Quote:
Originally Posted by _KaMi_
I'm very confused right now. People around here keep talking about how Jon's voice sounds great with the new songs or that Jon can put up a good show. I think I've never seen his voice so weak and him being so static on stage during the whole show.
I don't understand if people posting here simply accept the fact that Jon has lost all the power in his voice and they are ok with that (which I think is great), or really think that Jon sounds fantastic. Cause I've seen posts saying that his voice is so much better than the past year, when I hear it almost exactly the same, but this time he hasn't had to sing the classics.
In the last albums he could sing the songs almost as good as in the studio version, but now he can't even sing THINFS. Maybe it's just me. Am I the only one who thinks that?
|
I'm not going to give you a fancy explanation because I know squat about singing techniques, but I'll tell you why I FEEL his voice is better: because he sounds like himself for the first time in 10 years.
He seemed to change his technique during the LH tour, at the beginning (promo shows) he sounded pretty OK and quite like himself but there was a lot of criticism during the first part of the American Leg because he couldn't reach most of the high notes and was doing the TLFR version of BOR and Always. After the break he slowly started to sing differently, I remember around the end of that leg people were starting to praise him for regaining his voice and specially for bringing back the normal Always after so many years, but his tone definitely sounded off. He was very very nasal (at least to me, I absolutely hate nasal voice) and he started to stand still like a statue in front of the mic, belting those notes like his life depended on it, making those constipated faces he's been making ever since. Don't quote me on this, but I don't remember that technique before. And the notes he hit were not high but semi high and longer, which gave the illusion of being powerful and high. I don't know if it makes sense how I described it, but it's basically like saying the notes on Memory or Amen are high when they aren't, he just sings them forever and the fans and the atmosphere in an arena/stadium do the rest, but they are not high notes.
Compare this Wanted
https://youtu.be/4GjnDzBy1Ok?t=489 from July 2007 to this one a year apart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj_ekmnUL8k"] (June 2008 )
It's still not a huge change, but I hope you can see what I mean. There are songs where you can see it more clearly, but everybody knows how Wanted sounds, and I'm sure by now everybody knows Jon renamed it to Wanted Dead or
Halive and that's where the thing originated
He still sounded pretty good in 2008-2011 in terms of power but his voice changed. Many people loved it, I didn't, it wasn't his real voice anymore. I've read in many places that he actually sang better from a singing technique point of view, which I can't dispute, but his tone wasn't clear and it got worse and worse (somebody here described as if he had cotton in his mouth while singing, which I find an excellent simile).
The first time in 10 years when he sounded back to his old self was parts of BB and the RT show he did after the disastrous 2015 minitour. But again he sounded weak like in the Bounce and HAND tours. Well, weak in comparison to before, I'm not comparing Jon now to Jon in 2003-2005, of course!!
So now he has a clear and very recognizable voice, but he needs all the autotune in the world to sound aggressive. That's why on record you have RoboJon (THINFS, Knockout) VS OhMyGoshIsThisReallyJonAgain (Labor of Love) and live you have.. well... he's struggling... we will agree on that. Feel free to disagree on the rest
But then Knockout and WDR sounded pretty decent live, so I really don't know if it's something mental holding him, lack of practice or just an irregular old voice.
Sorry for the long post, it's obviously something I've been pondering for a very long time