Publication: Spin [US]
Date: February, 1997
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Title: Spin Review
Reviewed By: Ann Powers

(7) out of 10 "Worthy"

Emancipation TAFKAP
NPG Records
by Ann Powers in SPIN Magazine (Feb. Œ97)

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. His plan: to build a fully self-sustaining pop universe. Call him alt.prince

The analogy goes beyond the fact that he admits to an internet addiction here in 2 songs, starts the proceedings with a whoosh that sounds like a MAC starting up and samples AOL’s "you’ve got mail!" greeting midway through. At 3 discs and 3 hours, Emancipation aims to suck you in until you’re just its surfing slave, with every jam another hit you can’t wait to explore. Largely, it works, but at the pace of a good internet search, i.e., slower than you want it to.

Emancipation’s first disc buries its highlights-the sultry opener "Jam of the Year", a zippy new wave rave called "Damned If I Do"-amidst the lengthy, aimless, solo cutting contests alt.prince calls grooves. Full absorption isn’t accomplished until disc two’s "One Kiss At A Time", a new take on "Slow Love" that pulls the rug seductively out from under your emotions.

As in actual cyberspace, Emancipation’s thrills are in the links: Its best songs don’t imitate anyone else, nor do they simply replicate Prince clichés. Instead, they connect to earlier Prince classics (he turns Joan Osbourne’s hit "One of Us" into a postlude for "Purple Rain"), other genres (Latin rhythms, hard techno, Stones-style balladry, blaxploitation sound, Manhattan Transfer vocalese, etc., etc.) and most important to subject matter that goes beyond alt.prince’s navel. The search engine that serves alt.prince best here is Mayte, his "Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother/Wife", as he puts it in the opus he penned as the ultimate wedding slow-dance. Prince in love is an odd and exciting spectacle-the florid outpourings of his heart make his history of lust seem like one long parlor game. Never has he been so mushy and rarely so grand.

He hasn’t been this energized in a while, either. Love has renewed the musical wit and weird imagination that¹s always made alt.prince a singular creature. A few songs here might even make the all-time alt.prince mix tape, including the homoerotic romp "Joint 2 Joint" and the proto-hip hop "Style", both of which establish their grooves through multiple layers of sound and meaning. Not every site on Emancipation offers this much and in its first hour, they system threatens to crash completely. But if I were the Dept. of Defense, I’d be worried-a major competitor for the minds of the browsing world is back on-line.