Singers with "unconventional" voices that you enjoy?

Jeffrey Lee Pierce
Mirah
Isobell Sollenberger (Bardo Pond)
Bjork
Yoni Wolf (Why?)
Neko Case
Beth Gibbons (Portishead)
Joe Newman (Alt-J)

they invoke much more emotion in me than more traditional sounding singers

 

David Sylvian
Tiny Tim
Morrissey
Elvis Costello
Lou Reed

 

for me too!

 

Looks like it would be much more difficult to list singers with conventional voices that one enjoys cause let's face it - nearly all great singers (unless we're talking about traditional pop singers like Frank Sinatra) are characterized by voices or singing styles that are 'unconventional' one way or the other.

 

Since I was a big metalhead in my younger years, I have a few favourites like James Hetfield and Bruce Dickinson, who seem to be outside the normal singing style most singers employ (or maybe Hetfield is just inferior to a normal singer, but he has/had attitudes in spades, so whatever). In non-metal music, the big one is Bob Dylan, obviously.

 

Urgh, no. Noel isn't a singer at all. His voice is thin and expressionless, that's the reason he let his brother sing on the vast majority of the songs he wrote for Oasis. Liam in his heyday had a great rock'n roll voice, untrained and brute, but honest and real.

 

Don't get me wrong. Noel isn't a good singer either but I prefer him to his brother. Listening to Liam is like listening to fingernails on a blackboard!

 

I like(d) The Libertines, but what exactly is unconventional about Pete's voice?

 

Has Malcom McLaren been mentioned? Not a typical singer's voice, I'd say, but very intriguing.

 

Macy Gray?



Although I'm not sure if I really like her voice, so she doesn't really qualify
...

 

That I can understand Although.... or "Live Forever"

 

That's not Malcolm McLaren !!! Maybe you mean that guy that sang on Never Mind The Bullocks ???

 

Ahhh. Liam sang like an angel in those early Oasis days.

 

I wonder how many of the songs that Mick sings would be better with Keith!

 

John Martyn

 

Dooh.... Something smells rotten.... Is it my brains?

 

Seeing what people consider "unconventional" shows how narrow most folks' views on voice and song have become over the years.
Joanna Newsom is unconventional ? Not when you consider early blues. She'd fit right in Harry Smith's anthology.
Leonard Cohen ?
Wow.
People need to listen to Phil Minton.
Or, closer to the sort of stuff that is this forum's obvious bread and butter (pop music !), US Maple's Al Johnson.
I'm also a big fan of Carnatic singing, but that, like most things mentioned here actually, is not unconventional at all, only foreign.

 

Pete Steele from Type O Negative.

 

Another vote for Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell. Can't imagine their music with anyone else singing, though.

 

Mick Jagger

 

Nick Drake might be considered a bit unconventional.
Same with Andrew Latimer, unconventional but in a different way than Nick Drake though.

 

It's not your typical singer's voice. He's generally out of tune, mumbles, eats the microphone... It (his voice) also has that broken-airy quality that I find quite charming. I think that's very unconventional when you think about good lead singers. Definitely not X Factor material.

 

Stevie Nicks (her current voice - not her buttery smooth 70's voice; of course, I like that, too but her current 'granny' voice really appeals to me)
Siouxsie
Diamanda Galas
Dave Gahan (not really unconventional, but not exactly conventional either)
Erlend Øye (his voice isn't unusaul, but his delivery is uncommon)
James Blunt (love that lily-livered falsetto of his)
Serge Pizzorno (the 'other' Kasabian vocalist)

 

Well, Little Richard had an unconventional singing voice. Listen to I'll Never Let You Go (Boo Hoo Hoo Hoo).

 

Jandek - I Passed By The Building (1987)