Good call on Nico. That voice is pain personified in a pagan (the religious meaning) sound. If the combined voices of Nico and Diamanda Galas were to morph into one single whole and made to sing what goes on into the human psyche in an official way, the sky would be a permanent shade of grey and the water from the well would almost always be tempeted to poison us, instead of quenching our thirst. Two unique singers that make my soul feel dirty inside like no other.

cat power anyone?

Actually, these are both brilliant examples too. David Tibet's voice is one step short of sounding fully annoying because of the fact that he uses the old trick of going for a ''recited'' intonation to his semi-singing. Lou Reed made an entire career out of that, with various degrees of success or failure. Jandek, in my not so humble opinion, is better than Reed and Tibet at using that trick. In fact his voice is perfectly suited to the entirely ridiculous* music that it sits upon.

* I trust you to understand my use of the adjective above in this context.

GOOD call!

"Two Cigarettes In An Ashtray" haunts me to no end. Actually, so does "Crazy", but not as much as Willie Nelson's version.

Angry: Chris Bailey (The Saints).

Frank Sinatra cannot hold a note; his voice is always (bearing in mind I like Sinatra and have several albums of his) flat. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - he is 'tonally wayward' though. If you can hear it, you won't stop hearing him being flat. It's a bit like when you listen to the van Halen solo Beat it and you notice that he is all over the show in these horrifically dissonant intervals (I think there's pitch-shifting involved). Until you've heard it, you don't notice it, when you do it's a different song forever.

I hope everyone is pulling out their copy of Beat it at this point.

Dido does the same trick, plus there's no body to her voice whatsoever. I can't stand her, but I don't think this immediately makes her awful. Stina Nordestraum [sp?] has no body to her voice, but she's amazing.

On the other hand, there's someone like Shane McGowan, whose timbre is as shoddy as a tar-gargler's, but his pitch is spot on.

I have observations on voice/ they are not prescriptions.

Oh yes indeed. Two entirely different singers, but they get to the same parts of the brain (the 'this is too painful I AM IN LOVE gGggRRGHHHhhshsh' bit). Nico's another example of what I'm gashing on about above - although her voice is a bit closer to minor-key plainsong.

Marras - have you heard any Hildgaard von Bingen? I think you'll love it, I'll up some for you if you haven't.


Yes, quite. The first time I heard C93 I thought it was a joke; I listened to them over and over because I thought it was the worst thing I'd ever heard. And then something flipped and I love them now - probably something to do with familiation?

Jandek is a better example of ridiculous, or surreal, than a million comedy ska-punk groups. Nail = Head.

will oldham can bring grown men to tears "im drinkinnnng agann", im surprised i forgot him

Tim Rogers has a very honest voice, which is especially important for depicting sadness or any other emotion.

I don't think that I've ever seen the name, even though it sounds vaguely familiar, or perhaps I'm thinking of somebody else. Some sounds would be more than welcome, thank you.

truth, lots of truth.

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Hildegaard von Bingen for y'all. I'm not sure how you lot will take it, but I assure you it's amazing.