I lovvvvve that CJ cover, and even I must admit that Ms. Timmins is waifin’ it up. I also think that, like Lex 1, that was the first song that I remember hearing the singer using that style and it was new and oh so sexy (and I’m a straight chick). Sadly, if I were hearing it for the first time today, I might not like it as well.
That’s the way I feel about it. The song gets a pass because of when I first heard it.
That song in the Parenthood as, is especially vile. You only got to hear 60 seconds of it in the ad. The full song is much, much, worse.
Julie Doiron, waif singer.How about indie-riffic?
Watch this guy make fun of what I call the Indie Witch-Girl singing style. It’s when girls think they sound like an old timey jazz singer but actually just sound like a dying cat or a cutesy old british woman.
And how about Daughter? Daughter - "Youth" (Live @ Air Studios) - YouTube
Another good song! Regardless of the intent, I have added a number of good tracks to my Apple Music playlists thanks to this thread. 
And yes: that Vine guy is clever, and funny. But just because something can be parodied does not inherently make it bad.
I just heard this on the radio the other day again, and it doesn’t quite have the same kind of overly affected singing style that I associate with the music mentioned in the OP. It’s whispery and sexy, but doesn’t having the annoying idiosyncratic inflections and vowel contortionism that I associate with the “indie chick” vocal styling. Margo still sings it pretty straight, but in a whispery register.
Yes! Thank you. I thought I was losing my mind, with everyone claiming it fit.
Wow. That one is especially vile because of the people singing with her. The guy tries to harmonize with her whisper and can’t even stay in tune. And then the full “choir” comes in and absolutely cannot blend with her voice.
I mean, while it’s not my usual cup of tea, I can appreciate that voice when it’s used for an appropriate reason. But it just sounds awful here.
I concur. That’s not the style at all. She’s just using a bit of whisper to add a smokey quality to her voice. It’s not high and thin like the indie-girl voice. It’s airy to add a bit a sexiness, not a wistful tone. The upper harmonics are still present, and she’s got a bit of a speak-sing tone.
In short, she still sounds like a strong woman, not a waif.
Although Father John Misty doesn’t sing in the sick cat voice, I find him annoying as a person. BUT - I’m pretty sure he’s talking about what we’re talking about in his song “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment”:
We sang “Silent Night” in three parts which was fun
Til she said that she sounds just like Sarah Vaughan
I hate that soulful affectation white girls put on
A lot of people who sing like this seem to think they’re doing a jazz thing, like a Billie Holiday style. Let’s not demonize the accidental godparents of this style, though – Mr. Bungle shouldn’t be blamed for Korn, for instance. Ya dig? Just wanted to highlight that someone in the world whence most of these singers spawn is aware of, and dislikes, that style.
That’s not quite what we’re talking about, at least not what I interpret those lyrics to be describing. That soulful affectation is trying to add thickness and growl to the voice, to make it sound stronger. The “indie chick” singing style is pretty much the opposite: making the voice sound frail and thin, with affectations that I would call “quirky” and “cutesy” rather than soulful or jazzy. The indie chick style is definitely not trying to channel Sarah Vaughan or Billie Holiday. Or, who knows, maybe I’m wrong and they are and just going way, way off the mark.
I hope it’s not, because I love me some Father John Misty (“I’m Writing a Novel” is priceless), but I also like those “waifs”.
I’m pretty positive Billie Holiday is The Lord Thy Goddess to the “waifers”. Not that that incriminates Lady Day at all.
I hear very little similarity between Billie Holiday’s style of singing and indie chick singing, myself.
Yeah. While Holiday’s voice is not strong, it’s all edges and angles, not wispy and waifish.
I picture this thread living on, a beacon in the darkness to those who google “shitty female singers who whisper their lyrics” and “why do waif-style singers suck so bad”. Will this thread single-handedly double the posters on these boards?
Maybe.
You mean like Cat Power, Fiest and Norah Jones? I can’t figure how punk or Green Day have anything to do with this.
Seductive enlightened weary dark nerd-girl-poet smokey-voiced coffee house hipster songstress. Or indie girl contestants on The Voice.
I disagree that any of those three fit.
I call them the starbucks singer song writers. I cringe every time I hear that annoying accent they all do.