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[Music] Singers who can't sing (or those whose voices you can't stand).



Lady Whistledown

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
47,630
Robbie Willams.
Surprised he hasn't been mentioned, unless Ive missed it.

If I could Like this a thousand times, I would.

Both in the "Can't sing" and "Whose voices you can't stand" category. Also for being a massive tosser.
 




Scappa

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2017
1,584
Joanna Newsom - has a voice very much like how I imagine a cat in a blender would sound.
 










clapham_gull

Legacy Fan
Aug 20, 2003
25,876
I haven't but I was going to suggest that Bernard Sumner hasn't got the strongest of voices.

Which is the understatement of the year :)

I'm not a fan and I understand they are quite famously bad live even amongst their fans.

However having witnessed it live at Reading if ever there was a voice created in the studio there it is.

Other "quite crap" live I'm witnessed.

Suede when they started and were the next big thing.

Seal at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert, quite something to be out-sung by Zucchero.

Robert Plant at the above too, then of all people George Michael shows everyone how to do it.
 








LlcoolJ

Mama said knock you out.
Oct 14, 2009
12,982
Sheffield
This thread is really poor. It's about people who can't sing not who you don't like, surely?

Robbie Williams is a good call as he really struggles to actually sing the songs that have been written for him. He's a shit singer. Fair play to him for making a fortune by getting decent tunes and having a "personality" though.

But people saying Kate Bush, Bruce Springsteen, Sam Smith, Amy Winehouse, Joe Cocker, Stevie Wonder etc. You're just wrong.

I'm no massive fan of any of them but they can/could obviously sing, and really, really well.

I can't stand Adele but I'm not about to say she can't sing as I'd be a ****ing idiot to do so. It's just that I think her songs are rubbish and she's hugely overhyped.

People who can't sing include the bloke from Franz Ferdinand (they also can't play instruments properly and are a joke of a live band), Ricky Wilson off've Kaiser Chiefs, The Spice Girls apart from Mel C, Simon Le Bon (as mentioned), David Essex (he's not from a reality TV show for younger people), Cilla Black (awful warbling scouseness).

Oh and if we're including Williams (which we should) then Mark bloody Owen who even on songs scripted for him by the tax dodging **** Barlow, and even when it's massively overproduced, he manages to sound like a dying hamster with severe nasal congestion. Hearing him sing live (on TV I stress) it's actually embarrassing.

Aim the arrows correctly.
 


Not Andy Naylor

Well-known member
Dec 12, 2007
8,993
Seven Dials
This thread is really poor. It's about people who can't sing not who you don't like, surely?

Robbie Williams is a good call as he really struggles to actually sing the songs that have been written for him. He's a shit singer. Fair play to him for making a fortune by getting decent tunes and having a "personality" though.

But people saying Kate Bush, Bruce Springsteen, Sam Smith, Amy Winehouse, Joe Cocker, Stevie Wonder etc. You're just wrong.

I'm no massive fan of any of them but they can/could obviously sing, and really, really well.

I can't stand Adele but I'm not about to say she can't sing as I'd be a ****ing idiot to do so. It's just that I think her songs are rubbish and she's hugely overhyped.

People who can't sing include the bloke from Franz Ferdinand (they also can't play instruments properly and are a joke of a live band), Ricky Wilson off've Kaiser Chiefs, The Spice Girls apart from Mel C, Simon Le Bon (as mentioned), David Essex (he's not from a reality TV show for younger people), Cilla Black (awful warbling scouseness).

Oh and if we're including Williams (which we should) then Mark bloody Owen who even on songs scripted for him by the tax dodging **** Barlow, and even when it's massively overproduced, he manages to sound like a dying hamster with severe nasal congestion. Hearing him sing live (on TV I stress) it's actually embarrassing.

Aim the arrows correctly.

There's another category of performer, those who are technically quite poor singers, for example those who can't hit the notes and barely even try (Lou Reed being an example), but can deliver a song and whose voices have an emotional quality or a wit or a warmth that people like. So while some on here might not like, say, Shane McGowan as a singer, they'd have a job listening to Fairytale of New York and denying the strength of the performance.
 






KVLT

Well-known member
Sep 15, 2008
1,676
Rutland
There's another category of performer, those who are technically quite poor singers, for example those who can't hit the notes and barely even try (Lou Reed being an example), but can deliver a song and whose voices have an emotional quality or a wit or a warmth that people like. So while some on here might not like, say, Shane McGowan as a singer, they'd have a job listening to Fairytale of New York and denying the strength of the performance.

Agreed. There's a lot to be said for individual character of a vocal over technical prowess.
 


LlcoolJ

Mama said knock you out.
Oct 14, 2009
12,982
Sheffield
There's another category of performer, those who are technically quite poor singers, for example those who can't hit the notes and barely even try (Lou Reed being an example), but can deliver a song and whose voices have an emotional quality or a wit or a warmth that people like. So while some on here might not like, say, Shane McGowan as a singer, they'd have a job listening to Fairytale of New York and denying the strength of the performance.
Very true. Tom Waits being another example.
 






DavidinSouthampton

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jan 3, 2012
17,351
Ed Sheeran. Never heard him do anything that hasn't set My teeth on edge...... but I probably haven't tried very hard.
 










vegster

Sanity Clause
May 5, 2008
28,272
Effing ABBA.
Always had an irrational hatred of ABBA.

ABBA and Viennese whirls- but that should be saved for another thread!
With you on Abba, something tinny about them. I have just remembered another one for my original list.... Len Cohen.. It always sounds like him and the music have had a bad falling out 5 minutes previously and they are not going to work together.
 


BN9 BHA

DOCKERS
NSC Patron
Jul 14, 2013
22,668
Newhaven
Ed Sheeran. Never heard him do anything that hasn't set My teeth on edge...... but I probably haven't tried very hard.

David, trust me and don't try to listen to anything else by him.

He could bring out a nursery rhyme played backwards and millions would still buy it, or download it.
Another massive hype for people that listen to commercial radio.
 


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