Annoying and ridiculous singing voices are the best voices

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDOBMz2TGi8

Can someone tell me the connection between that pig painting and Marissa M? Is it an original of hers?

I've seen it here many times, and it shows up when you GIS her name!

Yeah but Dionne had way better material than Bejar

Well yeah. I didn't want to single out any actual examples of "beautiful voice + shitty songwriter" 'cause it'd just make a contentious point even more contentious. Jill Scott? Coldplay guy? I like some Jill Scott and some Coldplay. But neither could touch David Byrne as a songwriter/producer. Or any of the other so-called "annoying voiced" people itt. It's a broad generalization to be sure, but this is kind of a private assessment of mine. Like when Feist writes a great song I'm like "nice work, pretty voice!" Anyway, that's why I think people like annoying voiced singers. Because if Andy Partridge could sing pretty he wouldn't have to write the clever songs he does.

neither could touch David Byrne as a songwriter/producer.

I definitely think e.g. Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, or Prince could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw9DsEay6Ak

Paul Buchanan springs to mind as someone who"s voice may sound a bit amusing, embarrassing even, in it's oddness

Sorry, I really do not understand this at all?!??!?! What?

― Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Friday, 5 July 2013 17:08 (Yesterday) Permalink

you don't think the phrasing in, say, 'tinseltown...' might sound a bit weird to somebody coming in cold? like, at all?!??!?!

i remember feeling a little self-conscious blasting "Do I Love You?/YES I Love You..." in my bedroom in 1984. definitely something i played by myself.

and yet blasting Wide Boy Awake didn't make me feel self-conscious at all.

a more helpful exercise to this thread would be to remember the singers with bad and ridiculous voices who also had terrible material, like, i don't know, wild man fischer

matt bellamy of muse

katy perry

Solo Lou Reed *ducks*

neither could touch David Byrne as a songwriter/producer.

I definitely think e.g. Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, or Prince could.

Yah totally! But you're like talking about stone-cold geniuses. Is there a name for that? When you're talking about "people doing things" and then it's like "your arguments about swimming are moot because remember Jesus once walked on water"

i wrote about this very thing once:

"Wackiness and weariness often walk hand in hand where rock and roll singers are concerned. A listener's own personal threshold for whims, quirks, kinks, and vocal contortions, and their willingness to follow an "inspired" performer from point abba to point zabba, is subjective enough as to make one man's pork soda delish in every way, and another man's frog brigade merely soggy to the touch."

http://skotrok.blogspot.com/2012/08/ear-nose-throat.html

haha that piece ruuules

I recently saw Viv Albertine praising Kate Bush for having the guts to sing as crazily as she does with so much confidence, because Viv said it was hard for herself to get the confidence to perform again without feeling silly, when she hadn't been at it for a while. Does Viv sing a lot? I'm not a Slits expert.

Love Mark Hollis. I appreciated Karen Dalton but couldn't properly get into her.