Singers' voices you cayn't stayund...

Cirrus

It's odd, I don't think I've ever heard a voice that I don't Tonally like as long as the song is worth hearing and I can believe in the lyrics/delivery. I guess the guy from my chemical romance comes closest because it all seems a bit overwrought in a way that doesn't suit he music. But again, if he sung a decent song I bet I'd like him.

Phil_aka_Pip

any of the Spice Girls

I usually don't listen to voices, they're just there in the mix alongside the guitars and other instruments that I'm listening to with far more attention. So there may well be records in my collection that I like the guitar playing on but the vocals I've managed to tune out. I suspect some of Yngwie's platters may be in that category.

The exception is James Taylor. I like the sound of his voice as much as I like his guitar playing, and the musicianship of the people he gets to work with - which is quite a lot.

CHRISB50

Jo Bo and pretty much every modern blues singer I have heard.

That twat Professor Green (if you have no idea who he is google him and prepare to be sick in your mouth).

The prick from Scouting for Girls.

There are just too many!

Blueingreen

I can think of some singers whose voices work fine on some records, but really grate on others, mainly as a result of oversinging.

Top of the list for me is Elvis Costello.  A fine songwriter with a more than adequate voice to for most of his early indie-rock stuff, but he started to come off the rails when he decided he wanted to be a "serious" singer who could stand on stage alongside people like Tony Bennet and K D Lang.  No, Declan, those are proper singers.  Your strained adenoidal whine is fine for a lot of the punky stuff, but it's not going to work for "She" or the great American song-book even if you can just about make it hit the notes. You could learn from your Mrs, a very under-rated interpretative singer who has a brilliantly precise sense of what her voice can and can't do.

JohnPerry

mudslide73 said:

Matt Bellamy. I just can't effing stand him at all. 

this. I bought their first album the day it was released. Radiohead were on hiatus at the time. I got three tracks in and wondered if his singing was a spoof, a bit like Justin Hawkins' falsetto (please tell me that's a spoof). 

I haven't listened to Muse since despite two of my good mates obsessing over them

Col_Decker

Bob Dylan

Phil_aka_Pip

Col_Decker said:

Bob Dylan

He can't sing but I don't dislike him. I think I dislike Neil Young's voice, but haven't decided whether I dislike it more or less than his electric guitar playing. Just like Dylan, his songwriting is all right (says someone who never had any songs published and is therefore qualified to comment on people who made infinitely more out of it )

xSkarloey

Michael Stipe. I like early REM when he used to 'murmur' and was low down in the mix, but the later post-Green stuff sounds like a whiny person to me. Him and his mate who plays the bass. Their cover of Richard Thompson's "Wall of Death" is pitiful. 

Leonard Cohen- mumbling misery. 

That Vedder bloke from Pearl Jam. 

The Martin bloke from Coldplay. The aural equivalent of wood chip wallpaper painted white. Bland as. 

George Osborne. I know, I know, not a singer, but he too is possessed of a despicable whiny voice. Besides, pay him enough and he'll sing any tune you want. 

Richard Thompson: Love his guitar playing but I really have to be in the mood to stick his voice for too long. He's okay so long as he doesn't try to 'do a Dylan'. At those moments he comes perilously close to sounding like a vacuum cleaner. 

Anthony Johnson or whatever his name was. You know, largish chap who plays the piano. Big bloke+ high voice= disconcerting (with the exception of Demis Roussos who is a great singer). 

edit: Forgot to add that I love, Love, LOVE Sarah Cracknell and her voice ain't bad either. 

EricTheWeary

^^^ if we are including spoken voices Sara Cox. Why is she employed on radio, a job for which the major qualification is having a pleasant voice? :x

PolarityMan

Dave Mustaine

Elx

John Mayer.... Makes me sick
Mariah Carey... I lack words to describe how much I cannot stand the stupid bitch
Cindy Lauper...is probably on top of my list. she should be banned from performing

Bucket

PolarityMan said:

Dave Mustaine

Ooooh, very good call. I don't mind him on Rust in Peace, most of the rest is shite though.

Lots of thrash singers get on my tits tbh, Chuck Billy and James Hetfield are the only ones I consistently like.

Randy Rampage on the first Annihilator album is comically bad.

scrumhalf

Oh lord, that bloke from REM - whiny, nasal and just eurgh.

Neil Young - we're veering towards cat torture.

Axl Rose - full-on cat torture.

Heather Small - sounds like a very poor Tommy Cooper impression.

Morrissey - sounds like someone doing a bad impression of a Chinese person whilst having the soles of their feet dipped in boiling oil.

David Coverdale - there are occasions when his vocals sounds like he's trying to sing whilst not teying to throw up.

Sade - good singers measure their ranges in octaves, she struggles to get hers measured in semitones.

dogload

randomhandclaps said: Did anyone mention Sarah Cracknell?  If not I would like to say Sarah Cracknell?  If someone has already mentioned her pissy whiney voice then I would like to second their suggestion of Sarah Cracknell.  If a couple of wise people have already mentioned that listen to Sarah Cracknell's voice is slightly less pleasurable that drilling holes in your penis with a 1" wood bit then I would like to agree with their suggestion of Sarah Cracknell.  If a whole bunch of people have already suggested the 'post being winded by a bigger boy from year 5' gutless delivery of Sarah Cracknell then I will continue to hold out hope that one day Sarah Cracknell may stop and estate agents and banker are forced to look elsewhere before claiming they are really into indie and dance music by purchasing anything baring Sarah Cracknell's name.Also I really can't stick Sarah Cracknell.


I'll have nothing bad said about Sarah Cracknell, thank you! She is forever on a shelf in the cupboard marked 'Top Totty (Indie), 1992/3'.

Bidley

 

Bucket said:

PolarityMan said:

Dave Mustaine

Ooooh, very good call. I don't mind him on Rust in Peace, most of the rest is shite though.

Lots of thrash singers get on my tits tbh, Chuck Billy and James Hetfield are the only ones I consistently like.

Randy Rampage on the first Annihilator album is comically bad.

I don't know about you, but I don't listen to Thrash for vocals

I like Zetro, Chuck and Hetfield. Mustaine was great on Youthanasia, he was indeed rubbish on the first few Megadeth albums though. Definitely a voice you learn to tolerate rather than truly like on those albums.

Bidley

scrumhalf said:

Morrissey - sounds like someone doing a bad impression of a Chinese person whilst having the soles of their feet dipped in boiling oil.

Brilliant.

PolarityMan

Bucket

I forgot - two from modern rock.

Oli Sykes from Bring Me The Horizon - horrific. Doesn't really do a proper death metal growl, he really just sounds like he's having his knackers chewed off by a rabid badger. It's more of a whiny shriek than a growl, and it sucks.

Ronnie Radke from Falling in Reverse - everything about his childish, badly-written lyrics and horrible, Autotuned whine is objectionable in the extreme. He looks and acts like he needs a punch in the face, and this translates across to the music - he actually sounds like he needs a punch in the face too. Seriously, if I had a gun with two bullets, and in front of me was Ronnie Radke and a notorious child killer, I'd shoot Ronnie twice.

boogieman

close2u said:

No mention of Axl Rose yet?

Just awful.

Not just awful....truly fucking awful. Nasal, whiney and overcooked. I want to smash him in the face with a cricket bat studded with nails every time I hear him knock knock knocking on heaven's door-o-wor.

Twat. :-S

RedRabbit

PolarityMan said:

It may be due to the fact it was constantly played in clubs while I was doing my A levels but I don't mind that song.  Clearly not one to be taken seriously and I actually think her voice suits it quite well.