Prince #SAB 029 Emancipation - The Secret Chapter

Emancipation - The Secret Chapter

1 CD
Label : Sabotage Records
Catalogue : #SAB 029
Disc Length : 40:45
Source : Studio
Sound Quality : EX / EX+
Year Of Release : 1997

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1. Slave 2 The System   2. New World   3. Slave   4. 2020   5. Feel Good   6. Right Back Here In Your Arms   7. Journey 2 The Center Of Your Heart   8. Eye Am The DJ   9. Goodbye   10. Emancipation

COMMENT

An excellent release containing many tracks either intended for the Emancipation album or alternate versions recorded during the Emancipation sessions. The quality throughout is consistently excellent with the only slight (and it is slight) point worth raising being that the volume on a couple of the tracks is slightly lower than the others for some reason. The content on the whole is unquestionably good, and for it's time (1997) this would have been an unmissable set. All tracks with the exception of #2, #6 & #9 (which I'll come to in a second) are unreleased. These include alternate versions of the Emancipation tracks 'Slave' and the title track 'Emancipation'. Also worthy of mentioning is the exquisite 'Journey 2 The Centre Of Your Heart' which is (as always) criminally unreleased. 'Goodbye' is identical to the version released on the 'Crystal Ball' album, however that's fine as this Sabotage release pre-dates the official 'Crystal Ball' album from 1998. No such excuse for both 'New World' and 'Right Back Here In My Arms' though, as they are identical versions to the official releases. Their inclusion on here is baffling for a number of reasons. At the time this was released by Sabotage they were already available on the 'Emancipation' album is the most obvious, however the sound quality of these two tracks is certainly not of the same standard as the rest of the material on here - a strange thing indeed. Their inclusion aside, the remaining content is of such high quality that one slightly cancels out the other. The packaging and accompanying artwork is imaginative, colourful and a joy to look at.

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