Vocalists whose voices/singing styles changed after the first album

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I know that most singers' voices change throughout their careers, but some singers have a markedly different style on album no. 1 compared to those which followed - such as:

Morrissey - sings in a much lower register on the first Smiths album than he did by the time Meat Is Murder, was recorded. His "falsetto" was also not employed as often on later releases.

Ozzy Osbourne - has a much lower voice on the first Black Sabbath record compared to the more familiar whine of Paranoid.

What are some more examples?

― Kent Burt (lingereffect), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 05:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Steven Tyler - compare "Dream On" to almost anything after (including ballads which would have been better served by his capable natural singing voice instead of his trademark screech)

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 05:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Busta Rhymes, after he left Leaders of the New School. Anyone else think he aped Redman's style?

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 05:36 (twenty-two years ago)

totally - he stole Redman's voice and Keith Murray's flow...

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 05:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Did cocaine change Steven Tyler's voice?

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 05:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Billy Joel, but that was because of a recording gaffe.

― Joseph McCombs, Wednesday, 18 February 2004 05:39 (twenty-two years ago)

gary numan -- he still sings like a robot, but nowadays he sounds more like a mannered robot than a whiny robot

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 05:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Curt Kirkwood

― Al (sitcom), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 05:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Recording gaffe? I don't think I know this story....

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 05:45 (twenty-two years ago)

david bowie ... regularly sings in a lower register from diamond dogs onwards (and not in his more shrill, higher register from his ziggy days)

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 05:52 (twenty-two years ago)

It may have not been the second album, but somewhere along the line John Lennon's voice or style definitely changed.

― jim wentworth (wench), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 05:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Erm, once again, this is regarding change after ONE album.

There are other threads for general over-the-course-of-a-career changes.

― Kent Burt (lingereffect), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 06:59 (twenty-two years ago)

J. Mascis. On the first Dinosaur Jr. album he hadn't quite perfected the raspy drawl that would serve him so well later on.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 08:21 (twenty-two years ago)

The Beastie Boys never released a full-length album until "Licensed to Ill" but their vocal styles changed a little bit between their first singles and that time.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 08:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Ihsahn of Emperor.
Jonas Renske of Katatonia (sang on the first and third album).

― Siegbran (eofor), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 09:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Tim Burgess. Men discover falsettos as they get older.

― 39 Steps + 40 Winks (39 Steps + 40 Winks), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 09:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom Waits (obvious)
Also: the singing Resident (check out his stage performance and compare that to his album ones...)

― Roger T (Roger T), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 09:56 (twenty-two years ago)

one of those Brothers Gibb found that falsetto after fifteen years in the industry.
Although I know it don't really count, but what the hell is going on with Lionel's voice on 'All Night Long,' he seems to be a completely different person, with a completely different background (Jamaican?)

― lukey (Lukey G), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 10:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom Waits' voice sounds considerably more "normal" on his first album than on later efforts.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 10:07 (twenty-two years ago)

To Roger - Billy Joel's first album, "Cold Spring Harbor," was sped up to make it fit the LP format's time requirements. He sounds like a chipmunk.

― Jeff Strell (jeff_s), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 12:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Fields of the Nephilim. Actually, it was after the second album when Carl McCoy ditched his gravelly voice-of-hell for a more sonorous basso profundo, but still...

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Neil Hamburger.

― mike a, Wednesday, 18 February 2004 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

David Sylvian, after Japan's "Adolescent Sex"

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 14:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Lou Barlow got all squeaky on Lamb's second album.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 14:45 (twenty-two years ago)

kate bush!

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

new order.

― ddb, Wednesday, 18 February 2004 15:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Michael Gira

― Roger T (Roger T), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Kate Bush? In what way exactly?

― Roger T (Roger T), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

she is way more spritey and high pitched on "The Kick Inside"... her growl/deep mode hasn't been invented yet. are we going to split hairs here?

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I consider that more to be a result of a change in music style than in singing. It's a matter of broadening ones range of singing styles instead of changing it. Kate may have lost her extreme high pitch - a matter of aching I guess - but the Kick Inside style of singing can still be found on The Sensual World, besides others.

― Roger T (Roger T), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

right. so when she growls and screams "I LOVE LIFE" on "pull out the pin" on "the sensual world" (as you cite) you are saying she hasn't changed her singing style?

i'd say broadening something is changing it. i'm not saying high-pitched kate doesn't exist in her later works, but she definitely changed post-"the kick inside"...

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 16:19 (twenty-two years ago)

It's a matter of definition I suppose. I would say Tom Waits changed were Kate Bush broadened.

Pull Out the Pin is a The Dreaming track. If not for The Sensual World I would have agreed with you, but because the slight return on Sensual to pre-Dreaming I conclude: broadening.

― Roger T (Roger T), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 16:23 (twenty-two years ago)

OOPS.. ok.. "love and anger" then.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

MF Doom was part of the fantastic KMD, but you can't tell which of the rappers is him. It's Zev Lov X of course, but his *cough* flow is so different from his later, tired-of-life timbre that you couldn't tell from the voice. Also, Prince springs to mind, especialliy on the Xpectation album.

― detroit delinquent, Wednesday, 18 February 2004 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Stereophonics - it somehow got even whinier and more annoying

― ___ (___), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 16:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Eric Bachman of Archers of Loaf didn't perfect his look-how-raspy-I-can-make-my-voice-sound routine until Vee Vee.

― dlp9001, Wednesday, 18 February 2004 17:20 (twenty-two years ago)

then he went over the top with that shit. someone give him a riccola.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 17:30 (twenty-two years ago)

The tranformation of Rachel Carns' voice from Kicking Giant to the Need is pretty jarring.

― mike a, Wednesday, 18 February 2004 17:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Dylan's voice underwent some pretty radical changes throughout the 60s and 70s.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 17:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Todd Baechle from The Faint. First album, he had a pretty standard emo-y indie rock whine, then he went super new-wave.

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Are you counting pre-/post-puberty cases like Frankie Lymon and Ralph Tresvant?

― Joseph McCombs, Wednesday, 18 February 2004 18:18 (twenty-two years ago)

And Michael Jackson, I think he was a better singer before his balls dropped.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 19:03 (twenty-two years ago)

...onto little boys' faces.

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 19:34 (twenty-two years ago)

whats his name from talk talk..

― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

the D.O.C.

― angel duster, Wednesday, 18 February 2004 23:42 (twenty-two years ago)

eleven years pass...

geez, I barely recognized Warrel Dane on the first Sanctuary album. his voice is so much more elastic, reedy, and clean than the somewhat constipated, tense, dirty baritone he settled on with Nevermore.

― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Thursday, 10 September 2015 03:47 (ten years ago)

(the difference wasn't as pronounced to me on Into the Mirror Black, but only hearing Refuge Denied for the first time).

― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Thursday, 10 September 2015 03:47 (ten years ago)

my first thought here is James Murphy, who went from imitating Mark E Smith to imitating Bowie

― frogbs, Thursday, 10 September 2015 04:06 (ten years ago)

Bowie has dropped the faux Anthony Newleyisms by the time of Space Oddity hasn't he? Haven't listened to the lp in a while so not 100% but I think they're gone. Certainly there on the Deram lp.

Nick Cave goes from a normal adolescent vocal on Door, Dor to using a falsetto shriek on The Birthday Party and back down on Prayers On Fire. If I'm remembering right and again it's been a while since I've listened to those as lps rather than random tracks popping up on a walkman.

Victoria Williams lost the helium element of her vocal after Happy Come Home I think.

― Stevolende, Thursday, 10 September 2015 08:40 (ten years ago)

my first thought here is James Murphy, who went from imitating Mark E Smith to imitating Bowie

― frogbs, Thursday, September 10, 2015 4:06 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

read both of these as 'irritating'

― imago, Thursday, 10 September 2015 08:43 (ten years ago)

Joanna Newsom changed between 1 and 2, although the big change was between 2 and 3.

― the_ecuador_three, Thursday, 10 September 2015 09:56 (ten years ago)

https://murderbydeath.bandcamp.com/track/joe-bou

vs.

https://murderbydeath.bandcamp.com/track/sometimes-the-line-walks-you

― moans and feedback (Dinsdale), Thursday, 10 September 2015 10:13 (ten years ago)

Mike Patton stopped singing through his nose between The Real Thing and Angel Dust.

― woman in the dunes, Thursday, 10 September 2015 12:37 (ten years ago)

yep, never did really understand the nasal thing he had going on, though it was appropriate for The Real Thing and the first Bungle album.

― charlie h, Thursday, 10 September 2015 12:43 (ten years ago)

Perry Farrell between Psi Com and the first Jane's Addiction record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpIFff3IPLg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj983tHMYRs

― how's life, Thursday, 10 September 2015 14:20 (ten years ago)

Al Green, though I've not heard the album he did as Al Greene tbh.

― Fields of Fat Henry (Tom D.), Thursday, 10 September 2015 14:43 (ten years ago)

Chuck Cleaver sounds different on the old Ass Ponys records than he does on the later ones and Wussy.

― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 10 September 2015 14:54 (ten years ago)

Mark Kozelek. Over the years his nose sounds stuffier and his jowls jowlier.

― Evan, Thursday, 10 September 2015 15:07 (ten years ago)

Oh and now that he is bored with singing he is forcing a Matthew McConaughey style cool-guy drawl.

― Evan, Thursday, 10 September 2015 15:09 (ten years ago)

Bob Mould

― feargal czukay (NickB), Thursday, 10 September 2015 15:09 (ten years ago)

Michael Stipe

― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 10 September 2015 15:40 (ten years ago)

Paul Banks

― flappy bird, Thursday, 10 September 2015 16:24 (ten years ago)

Alex Chilton's voice changed several times throughout his career... He had like 3-4 voices in the BoxTops alone.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 10 September 2015 16:33 (ten years ago)

Robert Plant, too

― flappy bird, Thursday, 10 September 2015 17:37 (ten years ago)

bruce springsteen developed a previously nonexistent southern twang circa nebraska, which has stayed with him ever since.

― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 10 September 2015 18:01 (ten years ago)

Roger Daltrey went through a pretty dramatic transformation, from the relatively-mannered pop singer on Tommy to the full-throated terror of Live at Leeds (subsequently retained on later studio recordings).

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 10 September 2015 18:18 (ten years ago)

Neko Case used to sing with a twangy southern accent that was gradually phased out and completely gone by the mid-2000s.

― Love, Wilco (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 10 September 2015 19:59 (ten years ago)

Bjork?

― Mark G, Thursday, 10 September 2015 21:04 (ten years ago)

bruce springsteen developed a previously nonexistent southern twang circa nebraska, which has stayed with him ever since.
― fact checking cuz, Thursday, September 10, 2015 1:01 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

said twang was previously in evidence on darkness@edgeoftown and the river (see e.g. "cadillac ranch")

― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, 10 September 2015 21:13 (ten years ago)

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