Quote:
Originally Posted by JackieBlue
BJFan, Seb has the same attitude towards everyone, period. It's part of what makes him loveable. I think most people here have found themselves on the receiving end of Seb's cynicism at one time or another, myself included. But I can't recall when he's actually been rude to anyone. Blunt? Yes. Opinionated? Absolutely. But rude? Not so much. And certainly not with a one-word response. Trust me, it can get much worse. 
That door swings both ways, though. I've seen some people come down on others like a ton of bricks for stating negative opinions, too. And they can be just as rude, if not more so. There have been plenty of posts implying that others shouldn't even post here if they think so little of Jon, basically telling them to go away if that's the way they feel. (And I say Jon, specifically, because no one seems to have a problem with negativity about others in the band, or Bobby, or even Shanks.)
I realize that it's none of my business but, tbh, I think you guys were a little harsh with Walleris, the way you kept on him even after he admitted he could have toned down his post somewhat. But that's just my opinion. |
Maybe. I'm sorry if my post about Walleris' reply to my topic "The THINFS tour KICKS ASS!" was offensive towards him or anyone else. I was just a bit bewildered about whether I'm being/I've been overly optimistic about Jon for him.
However, I wholeheartedly agree, everyone has the right to say one's own opinion. Also, I didn't get hurt or angry with Seb - I was just confused, once again. Having thought about it a bit more, Seb probably didn't want to appear rude, and I apologize for calling him so. His way of saying things simply is (much) more straight-forward than mine or Rdkopper's, for instance. Seb never sugarcoats anything, and that's actually admirable. I don't agree with everything he's said about Jon, but I appreciate his honesty a lot and his no-bullshit style as a writer makes him one of the best blokes there's ever been on Jovitalk. Better than myself, actually!
And no, I don't think I'm stupid as a somewhat optimistic fan, but I don't think that constructive criticism is wrong either. I know a lot of you are disappointed with the band (especially Jon) nowadays, and I agree with many of your points (including several of Walleris' and Seb's opinions about Jon's vocals). In fact, here's my analysis of his voice nowadays.
Jon no longer sings embarrassingly out of tune (apart from RYH, BWC, WSYCGH, HAND and BM) and seems to be somewhat regaining a bit of his past range - something that he was largely unable to display from late '13 to late '16. For me, the biggest problem about his current voice is his tone. It sounds awfully thin and forced. For the most part, he's whispering the lower parts and shouting the higher ones, not singing them. His voice also cracks pretty often nowadays - sometimes even many times during one single gig - and he clearly has big problems with his breathing technique while singing. The rasp, attack, energy and aggression are basically gone as well.
His range is also extremely inconsistent, as in general he seems to struggle more with his low/middle register than he does with his high one. I don't know how it's possible, but show after show he manages to hit all the high "on a BED of nails..." parts on BOR as well as the long, high "lay my hands on YOOOOOUUUUU..." on LYHOM and occasionally even some parts of the choruses on Always, whereas even the verses - let alone the choruses - of BWC and WSYCGH fall terribly flat + out of breath every single time.
Right now, it seems like that Jon is using several different techniques while singing. None of them are really working, as pretty much every note that comes out of Jon's mouth nowadays sounds more or less bad. The high notes he hits sound very forced and "shrill", not smooth as they did in '08-early '13. Sometimes he misses a note and/or his voice cracks, sounding like a guy going through delayed puberty (or, as I would say, like Homer Simpson singing karaoke). However, it's baffling that he can usually hit the "I ain't gonna LIVE forever" on IML pretty well, but falls embarrassingly flat right afterwards on the "like Frankie said, I DID it my way" part, although the note (A4) is the same. That must be a psychological thing.
The middle notes sound either painfully nasal (like on the chorus of THINFS) or overly "whispery" (like on Knockout as a whole), and he seems to have a great deal of trouble holding long notes/breathing consistently especially in this register. It's really strange, because usually singers with shot voices have the biggest problems holding HIGH notes for a longer time. On this register Jon also struggles a lot with his pitch control and often goes off key/"speaks" with no real resonance during the (easy) verses of BTBMB, BM, HAND and Prayer, while he's perfectly capable of hitting much higher notes on BOR, KTF, the choruses of Prayer (key change included) + BTBMB and the likes.
On the lowest notes Jon completely relies on whispering and still somehow sounds frail + out of breath on several occasions (during the verses of Always, for example).
With all these flaws and inconsistencies combined, nowadays Jon's voice is rather unpleasant to listen to, and I'm very sad about it having declined so much in such a short time. However, I do think a lot of it is psychological (especially the pitch and breathing problems in his mid-/low register as well as the overall thinness of his tone) and on those parts I don't think that all the hope is lost yet.
Jon's vocals will never be honestly GREAT again, that's guaranteed, but there's no real reason why he'd be completely unable to improve from where he is now. Basically saying, it can't get any worse, so the only possible direction is upwards.