Great bands with singers you don't like?

[Comatose Commodity]

Okay do you have favorite bands, where, when you actually honestly think about it you don't actually rate the lead vocalist very much, but strongly like the band in general?


For me at least;
The Rolling Stones.
Wouldn't have it any other way, but I never really grew to love Mick, the vocals, style, persona but yet I really like the Stones.


Oasis.
Liam got more annoying as they became more and more famous. Voice quite weak live after the early days. In studio better, but quite a one-trick pony with the "channelling Lennon" 24/7

The Beatles. Love Macca but John and George as singers not my cup of tea

Honorary mention Led Zeppelin.
Not a massive fan in general,  but would've liked them more with a different type of singer/frontman.

All British, just a coincidence

[Blue]

I mean I hate to say it, but STP circa 2010-2012. Scott just took so little care of his voice, it started to sound a bit like nails on a chalkboard to me. Even studio produced stuff like S/T or the Chicago "Live" Bluray, his voice had an unpleasant quality to me. It was just too crackly an nasally to me, and then you throw in all the sour notes he'd hit live and it just got more unpleasant.

G'n'R is far from my favorite band, but in particular I just never got the appeal of Axl Rose. His voice just always sounded like a gimmick to me, like a child making a funny voice by talking while he's inhaling instead of exhaling.

[Flyingmerpa]

I mean I hate to say it, but STP circa 2010-2012. Scott just took so little care of his voice, it started to sound a bit like nails on a chalkboard to me. Even studio produced stuff like S/T or the Chicago "Live" Bluray, his voice had an unpleasant quality to me. It was just too crackly an nasally to me, and then you throw in all the sour notes he'd hit live and it just got more unpleasant.

G'n'R is far from my favorite band, but in particular I just never got the appeal of Axl Rose. His voice just always sounded like a gimmick to me, like a child making a funny voice by talking while he's inhaling instead of exhaling.

Agreed.  I'd stretch it back to Velvet Revolver era as well.  It wasn't as bad, but it his voice was still in the same nasally/crackly/pitchy/whiney stage at that point.
Even though I like Perry Farrel's voice, I'm pretty sure if I was part of the 'general populace' i wouldn't like Janes Addiction b/c of the voice.

[CagedTiger]

I’m a big fan of Jane’s Addiction and Smashing Pumpkins but have friends who won’t listen to either specifically because they don’t like the voices of Perry Farrell or Billy Corgan.
I kinda get it, especially with BC. His voice was a lot softer on the first 2 records but seemed to get more whiney with each record starting from Mellon Collie onwards. He’s an amazing songwriter though and I’ll always love their music.

[rocker rockstar]

Slash with Myles.  I like Slash and his music but I don't really like Myles voice on a lot of the songs. 

[Blue]

I mean I hate to say it, but STP circa 2010-2012. Scott just took so little care of his voice, it started to sound a bit like nails on a chalkboard to me. Even studio produced stuff like S/T or the Chicago "Live" Bluray, his voice had an unpleasant quality to me. It was just too crackly an nasally to me, and then you throw in all the sour notes he'd hit live and it just got more unpleasant.

G'n'R is far from my favorite band, but in particular I just never got the appeal of Axl Rose. His voice just always sounded like a gimmick to me, like a child making a funny voice by talking while he's inhaling instead of exhaling.

Agreed.  I'd stretch it back to Velvet Revolver era as well.  It wasn't as bad, but it his voice was still in the same nasally/crackly/pitchy/whiney stage at that point.

Ironically enough I was just listening to Libertad for the first time in years, and realized Scott voice sounded a lot better than I thought it did on that album. I guess after the reunion era, it just doesn't sound as bad by comparison.

[CagedTiger]

I mean I hate to say it, but STP circa 2010-2012. Scott just took so little care of his voice, it started to sound a bit like nails on a chalkboard to me. Even studio produced stuff like S/T or the Chicago "Live" Bluray, his voice had an unpleasant quality to me. It was just too crackly an nasally to me, and then you throw in all the sour notes he'd hit live and it just got more unpleasant.

G'n'R is far from my favorite band, but in particular I just never got the appeal of Axl Rose. His voice just always sounded like a gimmick to me, like a child making a funny voice by talking while he's inhaling instead of exhaling.

Agreed.  I'd stretch it back to Velvet Revolver era as well.  It wasn't as bad, but it his voice was still in the same nasally/crackly/pitchy/whiney stage at that point.

Ironically enough I was just listening to Libertad for the first time in years, and realized Scott voice sounded a lot better than I thought it did on that album. I guess after the reunion era, it just doesn't sound as bad by comparison.

I always thought Scott sounded great on ‘Libertad’ (even when it came out), and in fact think he sounds better than he did on ‘Contraband’. It was the songs themselves on ‘Libertad’ that I felt were a letdown.

[Blue]

Ironically enough I was just listening to Libertad for the first time in years, and realized Scott voice sounded a lot better than I thought it did on that album. I guess after the reunion era, it just doesn't sound as bad by comparison.

I always thought Scott sounded great on ‘Libertad’ (even when it came out), and in fact think he sounds better than he did on ‘Contraband’. It was the songs themselves on ‘Libertad’ that I felt were a letdown.

I think Scott sounds way better in Contraband. His voice hadn't start to go yet, he wasn't using digital modulation on his voice yet, and he was showing way more vocal range.


In fact, I've always thought Contraband was possibly Scott's best album performance wise. He just showed so much vocal range.

[Westenn]

"I always thought Scott sounded great on ‘Libertad’ (even when it came out), and in fact think he sounds better than he did on ‘Contraband’. It was the songs themselves on ‘Libertad’ that I felt were a letdown."





Yeah, Libertad was definitely the real mark of the downward spiral that we saw towards the end. I mean, he had his moments prior but he always seemed to make it work. His mindspace was in a very dark place. The death of his brother, divorce w/ Mary. Too many bad things happened to a man who fought mental illness.


I know I've said this many times, Scott while he managed to make it w/ Velvet Revolver, his voice was not made for that type of singing.


Anyway, I would have to go w/ Slipknot, Social Distortion and Oasis off the top of my head.

[Sklashboombash]

In the 90's, Billy Corgan's voice didn't bug me.
It was part of that whole Pumpkins sound.
After Adore, I kinda stopped following.
It wasn't until the Zeitgeist album that I really felt his voice was detracting from what could be a really great record. I thought musically, there was some really cool stuff on that album, if I remember correctly (it's been a few years). It left me feeling like "maybe Billy should hook up with a singer". gasp!

I'm sure there are other bands that fall into this category for me, but the Pumpkins were one that came to mind easily.

[Chris Pepper]

Solid takes here on Scott and Billy Corgan.  As for Scott, his later efforts were a bit more choppy.  But when he was matched with exceptional musicians and producers he brought it.  Deleos, VR, Brendan O Brien, Daniel Lanois were good for him.  When he started farting around with Bumblefoot, Doug Grean, Tommy Black ........his governors were missing.

I like Smashing Pumpkins.  Billy Corgan is a genius.  Sometimes his compass is off but man he's put out some real gems.  Wish he'd kiss and make up with Darcy, though.  Would of been fun to see her share the stage with Iha again. 

Jeff Gutt, Chester Bennington, Richard Patrick are singers in great bands I don't like.

[Stop That Pigeon]

Zep definitely. Also Jethro Tull, early Rush and most of the prog rock groups I used to listen to 30 yrs ago.

[CagedTiger]

Solid takes here on Scott and Billy Corgan.  As for Scott, his later efforts were a bit more choppy.  But when he was matched with exceptional musicians and producers he brought it.  Deleos, VR, Brendan O Brien, Daniel Lanois were good for him.  When he started farting around with Bumblefoot, Doug Grean, Tommy Black ........his governors were missing.

I like Smashing Pumpkins.  Billy Corgan is a genius.  Sometimes his compass is off but man he's put out some real gems.  Wish he'd kiss and make up with Darcy, though.  Would of been fun to see her share the stage with Iha again. 

Jeff Gutt, Chester Bennington, Richard Patrick are singers in great bands I don't like.

Just out of interest what is it you don’t like about Richard Patricks voice?? I always thought he was really good. I never liked Chesters voice, I realise he could sing his ass off don’t get me wrong, it was just kinda soft and poppy sounding to me (when he wasn’t doing the screams I mean).

[Sklashboombash]

There's something to be said about the distinguishable voice though.

In a time when so many bands sound similar - whether style or sound - as you look back at the timeless icons, they are hardly ever mistaken for someone else. Whether or not you like voices like Corgan, Ozzy, Geddy Lee, Bob Dylan, Axl - you know it's them when they come on.

[ComicJohnPowers]

It's funny you say that... I looked up some Fastball albums, because I liked "the Way" and "Out of My Head," and a few other songs of theirs I'd heard on the radio. It turns out that nasally guy is not always the singer. The drummer sings quite a few songs, and even though he's got a decent voice, I want to hear the distinctive nasal-guy.