groups whose musical direction I can totally get behind, but whose style of vocals really puts me off

Junior Boys are one of those groups whose musical direction I can totally get behind, but whose style of vocals really puts me off. There are a surprising number of groups who fall into this category for me.

― chap, Thursday, July 14, 2016 12:42 PM

for me examples include Tindersticks, Lambchop, similar whisker vocal bands, can't enjoy it, it's like opposite ASMR or something and also just feels kinda insincere to my ears

also, have been to 5 Pearl Jam shows bcz one of my friends is a huge fan, and I always enjoy it, but can't really say I like Vedder's style

http://hdwallnpics.com/wp-content/gallery/i-love-music-pictures/I+LOVE+MUSIC+BLACK.jpg

Basically every band since the 90s?

Most good metal bands.

smashing pumpkins' vocals hurt me in my heart

Hot Chip.

Ghostface Killah.

unbelievable

...

I like his lyrics and the beats on his albums, but that screechy voice and his lazy start-stop flow is like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Short of saying Ella Fitzgerald or something that's probably the single wrongest answer I can think of.

OK maybe not "wrong" per se but just wow.

Supreme Challoptel

Is it really hard to understand why Ghostface's... rather unique voice and rapping style would make him of acquired taste?

you're making it sound like he's rap's Diamanda Galas

Well, Galas' voice is clearly a deliberate choice, so it's not the same. It's not Ghostface's fault that he was born with a voice like that, he just shouldn't have become a rapper. Though he can be blamed for not bothering to hone his flow or make it fit the beats he's rapping over.

Screechy? Not hearing it tbh.

if only he'd followed his true destiny and become the tax attorney the world needed

Tuomas do you like action bronson ?

Never listened to him, sorry.

I do like Q-Tip though, so it's not like I feel high-voiced men can't become good rappers. But something about how Ghostface uses his voice is just grating.

Hot Chip a good call.

My immediate thought is Sugarcubes at the height of Einar's interjections.

Oh, probably Cake, too, although I haven't listened to much of their stuff specifically because of that. Dude's. Halt-ing. Cay-dence.

OHHHH. Hold Steady.

Pentatonix

Einar is the best part of the Sugarcubes, sorry Old Lunch

stunned at Tuomas' Ghostface antipathy too, specifically the assumption that everyone equally hears the same gratingness, rather than being "hey for some reason out of all the Wu MCs he just doesn't click for me *shrug*"

for me he's by far the standout Wu rapper, with more character and emotion and clarity and versatility to his voice than any other. but if people like Meth best for his charisma, or Rae for his half-involved, half-aloof sneering delivery, or Bobby for sounding most like a chew-safe rapper toy with a string in his back, I enjoy a prompt to pay attention to that rapper or characteristic next time I'm listening to a Clan recording.

yeah I loved Einar on the real too, he was just the Flavor Flav of the Sugarcubes

Ouch, guys. This really hurts.

fucked up
robert gilligan

love Hot Chip too, but the longer they go on, the more I wish they'd divide the vocals up a lot. (But: though Goddard and Grosvenor are both better singers with tones that suit the post-second-album stuff better, they don't have as distinct a character in their singing as Alexis does.)

A worse example of the same phenomenon is when Architecture In Helsinki went from being fragile, delicate indie to upbeat dance, and stopped having a bunch of vocalists divvying up parts and the main guy whispering reedily here and there, to main guy yelping like an aged cat with kidney stones in the middle and on top of everything all the time

Talk Talk

Ohhh, speaking of bands that split up the vocals: Rilo Kiley whenever Jenny Lewis isn't on mic.

Given that the Sugarcubes were the party band alter egos of Kukl, I think Einar was taking his cues from Fred Schneider. Who I have issues with, too.

excited to have my moment of being the one person to understand where tuomas is coming from. I like ghostface but he definitely has a shrillness to him

rappers are kind of an outlier in that their vocal style and delivery are linked, though? idk, I guess if ghost... ghosted for someone else, we could judge the lyrics independently of voice

I can get behind almost any voice if I like the music enough (see Cardiacs, Christian Vander, Ruins, metal in general tho I have learned to appreciate a lot of the vocals there). It's far more common that good voices are wasted on mediocre music.

Ruins!! I love Ruins

HEALTH is a good example of this. Love the music, can't stand the vocals. I still listen to them from time to time, but Death Magic would have possibly been my favorite album from last year if it were all instrumental.

practically every rock group from 90s onward

haha didnt even see tracer hand's post!

Oh, probably Cake, too, although I haven't listened to much of their stuff specifically because of that. Dude's. Halt-ing. Cay-dence.

Ahhh yeah, all-right, hoooooo

basically everybody who's come along wanting to sing mournful sad-guy indie in the years since will oldham picked up a microphone

i do like will oldham tho

The National
Fucked Up
Deafheaven
Radiohead
Xiu Xiu

There's a new band/new album (Omni - Deluxe) that had me thinking this exact thing yesterday. I love the album but don't really like the vocals and couldn't remember the last time I felt that way. Typically, good vocals are a requirement for enjoyment of music.

Hot Chip, AIH, "whisker vocal" bands -- agreed. Couldn't ever get into Will Oldham because I hate that style of singing. Feels so contrived. But other "contrived" vocals are fine (punk, metal, whatever) - just not the lonely sad wilderness whittling-in-a-union-suit fellas.

Most good metal bands.

― Three Word Username, Tuesday, July 19, 2016 4:53 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^otfm^^^^

also Radiohead, Deerhoof

Someone always has to mention Deerhoof. I don't think there's a more fitting vocalist for them really, I mean what's the alternative?

no vocals?

there really should be more instrumental rock bands. There are not nearly enough good singers and lyricists for all these bands.

The Smiths

"there really should be more instrumental rock bands."

the mention of Lambchop above. put on one of their CDs the other day and the music sounded great and then the singing started...

this is a lot of atmospheric indie bands for me. and yet i love Low, so, i dunno, it's just a preference thing.

Einsturzende Neubauten.

With HEALTH I took the vocals to be an exercise in contrast with the backing, much like early Cranes. The overall effect reminds me of some more propulsive Wire tracks with Colin Newman at the vocals.

I can't think of a single example of this

I guess RHCP are a bad band made fucking unforgivably abominable by their vocalist

I definitely get this a bit but I don't think I've had it that badly since late '90s/early '00s where there was a load of great electronic acts with awful vocals (I'm not talking about "indie-friendly electrodribble", this was a bit before that, and tbh I didn't hate all of that stuff).

(Although actually now I'm thinking about it I think it really depended on yr definition, there was a lot of that stuff that I did abhor.)

A.R. Kane - the vocals are so poor, I found the records unendurable.

everything go crazy now

I guess RHCP are a bad band made fucking unforgivably abominable by their vocalist

RHCP could be good if it wasn't for Kiedis. The guy is an absolute fucking nightmare. (Though, in counter to the quote that's always brought up as a joke at RHCP's expense, Nick Cave is a fucking awful singer, too, and I'd probably like the Bad Seeds a lot more if, say, Blixa had been the vocalist.)

http://imgur.com/a/wLInt

http://imgur.com/a/wLInt

Beastie Boys

I wouldn't say I can totally get behind their musical direction, but Gentle Giant.

rappers are kind of an outlier in that their vocal style and delivery are linked, though?

Wait what?

not sure where I was going with that, please disregard

It's probably not just his vocal style, but I realised the other day that the Chili Peppers would be a whole lot less punchable if they'd replaced Anthony Kiedis with someone who wasn't an extraordinarily untalented dickhead

New Order

saw them live recently, that guy's a poor singer

decent on record tho

i used to have this 80's new order live boot where he was just hilariously bad. it was funny. the vocals on the boot were way up front. sounded like the post-punk linda mccartney.

Talk Talk

― Iago Galdston, Tuesday, July 19, 2016

i like bobbie watson of comus, but boy she really wanders off pitch a lot.

the falsetto Whitney's lead vocalist does is for some reason v off putting to me

Neurosis
Bad Religion
Deerhoof

Hood

Gonjasufi

Nick Cave

Most good metal bands.

― Three Word Username, Tuesday, July 19, 2016 3:53 AM (nine months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My son keeps singing me songs which I like, then he tells me its by the Pumpkins and I recoil. Truth is I would like them if it weren't for that voice, which is odd, because I like quite a lot of singers my sons find unbearable: MES in particular.

Durutti Column

Yeah Billy Corgan is one of that strain of very talented rock musicians whoc should let go of a bit of ego and concentrate on writing and playing for better singers.

Like imagine if Siamese Dream had been sung by, I dunno, Layne Staley.

Joanna Newsom, hands down.

As much as I love Sun Kil Moon (before Mark went off the deep end around 2014), I can't ever seem to get over the fact that his voice makes him sound he's singing with a mouthful of food.

And Tobin Sprout's vocals don't put me off but I'm constantly amazed at how different he sounds when singing vs. talking. It's not that he just sounds like he's in a different register but instead like an entirely different person.

Durutti Column

― Wimmels, Tuesday, May 16, 2017 8:15 AM (one hour ago)

fp

television

Bent Knee.

They are probably awesome and of course she's a perfectly fine singer but I can never make it through a whole song for some reason.

From Autumn to Ashes

NOFX

Possibly Arcade Fire with their emo-ramanah crooning

better be honest. Nick Cave, Tom Waits

JUTE FUCKING GYTE

I listened to Pandora when it first started out, and the dealbreaker was Scout Niblett. Almost every "station" I created, they would feed me Scout Niblett.

I think just about everything else I can think of where I'm put off by the vocals, the music doesn't much do it for me either.

Oh, except for this televised concert recording of Chess: The Musical (not the original cast) where the woman singing the part of Florence was just really awful, probably some scientific similarities to Scout Niblett idk.

Bruno Mars

uh

Early Smashing Pumpkins. Could get into the psychy rock stuff but that voice, yuck.

better be honest. Nick Cave, Tom Waits

― PaulTMA,

+ 1

Like imagine if Siamese Dream had been sung by, I dunno, Layne Staley.

This would be awful!

Yeah, that would be awful. Corgan's voice is unorthodox but blends in well with the music on Gish and Siamese Dream... you can kinda tell on those early records that Corgan himself was dissatisfied with his voice, because the focus is pretty much on what the guitars and drums are doing rather than what the voice is doing. It was Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness where Corgan started to have more confidence in his voice, some might say wrongly.

If vocals are important enough in the arrangement to be a potential dealbreaker, I usually don't make a distinction between "style of vocals" and "musical direction".

corgan is a hall of fame unlistenable singer for me. up there with jack white on top of kill myself mountain.

this happened to me when i tried to listen to belle and sebastian a week ago. i love twee and i love world-building aesthetics and i love the field mice and monochrome set and smiths and donovan and nick drake and i like their art design and i even like the music and i couldn't make it through an entire song. every blue moon i try to listen to them. his voice is SO in your ear. and i don't want that worm in my ear.

i think i just don't believe in him either. he doesn't sell his (sometimes really not great) lyrics to me. i have to believe in your bedsit legend. i tried listening to some albums by Hit Parade the other day and something similar happened. i can't follow every sad sack down the thorny primrose path of imaginary destruction. life is short.

i can't follow every sad sack down the thorny primrose path of imaginary destruction. life is short.

^ OTM.

I also loathe Jack White's voice.

Bent Knee is an interesting choice. I'm not sure what they would sound like without her.

I'd never heard of them before this thread but she has a very good voice.

a band that is some sort of test of your fortitude:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3KSpeiRPTc

speaking of which, i would totally own every Family album if they'd had another singer. but for fans he's the star of the show. i do love the music.

Skylar Spence

The Associates

Hood

― MaresNest, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 10:28 (six months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I can't agree with this at all, the sort of subdued and vulnerable nature of the guy's voice fits the music perfectly imo. Reminds me of the time a friend overheard me listening to Bark Psychosis and asked "why can't this guy really sing?" I don't think pelting it out would really benefit anything.

I don't mind either David Surkamp or Rob Chapman that much.
Don't like Jon Anderson much, he sounded a bit better on the early 00ies remasters, but still don't like him much.

Roger Chapman is awesome but I imagine he's fingernails down a blackboard for a lot of people.

i love gentle giant vocals. preferences are weird. i can imagine GG voice would drive some people buggy. just that stridency and straining at times.

Yes, I really don't like their main singer, ugly but not Roger Chapman-like compellingly ugly.

Also the other guy who sounds like Peter Hammill, aged 7 and a half.

Hood

― MaresNest, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 10:28 (six months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I can't agree with this at all, the sort of subdued and vulnerable nature of the guy's voice fits the music perfectly imo. Reminds me of the time a friend overheard me listening to Bark Psychosis and asked "why can't this guy really sing?" I don't think pelting it out would really benefit anything.

― WRONG TWELVE FUCK WITH (ultros ultros-ghali), Wednesday, June 21, 2017 2:42 PM (thirty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ultros Ultros ultra otm. Think it fits the music absolutely perfectly. I cannot envision any other voice to go with that specific whistful, mnelancholy, rural yet pastoral vibe, yet at times with real force lashing out, too.

(best band ever tbh)

i kinda dig that they would basically try and sound like EVERY prog band on one track. the original mashup artists.

x-post

although their first album came out in 1970 so they get some OG status.

there should really be a label devoted to putting out instrumental versions of classic prog albums. #milliondollaridea

are we talking about Gentle Giant? which singer sounds like PH? they all kind of sound alike to me.

Well there was three brothers in the band, that explains the similarity in the vocals. The keyboard player sang also in a sort of high, flutey, plummy voice.

... which sounds to me like a pre-pubescent PH.

My aversion to the vocal style in Bent Knee is obviously irrational. Perhaps I was looking for encouragement to keep trying. Maybe CBT would help.

3 Inches of Blood. the band is inspired. the vocalist sounds like a parody of a metal vocalist.

METAL definitely. The music is usually technically amazing and has some interesting things going on but I fucking hate gutural or screaming voices which is like 90% of all metal.

Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Billy Corgan, Joanna Newsom and others mentioned upthread make no sense to me. I know they have grating voices but it's really part of the appeal. Per example Waits' almost barking drunk hobo voice adds a very genuine touch to his lyrics about... well barking drunk hobos.

I fucking hate Tom Waits.

At last we agree on something.

i have beefheart for waits-style urges, the doors or bauhaus for cave-style urges, geddy lee for uhhhhhh corgan-style urges, and....i don't know if i have newsom urges. i guess i have folk and flutes for that.

get it, cave-style urges. bauhaus. i'm a riot.

tom waits has an incredible voice, y'all are high

i tried for years to care about birthday party/nick cave, i really did. because i'm supposed to love him. i mean he's a part of my gen-x era underground dna or whatever. but i only really like the song "the mercy seat". and "shivers". and blixa. and i only really like "shivers" when that woman sings it on the dogs in space soundtrack.

the jethro tull records i've heard have so much awesomeness on them, but ian anderson's singing totally fucks up the vibe for me most of the time, i'm truly sorry.

stand up, though, wow, what an album

This is The Cure all the way for me.

Black Country, New Road

before I even opened the thread I knew

The Beau Brummels
Lambchop

I'm bound and determined to keep listening to Emitt Rhodes's s/t until I get over this hump. It's so clearly my kind of thing, but the vocals just aren't landing right in the mix, for my ears.

Dry Cleaning.

Obvious one, but RHCP

Oh and Deerhoof. I just don't think the vocals suit the music at all

Radiohead

Thanks to the vocals I haven't got far enough with geese to decide if I can get behind their musical direction.

YHWH Nailgun

Great sounds/ideas - standard shouty limited emotional palette singing/barking.
Still like the record a great deal, just wish Bryan Ferry or somebody was singing.

All of the post-Flaming Lips whiny voice indie--Grandaddy, etc.

Geese

Dry Cleaning.

no way

You better believe it.

Sleater-Kinney, which kills me

I like them, but I get it.

Liked prev Squid, but latest has dude licking his lips and nosebreathing and swaggering and not shutting up, Geese feat. harsh bleating.

Can we do songs? Any song in the past few years with guest vocals by John Cale or Iggy Pop are almost album-ruining.

Also, I love Underworld but a solid 25% of their catalog are ruined by bad singing

no

this thread absolutely sucks you all are like those picky eaters who won’t eat anything slightly spicy or funky. or like, tomoatoes and peppers.

I can't think of a single example of this

― imago, Tuesday, July 19, 2016 6:30 PM (nine years ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

There are many examples where I didn’t like the vox at first but they ended up growing on me, slowly: Bowie, Jagger and Bryan Ferry, most notably. I read so much about Roxy Music and finally found a copy of s/t and slapped it on and heard this bray of a bellow “I TRIED BUT I COULD NOT FI-I-IND A WAY” and I turned it off and didn’t listen to it for years. I love Bryan Ferry now.

But the one band that would likely be my favourite band ever except I just can’t with the singing: XTC

Without naming names, I feel like I have such experiences fairly often upon tuning into Wire or Quietus recommendations, etc. "This sounds incredible... oh wait, there are vocals?! These edgy quasi-slam poetry passages will surely get old within a few listens."

Several years ago one of the Wire’s albums of the year (that shall remain nameless) I could never get past the first couple minutes which consisted only of a narration with vocal fry backed by a couple desultory sound effects.

Jethro Tull I can't listen to largely because of Ian Anderson. Gentle Giant and King Crimson I have to grit my teeth when someone starts singing.

There are a lot of lesser known early 70s hard psych/blues rock groups who had awesome guitarists and barely tolerable vocalists.

Shearwater was great until opera man opened his mouth.

Sadly, many or even most sopranos in the folk tradition, especially those who enunciate very distinctly...

Hah, I love XTC but yeah, both the dudes' voices are... coriander (cilantro) in my otherwise delicious sandwich. Just have to accept it and learn to like it.

Andy Partridge's voice I get being an acquired taste, but Colin... always thought his voice was pretty easy to like

Morrissey took me a while to appreciate, maybe more because of his strange melodic style than his actual voice

A lot of growly death/black/etc. metal, tbh. It's the vocals that put me off from listening to a lot of the stuff as much as I'd like, since it's the music that connects with me the most. The irony/contradiction is that I can't imagine listening to most of this type of metal *without* the vocals, and can't really imagine any style of music *other* than the growls! Maybe that's why I like Opeth so much, since he shifts back and forth between singing and growling, and the music is diverse/dynamic enough to support that.

Morrissey is a gold standard - and this was way before all his racist stuff.

That feels bizarre to me. Morrisey’s voice is key to my enjoyment of the Smiths. Otherwise they’d just be another jangle band.

Can we do songs? Any song in the past few years with guest vocals by John Cale or Iggy Pop are almost album-ruining.

Cate Le Bon's "Ride" (with Cale) from her latest is great

I don't think about it much now, and enjoy a lot of Smiths and Morrissey songs, but in the early 90s when I first learned about Morrissey/The Smiths, it was a pretty common (but definitely not universal) opinion that his vocals were obnoxious. Maybe, as Vinnie suggested, due to his melodic choices, but there's also something about his voice. I'm not schooled in vocal technique or anything like that, but his timbre is a little nasal while also being soft and soothing. To be uncharitable, it could sound like someone in the midst of a reverie of smelling his own farts.

A lot of great singers have normie detractors. Thinking of Dylan in particular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVTzT3FmxhI

I don't really get the Morrissey/ XTC dislike tbh. I mean I can understand it but it's not like they're Sleaford Mods (lol).

except in a few ways lol

My first exposure to The Smiths (beyond “How Soon Is Now?” on the radio) was a blind purchase of Hatful. The run of “Handsome Devil” into “Hand In Glove” into “Still Ill” had me not-getting it— Morrissey’s voice is lovely but his melodies, especially on those early singles, are so meandering, and the lyrics were so weird and strange and clunky.

“Heaven Knows…”, like, the melody just vacillates between three boring notes and then he’s switching to falsetto on the end of the phrase to go “kick in the eye” or “spit in the eye” (lazy writing!) and I was like… is this a joke?

And then after a while I got it… it is a joke! and it’s a funny joke. Realizing that Morrissey is more comedian than singer made it click.

A lot of growly death/black/etc. metal

Brings to mind perhaps the only instance I've spontaneously raised elsewhere on this site:

The first two tracks are downright catchy in their wonkiness. I feel like I'm eventually going to be a massive fan of Jute Gyte when I finally come to appreciate 'metal vocals' more broadly ― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 7 May 2021

And I now see it's not the first time the dude has come up in *this* thread. Bless.