Re: Oh my god, how can you listen to that voice??!

I work in a blue-collar manufacturing environment. And yes, I do believe that fans of interesting music can be found just about anywhere….. Unfortunately, just not where I happen to work!

The name of the thread was what was uttered when one of the guys heard me playing ‘party fears two’ by the Associates at the mill (I have a record player in my office). And I’ll even admit that it is kind a challenging vocal for the uninitiated. Absolutely.

The Sparks thread got me thinking on this topic. The falsetto is just not for everybody? Prince certainly got away with it. Why WEREN’T Sparks bigger?
Sure the song structures can be offbeat, but was it the vocals that kept them from scaling greater heights commercially?

Klaus Nomi… now there was a challenging vocalist.

Who are vocalists who you had to really work to ‘get’…. Or that you decided just weren’t worth trying to get and gave up on??

captain beefheart
bruce springsteen
richard thompson
joan baez
tom waits
alanis morissette

Interesting that you put Richard Thompson on this list - for me, he's a perfect example of someone who wasn't gifted with a natural singing voice, but learned to use what he has extremely well. So he counts as someone I had to work at a little, though I thought his songs were so good he could've sounded like a drunk Muppet and I'd've gone along with it. But it took me a while to truly appreciate his singing.

I'm with you on Morrisette, though - something about her voice is like cat claws on a particularly rough chalkboard for me.

I love Waits' voice, but it's very theatrical, which is definitely not to everyone's taste.

I think the ultimate answer as far as folks I had to work hard to get is Nikki Sudden. The first time I heard him was on an album called Red Brocade, and I couldn't figure out why anyone would bother to subject themselves to someone who consistently "sang" in the key of Z. But over time, I came to appreciate - not sure if I can say "like" - his voice, and I have a hard time hearing his songs sung by anyone else.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2021 05:05PM by Michael Toland.

I had gotten the Pulp CD single of "Bad Cover Version" that had a version of "Sorted For E's And Whiz" by Roisin Murphy on the conceptual B-side and I sort of liked it. So when I saw Ms. Murphy's "Ruby Blue" CD in a used bin, I snapped it up. I thought the cover paintings were fabulous.





I put it on, and the first track was "Leaving The City." Ms. Murphy here was vocalizing the most repellently tremulous vocal I'd heard in a long time and it proved so off putting that I would stop the playback of the CD. That sort of voice is deadly to me.

But the artwork was so lovely, I kept the CD. I'd try it again and again, and it took me a month or two of tries before I could make it through the first track. I was then rewarded with a dynamic and inventive mixture of jazz and manipulated sound sample musique concrete that was "almost dance music" in much the same way that JAPAN's "Tin Drum" was. I've since found out that Ms. Murphy was in Moloko, a band I'd never heard of prior to going solo. I've bought most of the subsequent albums and dearly need her many non-LP singles.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

Seems to me the king of this is Robert Smith. On the hand, I sometimes find his vocals excruciating, especially when he’s trying to sound whimsical and silly. On the other hand, there are plenty of Cure songs that I don’t think would be as effective if sung by someone else. But I know plenty of people who’ve said they dig the songs but hate the singing.

When a band I was in got reviewed live, the reviewer complained about our singer's "Robert Smith whine".

If I like the music enough, I can deal with vocals that might not be my cup of tea (David Sylvian, Robert Smith, Morrissey, Edwyn Collins, Geddy Lee, Jon Anderson, Andy McLuskey, to name a few off the top of my head). But if the vocals really rub me the wrong way, it's tough for me to get past it. Sparks and Associates are tough sells for me. The music can be soooo good at times, but the vocals turn me off too much. So, if I listen in small doses from time to time, it suits me fine.

zoo Wrote:
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> If I like the music enough, I can deal with vocals
> that might not be my cup of tea (David Sylvian,
> Robert Smith, Morrissey, Edwyn Collins, Geddy Lee,
> Jon Anderson, Andy McCluskey, to name a few off the
> top of my head). But if the vocals really rub me
> the wrong way, it's tough for me to get past it.
> Sparks and Associates are tough sells for me. The
> music can be soooo good at times, but the vocals
> turn me off too much. So, if I listen in small
> doses from time to time, it suits me fine.

With you there since day one with Morrissey. And as an extreme melismatic, the dude rarely left any space in the music without vocals!

This is reminding me that I simply cannot stand Roland Gift; it sounds like he's swallowing his tongue and it causes me anxiety to hear that voice. Edwin Collins has a similar, glottal character, but it's different enough to not bother me. The descreeching of Geddy Lee over time was a gift. I'm down with 1980 onward. When I first heard Rush I actually thought it was a woman singing. Fortunately, the higher the voice, the more cloth-headed the music, so both got better over time.

Heaven help me, I own a copy of "Van Halen" but DLR's vocals make that a "really have to be in the mood" listen! His "braying like a donkey in heat" vocal interjections are super tiresome. As are the sugary sweet BVs, actually. Anyone for VH instro versions? Maybe the dollar I paid for that CD was too much?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2021 08:36AM by Post-Punk Monk.

Post-Punk Monk Wrote:
>
> Heaven help me, I own a copy of "Van Halen" but
> DLR's vocals make that a "really have to be in the
> mood" listen! His "braying like a donkey in heat"
> vocal interjections are super tiresome. As are the
> sugary sweet BVs, actually. Anyone for VH intro
> versions? Maybe the dollar I paid for that CD was
> too much?

DLR to me is like a "character" or "persona" that works within the framework of the band. That character perfectly matches his lyrics, vocals, stage presence, style of dress, etc. DLR can pull off "Ice Cream Man" and "Big Bad Bill" whereas Hagar couldn't. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just that those songs fit Dave's persona. And it's not like Hagar isn't a fun loving or humorous guy. Anyway, all of this doesn't mean that Dave's voice isn't irritating as heck at times, but if I embrace the DLR character, I find it goes down smoother. For me at least!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2021 11:51AM by zoo.

There are a lot of reasons to hate Eminem but this is the best. His voice is atrocious. On top of that, unless you’re a secretary, words per minute should never be a measure of quality.

Nightdrive Wrote:
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>…On top of
> that, unless you’re a secretary, words per minute
> should never be a measure of quality.

Hah! I've never heard Eminem, but that's hilarious!

Post-Punk Monk Wrote:
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> Hah! I've never heard Eminem, but that's
> hilarious!

You sir are living life correctly.

Even worse are the rappers, mostly white, influenced by Eminem who think a 200 bpm flow, even if none of your lyrics make sense, means you're a great MC.

Some other controversial UK singers: Roger Chapman, Kevin Coyne, Frank Sidebottom, the dude from Napalm Death and Lulu.

Oh, yeah, and from the Commonwealth: Geddy Lee

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2021 11:23PM by That One Guy.

A few of the singers already mentioned here are on my hard-to-bear list. But one that's the hardest for me is Dolores O'Riordan. Honestly, I don't see how anyone can hear "Zombie" even once and be a Cranberries fan at all.

You can't spell Dolores without dolor.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2021 07:21PM by Delvin.

Bjork

> Bjork

I posed this question to my wife. Björk was her answer as well.

I’ve never fully embraced The Fall. I own albums by them…albums I’ve read glowing reviews of… but they are not something I go back to the well on often.

I can’t put my finger on why… but Mark E Smith’s vocals might be a cause. He’s certainly not even all THAT difficult of a singer (Skinny Puppy, anyone?) but they don’t draw me in.

Anyone who could give me some ‘go to’ Fall recommendations, I’d listen. I gotta be missing something with these guys.

Bip Wrote:
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> (Skinny Puppy, anyone?)

Whew! I'd forgotten all about the "Ogre Music" singers, as I call them. So called after Skinny Puppy's "Nivek Ogre" [mom knows him as Kevin Ogilvie] who typified the penchant for industrial music heroin addicts to sing through a distortion pedal*. As a Cabaret Voltaire fan looking for more kicks of that order, I liked the beats and vibe but after a while, that stuff got past its sell-by date to me once I hit 30.


* At least I hope he was singing through a distortion pedal!

458489 A Sides is the one that hooked me. That's the Fall at their most accessible. Though I'm hardly an expert - I've got maybe half a dozen albums, most of them from that time period.

I'm still working on appreciating Kate Bush. Her general aesthetic appeals to me, but I can take her voice for about a song and a half before it starts to bug me. Still trying.

This is way outside of the TP sphere, but I've also struggled most of my life with Elvis Presley, believe it or not. Yeah, I know, greatest rock & roll singer ever, yadda yadda yadda. And when I listen to a song like "Jailhouse Rock," I can almost believe it. But I'm too young to have appreciated Elvis during his prime years, so all I hear whenever I hear one of his records is the sound of the fifty million parodies and lousy imitations of his style. Not his fault (well, considering what I've heard of the Vegas years, maybe it's partially his fault), but I can't divorce the real thing from the ersatz versions.

That's funny about Elvis, but I get it - took me a while to appreciate Black Sabbath and Led Zep because of all the screechy-voiced bad metal imitators. Then when I really sat down with album after album of the real thing, I realized what all their imitators did wrong - they just aped the most obvious elements of their voices. Same with Elvis - for everyone Lux Interior who puts a new spin on the Presley style, there's millions of hiccuping rockabillies who cannot compare with The King. And actually, the Vegas years showed how Elvis (when he wasn't wasted) had really developed his voice. The operatic power of '70s hits like "Suspicious Minds" would have been way beyond the relatively crude rockabilly Elvis. Few noticed during his '60s dumb-movie era, but he had been getting in a lot of practice.