I’d like to hear him sing in his native language, whatever that is. I think he’d sound more natural.
He sounds better on his original stuff than on covers of other artists. Likely because he composes his own works to fit his flat and very limited range.
So, no, he’s not really that good of a singer. But he does seem to be a decent musician.
Chocolate rain is sheer comedy genius! “I move away from the mic to breathe in.”
Well the question was “Is he technically a good singer?” It’s obvious he’s not that great stylistically, but that wasn’t the question. Is this guy supposed to be the next William Hung? Because I don’t think he’s anywhere near the “it’s so horribly bad it’s funny” category. Needs improvement - yes. New source of cult humor - nah.
Well, I consider phrasing an aspect of technique. But to be more specific, I looked at some of his other videos since, and, no, he’s technically not a good singer. He’s off-pitch quite often.
I think you’ve rushed to judgment on that last one–he already is a bit of cult humor. Opie and Anthony have gotten a bit of mileage out of this guy. I’ve seen his stuff posted on other message boards over the last week or so. It’s popular enough that there’s already several spoofs of “Chocolate Rain” out there. I don’t think he’ll rise to the statospheric heights of Hung, but he’s already been getting his 15 minutes of internet fame.
Not good enough to like, not bad enough to be funny.
Never Gonna Give You Up (tops on my iTunes “Cheesy Songs” playlist) did not sound in tune at all to me. In fact, if my name were Randy Jackson, I might even call it “pitchy.” 'Cause it just sounded flat or something.
I couldn’t listen to either song all the way through, and (like the abovementioned Randy) I don’t really have the musical knowledge to judge his technical competence, but I DO want to add Chocolate Rain to my “Cheesy Songs” playlist immediately! And I want to add new verses:
Chocolate Rain . . . open my mouth and hope for Dove Dark
Chocolate Rain . . . where’s Gene Kelly during this storm
Chocolate Rain . . . where the hell has this rain been before
If you ignore his lack of pitch control, strangled tone (what my voice teacher calls a “knurdle”), uninteresting timbre, and utter lack of musicality…
No.
The phrasing isn’t horrendous. The style is bad, but the phrasing is rather average.
The ones I listened to weren’t particularly out-of-tune. I’ve heard much, much worse. In fact, I’ve heard supposedly professional singers more out-of-tune than what’s on the songs the OP linked to.
Opie and Anthony are morons.
Yeah, I know. That’s what I’m saying - this guy isn’t near bad enough to be funny. This isn’t a William Hung or a Linda McCartney deal. Not even close. I don’t get it. All I can think of is it must be a slow news day for cult humor.
An Arky nailed it:
“Not good enough to like, not bad enough to be funny.”
He has the charisma of a dial tone.
Man, I’ve been seeing this guy and hearing this stupid song a lot lately. He was just on friggin Jimmy Kimmel performing Chocolate Rain live. shudder Best Week Ever had him a week or two ago. He just played at some block party here in Chicago. And, this morning, I wake up with that stupid song on an infinite loop in my head. MAKE IT GO AWAY!
(I still think he’s horrendously out of tune in his cover of “Never Gonna Give You Up.” I’ve never heard professional singers anywhere near that bad.)
Decent voice, zero soul.
“Chocolate Rain” was on E! network’s The Soup last week, too. It cracked me and my 4-year-old daughter up. 
fachverwirrt has it completely right, and to add to his post (or, technically, clarify), it’s not just that he is out of tune on any given note. He also fails to maintain a single pitch on any given note – his voice moves around quite a bit. And I suspect anyone could have noticed how, umm, odd his mouth-shape is.
He’s also doing some kind of Michigan J. Frog thing with his voice.
Heh, and I am not going to mistake of googling for “Michigan J. Frog” in case that is something even worse.
It’s the singing frog from an old Warner Brothers cartoon that became the company spokesfrog.
Every-body do the Michigan Ra-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ag!
Anyone posted this spooof yet?
