: December 5, 1996
Title: Scene Magazine Review
Summary: Barely a week old, EMANCIPATION already stands as one of the most important releases in Prince's long and often brilliant career. His third release in just over a year (and eighth in the last five), EMANCIPATION is being hailed by His Royal Purpleness as the album he "was born to make," and by and large, the three-disc, 36-song effort stands as a profound celebration of artistic freedom for the 38-year-old Minneapolis-based artist.

Publication: Green Guide [?]
Date: December 5, 1996
Title: Green Guide Review
Summary: To celebrate his release from his former record company, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince (henceforth to be referred to as The Artist), has released a three-CD set, with each CD containing 12 songs and lasting an hour.

Publication: Gavin [US]
Date: December 6, 1996
Title: Gavin Review
Summary: Music has been called "the organization of sound toward beauty." The elements of sound consist of rhythm, melody, texture or harmony, tone color or timbre, form, and tonallity. Great composers are masters at directing each element toward a single purpose: creating their own sound.

Publication: New York Village Voice [US]
Date: December 10, 1996
Title: "Glyph Notes"
Summary: *Emancipation* -- the title of the new album from The Artist Formerly Known as Prince (whom I shall henceforth, in the interests of readability, refer to by birth name only) -- is a word heavy with meanings, and Prince means them all.

Publication: Blues & Soul [UK]
Date: December 10-23, 1996
Title: Blues & Soul Review
Summary: Yes, he may come from a different planet, and yes, maybe he is out to lunch, but no-one can argue with the fact that the guy sure as hell is a prodigious talent. Who am I talking about? Why, TAFKAP of course.

Publication: Entertainment Weekly [US]
Date: December 13, 1996
Title: Entertainment Weekly Review
Summary: Intended as both an extended retort to critics who say he's lost his touch and a declaration of freedom from his former label (Warner Bros.), this three-hour, triple-CD set is somewhat less than the wall-to-wall tour de force our man no doubt envisioned.

Publication: People [US]
Date: December 16, 1996
Title: People Review
Summary: While this new three-CD, three-hour album from one of pop's most creative forces breaks no new ground, it is an exhilarating , melodically rich tour de force. For the enigmatic auteur, it is the most cohesive, satisfying work in years and the first for his new label since he severed his 18-year connection with Warner Brothers.

Publication: San Antonio Express-News [US]
Date: December 25, 1996
Title: "The Artist Currently Known As Prolific: The Former Prince Indulges Himself On 'Emancipation'"
Summary: The Artist ended his 18-year relationship with Warner Bros. Records this summer not with a lame, contract-fulfillment collection of odds and ends, but with a stunning burst.

Publication: Phoenix New Times [US]
Date: January 9-15, 1997
Title: "The Artist Formerly Known as Popular"
Summary: Now that Madonna's a stylish new mom and Michael Jackson is trying to pass himself off as a father-to-be, it's fitting that The Artist Formerly Known As Prince has settled into domestic bliss as well.

Publication: Spin [US]
Date: February, 1997
Title: Spin Review
Summary: Forget William Gibson and the Dept. of Defense. Prince invented cyberspace. Over nearly 2 decades of expanding musical consciousness, he’s created a sound world where identity flows between male and female, musical and other boundaries jump themselves and even time bends with the funk-warp.

Publication: Guitarest [US]
Date: February, 1997
Title: Guitarest Review
Summary: Finally freed from his contractual obligations with Warners, the little purple one has stopped whingeing, and as a result "Emancipation" is eclectically effervescent. The album O(+> was "born to make".

Publication: Musician [US]
Date: March 1997
Title: Musician Review
Summary: Of all the pop stars out there, I can’t think of anyone who has the talent, musical overview and ambition of Prince Rogers Nelson, by that or any other name.

Publication: Esquire [US]
Date: March 1997
Title: "The Artist, Formerly Known"
Summary: The rumor stalked the e-zines: With his three-disc Emancipation, the Artist Formerly Known As Prince -- or , for those us with the unpronounceable symbol on our keyboards--would change his name back to Prince.