Roger Waters' singing voice... you like?

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I came to really enjoy what Paul Carrack brought to the Gilmour-sung Floyd tracks in boots I've heard of the Radio KAOS tour. I hated it on first blush when my tastes were more... shall we say "constrained," but it really started to resonate as an interesting and - more importantly - NEW direction.

Even if it sounds of its time the KAOS album and tour were the last time I honestly felt like Waters was trying to push the boundaries.

 

I quickly unliked your post when I saw what you had written about Dave's voice. I mean... Seriously?

 

I liked it when he was a shouter--Nile Song, Ibiza Bar (I think those were him)
Less once he started sounding pinched--parts of Animals, most of the Wall

 

I've heard that story as well, and I've always deemed it BS. The cough wouldn't be there if they didn't want it, and it's not even in the channel of the guitar. Must've been one of those deliberate sound effects sprinkled throughout the album for some reason.

 

Both David Gilmour!

 

It's for sure an unpopular opinion hahaha I really like Amused but not that much his new material (the singles). I think that Roger is playing very safe in the musical side (vaguely "pink floyd" like atmospheres, the obligatory sax solo) and I really wish to see him calling another great guitar player to sauce up his material. I really don't think this will happen but I can imagine Gary Clark Jr. collaborating with him, it would be a nice pair. Whenever he called a big guitar man, he shone and the music grew better, ATD without Beck would lose a lot of its strength. His touring guitar player is good at doing what he does; mimicking David Gilmour. Hell, call Snowy White then!

 

Love his voice. Pros and Cons he delivers. Sublime vocalist.

 

He needs somebody with a voice and/or personality of his own to bring variety into his music. But being the only person who matters during his last few tours, he doesn't seem inclined to give anybody much room for input.

 

I almost wonder what would happen if he had to deal with someone he was bound to butt heads with. Imagine bringing in someone like Flood or Youth to work on his next album - someone who plays and who has opinions and brings their craft to the table and doesn't just go, "Oh, you want that note there. Very well. How loud should it be?"

Better yet if someone with that skill set AND a voice or instrumental skill could be brought to the fore.

Hell, just lock him and Robert Fripp in a studio and don't let them out until a concept album is slid under the door.

 

He lip syncs now live so obviously he's not comfortable singing himself now.

 

Yeah, Fripp and Waters would be giant but I think that one of them would stab the other in the process. Maybe working with Tony Visconti wouldn't be that bad too. The guy tamed Bowie's ego so I think he can do the same to Waters. Or even collaborate with another artists like Gilmour did with The Orb. Differently from Paul McCartney, he seems to be a little grumpy about modern acts, something I find really bad because he has a lot to offer to young artists and they can bring some life to his now limited musical horizons.

But you guys are right, he needs somebody to say no to him and to remember that not everything that he does is good enough for a release. The lyrics are, as always, top notch but the music needs some shaking because it can get boring easily.

 

Two of my all-time favorite songs are "The Gunner's Dream" and "Lost Boys Calling."

 

Love the "crazy old man" voice he does, whether singing or yelling. The Wall couldn't exist without it.

 

how about Waters on the spine chilling 4:50 AM Go Fishing he's is in superb voice:

".....On the road again!"

That album is underrated.

 

I agree. That is the reason I love 'The Final Cut'. A lot of expression in his voice on that album.

 

I don't like his voice at all. To me he doesn't have a voice.

 

It's a downright weird album: I thought so at the time and the weirdness hasn't dissipated with time. That said, it's probably the best album for Roger's vocals, and "Go Fishing" is a vocal tour de force.

I don't really care for Waters' voice but it doesn't make much sense to say that one dislikes the vocals in one sentence and then go on to admit that they're the vocals on some of one's favourite albums .... I guess I like them well enough.

 

Right on. Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking is no weirder than The Wall, The Final Cut or say Dark Side of the Moon in my book.

 

Yeah I like it as a part of the mighty Floyd sound and stuff but he is not a favorite singer of mine.

 

Waters' voice is what it is, his vocal style suits his material perfectly. I remember in Mark Blake's Pink Floyd bio Blake saying something along the lines of Gilmour's voice as being "too nice" for some of the lyrics he was singing. I'd tend to agree. But no, generally speaking Roger Waters is nowhere near the singer David Gilmour or even Richard Wright are/were. Even though it is kind of hard comparing them.

That said, I do think Roger sounds like sh-t now. I think the decline in his vocals started on Radio Kaos. I dunno what the hell happened to his voice in between 1984 -when he still sounded like his old self- and 1987, but it wasn't good...

 

...or a flattened Fripp

 

Better than the words he has sung with it post WYWH

 

Snowy White has played on all of his recent tours.

 

I agree Pros and Cons is jolly strange, but unfortunately not in a good way. I've never understood how the man responsible for some outstanding writing with Pink Floyd could have come up with such utter dross. Every Srrangers Eyes aside (and a brilliant vocal there as well), it was Michael Kaman's production brilliance and the guitar player (some guy from Surrey if memory serves) who saved it.