As long as the stalemate between Prince "Symbol" Nelson and Warner persisted, there was no way to tell who was right: were the vaunted unreleased tracks inferior efforts, better left in the can, or, were they great songs, unwisely repressed? Now that the impasse has been broken--Nelson has left Warner and started his own label, NPG--the answer is clear. Nelson's first post-Warner release, "Emancipation," offers three full hours of music on 3 CDs, and none of it seems extraneous. Instead, every disc contains some of the catchiest melodies and most danceable rhythms of Nelson's career. It's as if a dam had cracked and a flood of pent-up creativity had been unleashed. --Geoffrey Himes