Your favourite singers

[BomberPat]

My top two were mentioned in the first post, and most of the rest have come up too.

Tom Waits is maybe my favourite artist, has been since I was about 15, and his voice is a huge part of it. Nobody else singing his songs ever sounds quite right, and it's just perfect for the music he makes. Gargling with gravel, all the usual clichés, but it's just brilliant.

Roy Orbison is the best pop singer of all time. I remember reading in a biography of him that he claimed that he learned to sing by mimicking the sound of songs he could hear on the radio through his bedroom wall, so as powerful and incredible as his voice is, it has this kind of distant and slightly muffled quality that nobody else has.

 

Honourable mentions for Jeff Buckley,  Paul Robeson, Jimmy Sommerville, Shane MacGowan, Mike Patton, Lee Hazlewood, Orville Peck and Willie Nelson.

Diamanda Galas deserves a mention too. An immensely powerful voice that can give you goosebumps or scare the shit out of you.

 

 

[TibBo]

I have always thought Sebastian Bach from Skid Row had the most amazing voice.  Bon Jovi really screwed them from being bigger than they deserved, and I think Bach ended up doing stuff on Broadway due to his crazy range.

In pretty much every Skid Row song he will do something crazy vocally but I didn’t want to spam the thread

 

I saw Mike Patton and Rahzel do a show at a festival together where everything was done live vocally (beatboxing/rapping/singing) with no backing track/music. Was mind-blowing what they achieved with two microphones….and the occasional megaphone

Edited May 26, 2024 by TibBo
Can never embed right

[SuperBacon]

27 minutes ago, TibBo said:

Rahzel

Legally obliged to post this now.

 

[King Coconut]

Bill Withers singing directly from his heart is all I need. I'd take soul over range and technical ability if I had to. 

Gravel muncher Janis, missing her Bobby.

 

I'll be back.

[deathrey]

2 hours ago, TibBo said:

 

I saw Mike Patton and Rahzel do a show at a festival together where everything was done live vocally (beatboxing/rapping/singing) with no backing track/music. Was mind-blowing what they achieved with two microphones….and the occasional megaphone

They toured quite a lot together in around 2004, it led to the project Peeping Tom which is not Patton's best work to be honest. 'You're not Alone' which is featured on one of those clips above was probably the best song. There were lots of guest artists on the album - Massive Attack, Kool Keith, Norah Jones, Dan the Automator, pretty much every track was a featuring. They toured it with the two of them and a beatboxer named Butterscotch who was excellent. Amazing what people can do with just their vocal chords.

 

Edited May 26, 2024 by deathrey
Tried to delete the YouTube clip but couldn't

[gmoney]

I think You're Not Alone is top tier Patton, but your right that the rest was pretty forgettable. 

[deathrey]

1 hour ago, gmoney said:

I think You're Not Alone is top tier Patton, but your right that the rest was pretty forgettable. 

Oh, it's a great song - I meant the album as a whole is not his best work. Saying that, I've just looked at the track listing again and there are a few songs I remember liking. Might have to pop it on again later today.

[Browser Brady]

Rahzel and Patton did quite a few shows outside of Peeping Tom too.

 

Fantastic cover of Pony..

Patton’s repertoire is on display here, from soulful to death metal grunting. All in the 1 song.

His Fantomas project is especially impressive vocally. Musically it’s the equivalent of an avant garde painting (bar the covers)that doesnt make any sense, but that is the point.

 

There is zero improvisation in this, i dont know how he can remember what notes to hit and in what order for something so abstract…

 

For contrast, something a little more digestible, Patton’s Mondo Cane project which was him covering Italian Swing songs from the 50’s with accompanying orchestra. I saw him perform this live outdoors in a town square in Italy. 

Part of the impressive thing here is that he seemingly sang it in an perfect Italian accent. So not just in note perfect and word perfect but also in a regional accent that was appropriate for the music.  I guess it would be like Serge Gainsbourg singing a song in English and nailing the accent. 

As i said , i cant think of anybody that is capable of doing what Patton does.

Edited May 26, 2024 by Browser Brady

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Thinking about it, I fucking love Jarvis Cocker. He's not the best singer, but the way he can sing with sarcasm and a savage, sardonic voice is just incredible. 

[Tommy!]

8 minutes ago, ReturnOfTheMack said:

Thinking about it, I fucking love Jarvis Cocker. He's not the best singer, but the way he can sing with sarcasm and a savage, sardonic voice is just incredible. 

Off topic but I once went around a mates house and stars in your eyes was on. I confidently said "I bet he's going to be Jarvis Cocker, he looks like him already" not clicking it was a celebrity special.

He did Rolf Harris.

[BrodyGraham]

The first gig I went to on moving to Manchester was a Chris Cornell solo show and it remains one of the best shows I've ever seen. It was so good that I've not been able to listen to Euphoria Morning since, even his own album couldn't live up to him live. Here's his acoustic cover of 'Nothing Compares 2 U', which I love.

 

 

Since I was 14 years old I've been in love with Tanya Donnelly from Belly/Throwing Muses/The Breeders. Her voice is so sweet and warm but just a little bit edgy and sometimes veering into sinister. I'll never not be obsessed with her voice. I used to play this song to my daughter as a lullaby.

In a similar vein to how people have mentioned Tom Waits, I've always thought that if whiskey had a voice it would sound like Mark Lanegan. My favourite stuff of his are his duets with female singers and his albums with Isobel Campbell are great but I love this cover of November Rain with Nicole Atkins, who is also wonderful.

Concurring with the love for Julien Baker here's a beautiful cover of a 90's emo classic

.

[Merzbow]

Going full Merzbow here but Ichiko Aoba, I managed to see her live in a little underground room and it's one of the very few times a voice has nearly brought me to tears, just beautiful.

 

[Statto]

I'm glad this got bumped, a) because I enjoy other people's contributions but b) cos it allows me to rectify a real omission from my personal list in my original post - James Dewar, best known as bassist/vocalist on Robin Trower's "solo" stuff:

The really impressive thing for me is that it all seems so effortless for him. I've sung a bunch of Trower stuff in bands over the years and it ain't as easy as Jimmy made it look. 

[Joe Blog]

Novo Amor has a lovely voice, this is my favourite song of his. 

Jacob Banks is incredible in this as well 

Lastly, Foy Vance and his delightful voice 

 

[Scratch]

Bjork. As I nominated in the pleasing to listen to thread, I could listen to her speak or sing about anything.

This is my joint favourite song of all time. I must’ve listened to it a thousand times and I still can’t work out if it makes me incredibly happy or ridiculously sad.