Spoken Singing

[Hound Of The Basketballs]

Somebody I know asked me for recommendations of spoken word lyrical delivery, along the lines of Yeah Yeah Noh. He's American but he's a big fan of Arab Strap, and I'm baffled that I don't have any other examples. I don't mean actual spoken word, like JCC, more of a non-musical style of singing where you could probably take the music out and it'd sound 'normal'. Some Fall fits, but is there anything else essential/obvious?

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Erm....Dry Cleaning?
A lot of Arab Strap *is* just spoken, isn't it?

Oh, yeah, Blue Aeroplanes, too. Yer American friend would probably like Gerard Langley and his mates, if he's not a fan already. The spelling of the band's name would probably niggle him a bit, though.

[The Culture Bunker]

Billy Bragg's 'Walk Away Renee' is him talking about a girl while Johnny Marr on guitar picks out the melody of the old Left Banke/Four Tops hit.

[phantom_power]

A lot of Fontaines DC stuff is speak-singing, and Yard Act as well, though that is more just plain speaking

One of my favourites of the genre is Angie Hart by Modern Giant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PoImiNtjZg

[Better Midlands]

I always thought Big Hard Excellent Fish - Imperfect List was kind of a precursor to First Big Weekend.

In 1990, a single called "Imperfect List" was released under the project name of Big Hard Excellent Fish. The spoken-word track is a list of 64 least favourite people and things read by Pete Wylie's then girlfriend and collaborator Josie Jones. The list was compiled by Wylie and the track was recorded by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins, although Wylie is not credited on the record. The list ranges from "Adolf Hitler" to "Lost Keys".

[Hound Of The Basketballs]

Thank you all. Blue Aeroplanes is a great shout, and definitely along the lines of what I imagine he's talking about. Reminded me of this, of course, which is excellent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDo6Lgylsjg

I'd never heard of Modern Giant. Cheers for that too, ideal.

Plenty of appropriate HMHB in the world too. Monochrome Set works too.

[studpuppet]

Ian Dury's 'Razzle In My Pocket'
Shatner's 'Transformed Man' album
Sebastian Cabot's Bob Dylan tributes
Melanie Blatt's vocal stylings on any And The Native Hipsters recordings
King Missile's 'Detachable Penis'

[The Mollusk]

Fontaines good dry cleaning bad

Casey from Protomartyr is big into this vocal style and he's fucking excellent at it. Just gonna use another thread to sing the praises of this band, particularly their most recent two albums which are really marvellous.

[DJ Bob Hoskins]

A big chunk of Lou Reed's output falls into this category. Dirty Blvd is one that immediately springs to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA4-4ifhixg

[Vitamin C]

Bongwater have some great spoken word tracks, this one probably being the best known:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX78AB-L1JI

[phantom_power]

Fontaines good

It's nice to see someone else on here actually mention them. It is surprising that a modern, fairly big band like them gets no mention at all on this forum

[McChesney Duntz]

I like a good spoken word mit music track. Some good ones off the top of my head:

Mekons - "Psycho Cupid (Danceband on the Edge of Time)"
Soul Coughing - "Screenwriter's Blues"
John Cale - "The Jeweller" (and of course "The Gift")
Tindersticks - "Ballad of Tindersticks"
Talking Heads - "Seen and Not Seen"
Robyn Hitchcock - "Let There Be More Darkness," "Happy the Golden Prince," "The Can Opener"
Hüsker Dü - "How to Skin a Cat"
The Fall - "Garden," "Athlete Cured," "Spectre vs. Rector" (as with Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen, a lot of MES tracks skirt the edge of spoken word even if they're technically sung)

[jobotic]

Killdozer - Live Your Life Like You Don't Exist

[Johnny Foreigner]

Anything by Anne Clark.

Sleeper in Metropolis

Our Darkness

Homecoming

[chveik]

Laurie Anderson

[phantom_power]

Whodunnit by The Reindeer Section is a good Arab-Strap-adjacent one

Be Safe by The Cribs is a good one with Lee Ranaldo doing the speak-sing thing

Belong by REM is another corker in the genre

[Mr Farenheit]

Lots of Prince Buster

A few Bob Dylan 'talkin blues' style songs from the early years. My favourite is Talkin Bear Mountain Picnic Maasacre Blues

But the all time best for me is the incredible Red Sovine. Teddy Bear, I'm Only 17, The King's Last Concert and more....always melodramatic and often supernatural!

[sovietrussia]

Wire - The Other Window
Eno - Dead Finks Don't Talk
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen

[Smeraldina Rima]

Ted Chippington (except for one time when he sings "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" and sounds like S Lee)

[Sebastian Cobb]

Dj Signify and Buck 65 - Stranded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJo-udR4M6U

seems more like just talking than most rap which at least has more of a flow or whatever

John Cooper Clarke? Snap Crackle and Bop is great.

Linton Kwesi Johnson too

[Fr.Bigley]

All hip hop (rap)

[studpuppet]

Plenty of Serge Gainsbourg (Melody Nelson etc) - here's Bonnie & Clyde

A couple of examples where the singer breaks into spoken lyrics just for a moment that makes the song:

Gilbert Becaud - A Little Love & Understanding - he half-sings, "You've got some problems you can't face, so leave them behind, any place", and then when he chuckles and says, "Good, good.." half to himself.

Billy Bragg - The Saturday Boy - when he gets that clarity of hindsight: "Thinking back, she made us want her".

[Tokyo van Ramming]

I remember Looper's Impossible Things was on XFM a lot in the good old days, it's quite lovely. I think they have some more talkie ones.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Do the Unthanks count? they basically sound like they're half singing half talking in their northern accents