Publication: Minneapolis Star Tribune [US]
Date: November 19, 1996
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Title: "’Emancipation’ Proclaims Prince’s New Maturity"
Reviewed By: Jon Bream

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.

"Emancipation" (NPG; $25 or more), in stores today, is his first album after feuding with Warner Bros. Records for four years and finagling his way out of his contract with his label of the past 18 years.

This three-disc collection is the Minneapolis superstar's most adult, mature and jazziest record. Even though he feels liberated, Prince's newest is also like all of his other stand-out albums -- bold and often brilliant, sometimes riveting and sometimes indulgent, occasionally odd and occasionally ordinary.

At least, that's a first impression. It will take weeks to absorb 36 new songs from what is the longest album of new music ever made by a pop recording artist. OK, the collection has four covers -- a first for Prince -- both oldies (the Delfonics' "La La La Means I Mean Love You") and current stuff (Joan Osborne's "One of Us").

Each of the three discs -- featuring 12 songs, 60 minutes of music -- seems to be themed. Disc I essentially recasts old-school pop-soul sounds into the '90s. Disc II is a lushly romantic symphony. Disc III is characterized by social and spiritual commentary set to sounds geared for street credibility.

Each of the discs could stand on its own and possibly be well-received in the marketplace. But Prince being Prince, he aims to challenge the system, the listeners and himself.

Musically, he doesn't break any significant new ground here, which may be disappointing for those who have held this important innovator to a higher standard. One great inspiration was using Broadway star Savion Glover's tap dancing as a percussion element on "Joint 2 Joint." One uninspired idea was using the ultrasound heartbeat of his then-unborn child on "Sex in the Summer." Many songs are built around bass lines instead of melodies, an old Prince approach.

Disc III has a decidedly computerized vibe to it. Prince played most of the instruments on "Emancipation," though members of his past and present bands contributed on a few numbers, as did such guests as vocalists Kate Bush and Chanté Moore and rappers Scrap D and Poet 99.

Thematically, Prince has matured from the licentious libertine of old into a head-over-heels-in-love romantic. He still makes party music, and he offers an occasional commentary on culture and society. In short, "Emancipation" summarizes his recording career as well as advances it.

The romanticism has created a peacefulness that hasn't been apparent consistently in Prince's recordings. It starts on the cuddly slow-groove "Somebody's Somebody," the third track on Disc I, and continues on the finger-snapping, synthesized swing of "Courtin' Time."

Disc I's outstanding numbers are a version of the Bonnie Raitt hit, "I Can't Make You Love Me" (his is a gospelly seduction, hers more of a sad reflection), and "In This Bed I Scream," a sprightly synth workout about improving the communication in a relationship gone sour.

Disc II is about a relationship gone right. It opens with "Sex in the Summer," a breezy jazz funk that sounds like a surefire summer hit. The ensuing 11 compositions comprise a lightly orchestrated modern pop-funk symphony about love. It's gorgeously romantic, from "One Kiss at a Time," a sexy formal ballad, to the closing "Friend.Lover.Sister.Mother/Wife," a slow jam that was the first dance at Prince's Valentine's Day wedding.

"Soul Sanctuary" is sweetly romantic and formal, reminiscent of an old-time jazz standard. "Dreamin' About You" features Prince's most urgent vocal. He takes a bit of a Rabelaisian detour on "Joint 2 Joint," a gentle hip-hop funk about a sexual conquest who is not a soulmate and doesn't even know what kind of cereal Prince likes (Cap'n Crunch with soy milk, he sings).

Prince then cleanses himself in "Holy River," the recording's pièce de résistance, a wedding of the romantic and the spiritual with guitar majesty that recalls "Purple Rain." He follows with the jazzy piano-ballad with falsetto, "Let's Have a Baby," one of the most luscious seduction songs ever, one that could become a jazz standard.

Disc II could rank with the most romantic records of Marvin Gaye, Al Green and Johnny Mathis. But Prince also wants to fulfill all aspects of his old credo of "Dance Music Sex Romance." Disc III is for the dancers, some futuristic funk combined with Prince's most natural-sounding hip-hop excursions, some indulgent and humorous comments about his misunderstood image, his pleas to make this place a better world and his reworking of "One of Us" that asserts that "God is a slave" (not a "slob," as in the original).

If "Emancipation" makes anything clearer about the enigmatic Prince, it's that he is one of us -- not a reclusive weirdo, but a man who is finally willing to trade slavery to his music for his own version of a family life.