I mentioned Tom Waits earlier. For me, he does have a beautiful voice, but that’s always going to be subjective. Now, as for perfect, I’m not sure there is an objectively perfect voice. Sure, in theory there could be someone who could sing everything from baroque to black metal brilliantly, but in the real world they don’t exist, so we’re left with people who sing particular songs perfectly. For me, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, and the others I mentioned all do that.
I’d be interested to hear any criteria people have for an objectively perfect voice, though.
Thanks for the link to Adele. I’d never heard of her before here in Canada, but I’m not exactly on the cutting edge of the music scene. the girl has some pipes, very poweful voice!
Well, as I said, I figured it would be not objective, but It’s still fun to see people’s responces, (such as Olives’ Cathy’s Clown link – what an offbeat cover! thanks for posting that!) in my defence, I left some of my favorites off my list, and included one I never listen to at all!
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned Elton John. Whenever his songs are on the radio I have to stop what I’m doing, turn up the volume, close my eyes and just listen.
I absolutely love a sweet Irish accent. The Corrs are my favourite pop band by far. As a matter of fact The Corrs instrumentals are just as beautiful as their early vocals. Their later, more mainstream/generic pop songs were a let down though.
I agree with all this. There are singers whose voices best serve the music they are singing, yet are not remotely beautiful or perfect (Tom Waits being an excellent example of this). There are singers with beautiful voices who bore me to tears (as in Mariah/Whitney/Christina/Babs). Who you name depends on what your criteria are. De gustibus non est disputandum.
**Allison Krauss’ **voice is incredible – like a glass or clean, cold water. She narrowly edges out Sinead O’Conner because O’Conner occasionally gets nasally.
Steve Perry could also belt it out or reign it in. And he didn’t fall into the trap many singers with great ranges do, by making the song a forum for showing off their singing prowess vs. using it to tell a story. When he sings, “Lying beside you, here in the dark, feeling your heart beat with mine.” you can hear that he gets the song, both musically and emotionally. He doesn’t sing, “Lying beside you-oo-oo-oo-OOOOOO-ooo-oooo, here in the daaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaa-AAAA-aaaa-rk” just because he can.
Yeah, I’m looking at you Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera.
I’ll have to agree with this. And I paid $200 to see Leonard Cohen a few months ago. He can barely talk good let alone sing, bur his concert was awesome.
I have long admired Waits for his ability to craft songs around his stunted vocal abilities and own most of his stuff, but he ain’t got no voice.
This. It affects me that way every single time I listen to it. And I listen to it a lot.
I read that Leonard Cohen even believes that she does it better than anyone else (even himself). That’s some pretty high praise.