IF IT WEREN'T FOR THE VOCALIST...

[Mr. Broken]

I guess I hit reply instead of post new topic.

[sgt.null]

Albums youve bought for one specific song, and then discovered that it was the only song on the album that you liked.

screaming trees come to mind. mark lannegan is such an amazing vocalist, but only hits with the trees on one album for me. Sweet Oblivion is great and lanegan sounds so weary. it is beautiful.

[drew]

Tragically Hip's Gordon Downie ... he use to grate on me like sandpaper ... and then I got use to him and now I love their stuff!

That's because he's gotten better as a singer as the years went by...kind of the same with Steve Tyler...
Old Areosmith singing wasn't very good...but by the time they released PUmp...he'd gotten really good.

Oh, and Null...the singing on Sweet Oblivion is really good.
The Last Song..Julie Paradise...awesome!!

[Blackhawk]

smashing pumpkins. billy corgan can not sing.

yeah..he reminds me of an alley cat, the kind that wakes you up at 3am in heat howling.

[sgt.null]

drew - i disliked the reissue because it broke up what i remember of the album, they add some songs in the middle. i also never listen to For Celebrations Past because i first had the album on tape. when i flipped the tape over, that song was mostly complete, so i skipped to the next song.

blackhawk - i always wondered why billy didn't simply hire a vocalist.

[Cagliostro]

I've often said I would enjoy the Sugarcubes if it wasn't for the guy screaming in the background. My friend theorized that he was the retarded kid the parents kept chained up in the basement, and they would unchain him for concerts and recordings.

[Sunbaneglasses]

I can think of one band that I am surprised that no one has mentioned.

[Chrysalis]

I can think of one band that I am surprised that no one has mentioned.

Do tell...

Mine would have to be Muse.

[Farm Ur-Ted]

I tend to prefer bad singing to singers with pretty voices, but I've tried to like Tom Waits, and it just didn't work. I got a couple of his albums, but couldn't listen to them. Hell, I had Raindogs, and I'm not sure I ever got past about the 3d song. And I think I only made two attempts to listen to it. His voice is just too painful for me to listen to.

[Cagliostro]

As a big fan of Tom Waits, I have to say it is something that grows on you. I used to be a "smooth voice" listener, as I have something of a smooth voice myself, or rather, did. Then the Pogues made me love them, and then a bit of Dylan, and then Tom Waits. My first from Tom was Bone Machine, and I didn't think a lot of it at first, but once I sat down with it and read the lyrics, I liked the majority of it. Particularly I Don't Wanna Grow Up. So much of it felt very exotic to me because of the emphasis on noise. But what made me a fan was picking up a bootleg concert around the time of Small Change called Mathilda. Then picking up Small Change and some of the older really made me fall in love with him, and made the point where he changed to more noisy experimental stuff that much more enjoyable for me. But with albums like Small Change, his voice isn't completely shot yet, but he still uses the gravel effectively. The only period of Tom Waits music I don't enjoy is when he got into heavy strings like around the time of Blue Valentine. Heart Attack and Vine doesn't do it for me either, and still remains the only album from him I have never picked up. Some people say that album is there favorite, and while I have listened to it, I'm still not sure if I'll ever pick it up.

[stonemaybe]

How many of the bands mentioned in this thread would've made it big if it wasn't for their distinctive singers?

There are thousands and thousands of amazingly talented bands out there! But they will never make it, because they have no way of standing out from the others. You get yourself an original vocalist however, and though maybe 90% of the people who hear your band won't like it, the other 10% will become a cult following, you'll get a deal, and sell lots of records.

Maybe.

You have to have something different! And different means that there are lots of people who won't like you.

imo.

But back on topic, the vocalists that really really annoy me these days ...I'm sure there's a term for the type.... arctic monkeys, and that girl with the 'you're so BITTA, you're friends are so much FITTA' song. It's the accent they put on rather than style. May not be big in the US but huge in UK. Grrrrrrrrrr.

[Chrysalis]

But back on topic, the vocalists that really really annoy me these days ...I'm sure there's a term for the type.... arctic monkeys, and that girl with the 'you're so BITTA, you're friends are so much FITTA' song. It's the accent they put on rather than style. May not be big in the US but huge in UK. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Oh I can't listen to that 'song' at all! Drives me mad! Same as The Strokes (I think) The 'Dry your eyes mate' one.
As you say, the accent is the worst. Its been banned from our work office.
Worse part is the actual band members are very well spoken and just put on the voice for the songs. Most annoying in my view.

[dANdeLION]

Steve Tyler...Old Areosmith singing wasn't very good...but by the time they released PUmp...he'd gotten really good.

In your opinion, that might be. But I feel the opposite; I stopped buying Aerosmith after Night in the Ruts, mainly because both guitarists left, and by the time they came back, Tyler's vocals had gone sour to my ears (or maybe it was the writing, or just my own tastes changing; who knows), so I just quit listening to them.

[Wyldewode]

System of a Down. I like their music, and their lyrics are interesting as well. I like their musicality, but to be honest, the only reason I can't say I really like the band is because of the lead vocalist's odd voice.

[danlo]

System of a Down has two vocalists (even though sometimes they sound like six) Serj Tankian and Daron Malakianand. Daron (help me Syl!) is, probably, the one you dislike as he's, I believe, the hyper-spastic sounding one. I love hyper-spastic, so I'm happy, but it did take me a long time to really get into this band. Chop Suey! Sugar...ah