Recently i am listening quite a lot of to the mid / late-eighties and early-nineties material of Prince. On those records you can hear one of his musical aspects that i always loved and still like a lot today: (multitracked) background vocals. Vocals that are often in another key then the main vocals and sometimes sounding distorded. These background vocals do sometimes give a creepy / obsessed edge to the music ('If i was your girlfriend', 'It'). At other times they are used to enrich the arrangements (the 'lovesexy' album). And some times they just sound very beautifull ('Adore', 'Still would stand all time'). They also give the music a certain 'depth'.

Prince uses this effect on many of the tracks of Sign of the Times (especially the camille-tracks), but also on Lovesexy, Batman and Graffiti Bridge. I think that When doves cry was the first track that made effective use of this kind of background vocals, but i might be wrong.

The thing is Prince somehow did get rid of these type of background vocals, during the mid-nineties. And on his material from the 21th decade he just uses it very sporadically ('A million days' comes to mind).

I am somehow missing these vocals in his recent outpit. For me they were one of the key elements for enjoying and appreciating his music in the first place.

Any of you misses those vocals too?

In another key?
[Edited 6/27/06 9:53am]

Some of my favorite backgrounds are on I Love You In Me. The last verse is so intense. Prince definitely has definitely set a precedence for background vocals over the years, whether with his own voice or someone as unmistakable as Rosie wailing in the back.

I think, a recent example of a many layered
backing vocal track is the one on Man O War

and let's not forget the exquisite ones the
Rainbow Children album has throughout.