When singers decide to start singing with a different voice for some reason

[Clownbaby]

For a while I couldn't put a finger on why I wasn't feeling the last couple of QOTSA albums quite as much as all ther others. Then I realised that Josh Homme's vocal quirks might be it. I've always loved the louche but also somehow chilly and oddly questioning tone to his voice, especially in their first album. He doesn't actually do a great deal with his voice in Regular John but there's a sort of eerie thing going on under the soft and vaguely sarcastic/flat surrface of his voice that I can't explain.

In ...Like Clockwork I still think he sounds nice and Joshy for the most part but by the time we got Villains and a buch of live/acoustic performances of QOTSA and Them Crooked Vultures songs I started noticing he seems to be vocally turning into a swaggering hybrid of all the singers he likes, particularly yer lad Bowie. I've heard a bunch of moments where it sounds like he's very deliberately doing a Let's Dance Bowie impression, singing words like ''blue'' or maybe ''view'' in a very very Bowie way, the same intonation and tone. I know what I mean. He's got to realise he's doing it. Chuck in Jake Shears, Elton John and Dean Martin and probably a bunch of other cowies as well. I don't know, This is something that always irritates me.

[BeardFaceMan]

I had a similar thing with QOTSA, I went off them when Homme started singing in a higher vocal register a lot.  There were always little falsetto bits here and there on the first few albums but when he started doing it more often it started to put me off a bit.

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

I had a similar thing with QOTSA, I went off them when Homme started singing in a higher vocal register a lot.  There were always little falsetto bits here and there on the first few albums but when he started doing it more often it started to put me off a bit.

I went off them when I started to realise that he's a prick. I don't often let that kind thing change my mind about artists I like but for some reason this one did.

[Clownbaby]

See I like him but at the same time can absolutely  see why someone else wouldn't.

[Nowhere Man]

Often it's when they become more self conscious about their vocals isn't it? Witness Elvis Costello post singing lessons, although he's a bit up and down anyway depending on what song he's singing on.

[BeardFaceMan]

I went off them when I started to realise that he's a prick. I don't often let that kind thing change my mind about artists I like but for some reason this one did.

I can definitely see that but he's usually a prick in the right kind of way. Unless it's Kyuss related, obviously.

[non capisco]

Tom Waits after his wife played him Captain Beefheart in the early 80s and he just started copying him instead of copying Louis Armstrong.

For a less facetious example I find it hard to believe the Alex Chilton who sang in an affected gruff 'soul' voice in The Box Tops is the same Alex Chilton who then went on to sing in Big Star.

[Shaky]

Homme's vocals have always been the weakest link for me by far but I admit that's due in part to how much I loved Kyuss. Just never warmed to the change in singer with QOTSA. Excellent guitarist, mind.

James Hetfield is a very notable example of altered vocal chords - the change from the raw screeching of the first two albums to the chest-beating, big rawkstar vocals of The Black Album is quite staggering. I have a soft spot for all of that stuff but it barely sounds like the same guy over the course of a mere 7 or 8 years.

[colacentral]

Frank Black when he started trying to actually sing, from around Trompe Le Monde onwards.

Bob Dylan altered his voice a few times but I find that funny more than anything, and it's part of what made him authentically quirky. It was quite different to the self-conscious examples already cited in the thread as he just didn't give a fuck.

Mark Kozelek doesn't sound anything like how he used to sound in the Red House Painters days. For a while, on Sun Kil Moon albums like April, his lyrics were indecipherable as he just started mumbling. Now he talks through most songs.

[Brundle-Fly]

What was the album when The Charlatans Tim Burgess completely changed his singing style?

A bright and breezy 23-year-old Suggs from Madness seemed to have had his balls in a vice when they recorded Wings Of A Dove in 1983  and consequently, whenever they've performed this number live since, he has a struggle with the verses.

[VelourSpirit]

Mark Kozelek doesn't sound anything like how he used to sound in the Red House Painters days. For a while, on Sun Kil Moon albums like April, his lyrics were indecipherable as he just started mumbling. Now he talks through most songs.

I love Red House Painters but I've barely delved into his newer stuff. I think it is because of that weird affected drawl he's got now. It's silly though because they do sound like beautiful songs.

[Glebe]

Frank Black when he started trying to actually sing, from around Trompe Le Monde onwards.

I think he had singing lessons at some point, having been concerned that his yelling was getting annoying.

[mrClaypole]

What was the album when The Charlatans Tim Burgess completely changed his singing style?

A bright and breezy 23-year-old Suggs from Madness seemed to have had his balls in a vice when they recorded Wings Of A Dove in 1983  and consequently, whenever they've performed this number live since, he has a struggle with the verses.

It was Chas Smash who was the principal voice on that song.

[boki]

James Hetfield is a very notable example of altered vocal chords - the change from the raw screeching of the first two albums to the chest-beating, big rawkstar vocals of The Black Album is quite staggering. I have a soft spot for all of that stuff but it barely sounds like the same guy over the course of a mere 7 or 8 years.

I think some of this may be down to Dave Mustaine having written a fair ol' chunk of the early material, and no doubt catered the vocal melodies to his own voice.  It's always sounded a bit too strained at times to me for that reason.

[Glebe]

I think some of this may be down to Dave Mustaine having written a fair ol' chunk of the early material, and no doubt catered the vocal melodies to his own voice.  It's always sounded a bit too strained at times to me for that reason.

That's a good point, actually. He always enjoyed a whiney screech, did Mustaine (and prolly still does, not listened to his stuff in yonks).

[the ouch cube]

Still on a metal tip, Page Hamilton of Helmet used to alternate between a standard drill sergeant bark and a laid back, slightly slurred sarcastic tone, but when Helmet reformed in the mid-2000s, he had inexplicably adopted a weird wheezy scraggly "singing" that sounded like Billy Corgan, Grandpa Simpson and/or a man who had swallowed a bull.

[daf]

For a less facetious example I find it hard to believe the Alex Chilton who sang in an affected gruff 'soul' voice in The Box Tops is the same Alex Chilton who then went on to sing in Big Star.

F**k My Hat!

I always thought The Box Tops were a black soul band!

[Brundle-Fly]

It was Chas Smash who was the principal voice on that song.

So it is! For all these years, I assumed it was Suggs even though in the video it's clearly Chas. That might explain why Suggs finds it a tricky song to sing live. I've never heard him tackle Michael Caine since Smash left.

[thecuriousorange]

Tom Waits is great on high-pitched stuff like Temptation, when his voice sounds like it shouldn't.

https://youtu.be/LEUUIkxebvc

[grassbath]

Let's not forget that age does change a person's voice and how they're able to enunciate notes. Often the belting/'chest' power goes with age, so they rely more on head resonance and a 'nasal' sound, which explains the Bowie-esque approach to some syllables mentioned in the OP.

E.g. Paul McCartney hitting the same high note in 1968 (0:12) and 1997 (1:54). Different song but same pitch and syllable, but you can hear how the approach is necessarily different.

Mark Kozelek doesn't sound anything like how he used to sound in the Red House Painters days. For a while, on Sun Kil Moon albums like April, his lyrics were indecipherable as he just started mumbling. Now he talks through most songs.

I really prefer his later approach - even as a lover of his Sun Kil Moon work and a defender of (some of) the more recent stuff, I found his voice with Red House Painters unbearably whiny.

[mrClaypole]

So it is! For all these years, I assumed it was Suggs even though in the video it's clearly Chas. That might explain why Suggs finds it a tricky song to sing live. I've never heard him tackle Michael Caine since Smash left.

I think that song is now retired from the set.. I miss Chas and his live vocals. I think Madness are lacking live now.

[DrGreggles]

For a less facetious example I find it hard to believe the Alex Chilton who sang in an affected gruff 'soul' voice in The Box Tops is the same Alex Chilton who then went on to sing in Big Star.

Wasn't he 16 when he recorded The Letter?

[Heid The Baw]

I love Red House Painters but I've barely delved into his newer stuff. I think it is because of that weird affected drawl he's got now. It's silly though because they do sound like beautiful songs.

Sun Kil Moon is worth checking out. Ghosts of the Great Highway and Pearls from the Sea are good.

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

I love Red House Painters but I've barely delved into his newer stuff. I think it is because of that weird affected drawl he's got now. It's silly though because they do sound like beautiful songs.

I only like the earlier SKM stuff, his more recent output sounds like he's reciting stories he wrote at school as a 10 year old over some boringly plucked classic guitar chords.

[Golden E. Pump]

Michael Jackson's voice became more bitter and percussive through time. His ability to sing melodic ballads was diminished greatly. I don't think it was to do with his voice, it seemed like a style choice to me.

[phantom_power]

Luke Haines stopped singing at some point and started whispering ominously

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Let's not forget that age does change a person's voice and how they're able to enunciate notes. Often the belting/'chest' power goes with age, so they rely more on head resonance and a 'nasal' sound, which explains the Bowie-esque approach to some syllables mentioned in the OP.

E.g. Paul McCartney hitting the same high note in 1968 (0:12) and 1997 (1:54). Different song but same pitch and syllable, but you can hear how the approach is necessarily different.

When Elton John underwent throat surgery in 1987 he completely lost his falsetto range. His voice probably would've deepened with age anyway, but these days he really doesn't anything like he did in the '70s and early '80s.

[Bennett Brauer]

When Elton John underwent throat surgery in 1987 he completely lost his falsetto range. His voice probably would've deepened with age anyway, but these days he really doesn't anything like he did in the '70s and early '80s.

I think it was Johnny Vaughan who said Elton John's latter-career voice made him sound like a pub singer. (Might even have been before Vic & Bob on Shooting Stars actually.)

Frank Zappa's voice dropping a third of an octave in 1971/72 is probably too obvious an example, and he maybe didn't have any control over that if it really was caused by his injuries in the Rainbow stage incident.

Todd Rundgren's voice dropped similarly around 1978, some people attributing it to a traumatic break-up with Bebe Buell and the pressure of raising Liv Tyler while knowing he wasn't her father. An interview with him in the liner notes of the Hermit of Mink Hollow CD deflects that:

Was this "will to power" the cause of your voice sounding lower/deeper on Hermit than before, through the sheer effort of suppressing/sublimating your emotions?...   That may be a factor, but it was also me finally learning how to perform, and the physical development of a muscle. That, again, was part of my whole discipline: trying to get that 'will to power' in the physical domain. A lot of people, particularly nowadays because it's trendy, open their mouth and the sound comes out and that's the sound. I was never satisfied with the sound that came from my mouth and I always wanted to push it forward, so I had to go through raw physical labour, night after night, singing for hours at a time, in order to develop that muscle and move the focus of my singing from the throat to the diaphragm. It was purely a physical regimen, and the change in tone was the result.

So your voice dropping a tone or two was not a manifestation of the torment you had suffered as a result of your deteriorating relationship with Bebe Buell?...  No, I don't think so.

[Brundle-Fly]

I think that song is now retired from the set.. I miss Chas and his live vocals. I think Madness are lacking live now.

Really? I feel they're all far more relaxed on stage now, but yes, Carl did give an edge. A bit like Neville Staples from The Specials is missed too.

Also don't forget, they're not getting any younger.

[Clownbaby]

Let's not forget that age does change a person's voice and how they're able to enunciate notes. Often the belting/'chest' power goes with age, so they rely more on head resonance and a 'nasal' sound, which explains the Bowie-esque approach to some syllables mentioned in the OP.

E.g. Paul McCartney hitting the same high note in 1968 (0:12) and 1997 (1:54). Different song but same pitch and syllable, but you can hear how the approach is necessarily different.

I really prefer his later approach - even as a lover of his Sun Kil Moon work and a defender of (some of) the more recent stuff, I found his voice with Red House Painters unbearably whiny.

Putting on a Bowie accent as well is a bit suspish though. Developing a similar tone to another artist over time is one thing but a sudden, very affected sounding knock-off Bowie accent coming out of nowhere from a singer who never had any prior Bowie vibes in their singing feels more to me like a conscious stylistic choice and I'm not keen. Josh being American and Bowie being British, there wouldn't really be such a big accent overlap from Josh without it being affected in some way. Josh has mentioned being a proper Anglophile so maybe that explains it