Not his coolest vocals or most intensely emotional. No, I am talking about his prettiest vocals.

I have mixed feelings about the Emancipation album. Beautiful songwriting in many instances but I don't like the production of many of the songs (wish it had a more organic sound or at least more cutting edge). But damn if his vocals aren't impressive. I have been youtube-ing Emancipation songs and his singing and lyrics are strong in many of those songs. Maybe his prettiest singing.

[Edited 9/9/17 12:29pm]

[Edited 9/9/17 19:45pm]

I think that "For You" is the one for Prince's "prettiest" vocals. I'm loathe to describe a man's voice as "pretty", but yeah, Prince's voice was smooth as silk on this album. When I want to hear Prince simply sing and hear his falsetto in all its glory, i put this on, hands down.

oh,that's a good one.

gandorb said:

One Night Alone

Emancipation...

Followed closely by ONA

Lovejunky said:

Emancipation...

Followed closely by ONA

I would have to agree with Emancipation, specifically the second disc.

RJOrion said:

For You

I can agree with you too.

I'd probably go with For You as well.

After maybe Parade or so his albums tended to vary musically a fair bit so he might have some very pretty vocals on a song like Diamonds & Pearls rubbing up against some Gett Off screaming and rapping. Even Emancipation has a track like Face Down on it...

On For You even the big rocker in the form of I'm Yours is all falsetto sweet singing. I don't even know if it fully works tbh but it's certainly pretty (and I wouldn't want it changed)

[Edited 9/13/17 5:00am]

The Truth

Emancipation.

blizzybiz said:

I think that "For You" is the one for Prince's "prettiest" vocals. I'm loathe to describe a man's voice as "pretty", but yeah, Prince's voice was smooth as silk on this album. When I want to hear Prince simply sing and hear his falsetto in all its glory, i put this on, hands down.

I can totally see that.

Too hard to choose...

sro100 said:

The Truth

.

That's the one that came to mind for me too!

IDK about a whole album but there's a remix of TMBGITW (either Mustang Mix or Staxowax I can't recall right now) that blew my mind when I was taking singing lessons in the late 90's/early 00's. I brought it to my background vocals class back then, and even the teacher (she was a badass jazz singer) had a hard time believing P was doing all the vocals alone, and she totally acknowledged that the vocal arrangements were remarkable.

For You was really a vocal tour de force, the harmonies and structure were insane to me. I've always loved the vocals on Parade, not just Prince but the back ground vocals were amazing. Sign had great vocals, Emancipation is a very underrated album, there's more quality on it than I remembered listening to it now, his vocals on this record were beautiful and diverse. Hard to pick one record tbh and I haven't even talked about ONA.

Polo1026 said:

coldasice said:

purplerabbithole said:

Lovejunky said:

Emancipation...

Followed closely by ONA

and

Granted. I know his own background vocals and W and L's vocals are cool alongside his more unconventional lead vocals but sometimes his voice is a bit rough and I have liked his live vocalizations of Sometimes it Snows in April better. For example, I don't think I would use P's nasally vocalization on Girls and Boys as proof that P was a great singer (and I love that song). I think P was going for funky and jazzy vocalization. I don't hate it and I think it was an artistic choice but it not his most beautiful singing in my opinion.

Polo1026 said:

purplerabbithole said:

It's funny but as much as I like the Parade album, I never found his vocals to be that great in that album--they almost sound Camille like. Expressive yes, bu not pretty

Listen to it again and just focus on the vocals there's a lot of intricate work on Parade and I'm talking about ALL the vocals, lead and background. Very very underrated imo.

purplerabbithole said: