your favorite singer who matured well over 10 or 20 years
 

There are quite a few bands and singers ive listened to for decades now but only a few have matured or progressed well during that time. My favorite is Corin Tucker. Since Heavens 2 Beatsy she has come a long way. Her voice is more developed and her lyrical content more mature. Proof is in comparison to Carrie, who is still a lot of fun but honestly hasn't changed much since Excuse 17. In particular i enjoy the maturity and progression in the Corin Tucker Band music..

D'Angelo. Sings even better now than he did on his debut (1995). Progressed as a songwriter too and his content is more mature. Just listen to any song from that album then "Another Life" from his last one and you'll hear it.

Hmm. I was just thinking about this earlier today actually. Probably because I've been thinking about Prince so much, and he's a great example of an artist in constant motion, even if the quality of his recorded music kinda stopped evolving at a certain point.

it's hard to say. It's hard to define -- for me anyway -- what it means to for an artist to "mature" ... Does that mean the artist creates higher quality music over time, or does it just mean the artist changed a great deal? People may say that Beck has matured, but I still think Odelay is his best record.

I want to say Aphex Twin, Sonic Youth and Flaming Lips, duh! But as far as those artists go, I don't necessarily prefer their most recent music to their older music, nor do I think it's necessarily more "mature." Is The Eternal more mature than Bad Moon Rising? Probably not, as it's decidedly more simplistic and less challenging both musically and lyrically. Is SYRO more mature than SAW? Who can say?

So, you're gonna hate this, but the first artist that satisfies the criteria that really jumps to the front of my mind is Kanye. In the 2010's, his music is both more mature and in most cases better than it was in the '00s. Every album has been a leap in a new and different direction and all of them have been fucking awesome.

Also, yeah, D'angelo. Definitely. As much as I love Voodoo, Black Messiah was on a whole new level. But it's easier to track maturity when an artist only releases one album per decade.

PJ Harvey has successfully matured and made her music more thoughtful and intricate and broad over the last 20 years, but I'm not sure I like Hope Six Demolition Project more than Rid of Me.

Deerhunter did a great job of "maturing" until their last album bored my socks off. Fuck, I don't know.

Fugazi and Unwound, both made constant sonic leaps forward peaking in their best album.

i asume you're asking about musical artists and music in general, and not specifically talking about singers... Or are you specifically talking about people who sing?

kinda tough to measure the increasing maturity of a voice over time. Surely you're thinking lyrics, musicianship etc. in addition to vocal skill, right?

If you're only talking about vocals, I guess Kanye and Apex Twin (as well as Fugazi and Unwound, since they're bands, not individual vocalists) are pretty much off the table. If that's the case then... Tom Waits. I guess. I dunno.

Tom Waits to me.

I had PJ or Sonic Youth in mind to but in all honesty i don't hear much difference between Dayydream Nation and The Eternal.. its not stagnant but lyrically or vocally not much evolution. Same with PJ, what i hear on the new album isn't vastly different from what i heard 10 or 15 years ago (again lyrically/vocally)

Well, PJ started to sing much higher than before in White Chalk. Not sing as high in those two newest albums, but quite the same way at least some songs. Yes, there has been songs before she sang really high, but her new style is much softer.

Yeah, I hear a world of difference between any of her earlier albums and, say, what came after 2000. I think Stories from the city, Stories from the sea was a massive departure for her.

Looking back, the more dynamically "rockist" early albums sound like a different performer entirely. Rid of Me especially sounds almost like Slint or In Utero compared to the more musically layered and textured albums she's been making for so long now.

Shrug.

As for Sonic Youth, while I agree that there are some basic fundamental Therese that run through all of their official studio albums, I think they are without a doubt a prime example of a band that was always growing and changing, even if it wasn't necessarily always in a more "mature" direction.

I think their album discography only really makes sense if you break it into eras or periods.
S/t & confusion is sex/kill your idols (the no wave years)
Bad Moon Rising - Sister (the punk rock Pink Floyd years... not sure what else to call it.)
Daydream Nation & Goo (no real name for this either, but it's when everything gelled. These albums are quite different but have always sounded like two takes on the same sonic idea to me)
Dirty & EJST&NS (alt. rock forever! getting some MTV action, then losing it! Doing the grunge and anti-folk thing)
Washing Mashine & ATL (fuck everyone, let's be Sonic Youth again whatever that means... yay noise!)
NYC Ghosts & Flowers (let's make a beat poetry album about NYC that everyone hates until they love it)
Murray Street & Nurse (fuck it again, let's be Sonic Youth again, again, and play what comes naturally to us)
Rather Ripped & Eternal (let's try to be a pop/alt rock band again real quick then break up!)

I think every era really has its own vibe and feel and energy, and that's not even taking the SYRs or other non-album releases into consideration most of which marked pretty bold musical statements, and seemed to be made with the intention of defying definition.

Really there aren't many bands who cover the kind of ground SY did in their 3 decades of making music. They did art rock, hardcore, kind of invented post-hardcore... They played with electronic sounds and hip-hop, jazz and noise and neo-classical. They did a lot. And there was definitely maturation over the course of their career, but it may be hard to see because they ended with one of their least impressive albums.

But looking at the journey from s/t to Daydream Nation, for instance... that's pretty fucking unprecedented exponential growth with each release. They went from a sketch or outline to a fully realized oil on canvas masterpiece. And they deconstructed and rebuilt their sound two more times after that, with really incredible results.

I don't think Daydream Nation and the Eternal sound anything alike honestly.

Remember i said SINGER not instrumentation. In what way are the lyrics or vocal style that much different from Daydream Nation and The Eternal?

Well, I asked about that didn't I? I asked you specifically if you were just talking about singers or if you were talking about other elements of the music.

And remember, I didn't even say SY would qualify. I was just responding to what you said about DDN and the Eternal sounding pretty much the same. You didn't specify that you were talking about vocals when you said that.

Anyway, the vocals are actually quite different. But it has more to do with recording technologies than anything else. Though Thurston did tend to double track his vocals back in the day, which I always liked. Not sure when he stopped doing that but I want to say Dirty.

What are we talking about again?

Dude its in the thread title. "your favorite Singer"

Yeah, I know. I noticed that and did a double take after I made my first post.

Then when you said PJ and SY had come to mind for you, I thought maybe we were talking about "musicians" ... but singers? Fucking Celine Dion. Whatever.

Does not PJ sing? Are not there vocals in SY? Stay focused man

Gotcha gotcha gotcha.

Let me reiterate then that Kanye's not a pick.

I guess Fugazi kind of works though, since the vocal stylings of Ian Mackaye and Guy Piccioto really did evolve over time, from hardcore hollering on 13 Songs to a complex interplay of two distinct voices and personalities. Ian's fairy tale giant grumble turned into something more diverse, as he incorporated whisper-singing ("me and thumbelina") and shockingly melodic deliveries from the upper register ("Epic Problem"). Guy's nasal Brit-punk influenced sound complemented Ian's gruff, decidedly "American" punk sensibilities, and on the later records, have the entire band a broader range ("Life and Limb").

So yeah, Fugazi still stands.

Actually, so does Unwound, who, like Fugazi, just got more and more vocally and musically versatile between the release of their first and last album.

And I still say Tom Waits. He may sound pretty much the same now as he did in '94, but he's come a long way vocally since Heart of Saturday Night. He's embraced the uniqueness of his voice over the last 40 years, and allowed himself to really go nuts with his pipes, voicing different characters and always treading the line between Beefheart and, like, Randy Newman or some shit, to great effect, without ever sounding corny.

It's a pretty weird question though. 10-20 years? Looking at vocals only? It's like you made this thread because you were thinking about Corin Tucker. It's just an oddly specific thing to ask.

Like, I'd love to say Kendrick Lamar.. his voice is his greatest tool, and he's really grown into it and developed it over his four records, but that's only been over the past 5 years, so... He doesn't apply.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's just the fact that for me, personally, vocals are probably the least important part of music. More important than lyrics, I guess, if only because "good lyrics" can take so many different forms, and depending on the genre, what's "good" -- or what works -- varies pretty radically.
But still, unless someone's vocals are just totally fucking infuriating, as Drake's are when he croons, or Eminem's are whenever he does anything, I'm probably not going to give much of a shit.

Carla Bozulich

Well actually i was but i made the thread to see what similar experiences other people had with different artists. Also remember I'm not just talking about vocals but also lyrical content.



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I tend to not give a shit about lyrics unless they are heinous. I think of the singing as an instrument along with the others in a band or group.

all my fave "singers" sound the same now as when I first heard of them.

YES! I think he took a big step how to express himself when making Swordfishtrombones. And then when thinking Bone Machine, he developed his voice using even more. Also I think he has developed lyrically, one of my favourites is Misery is the river of the world. I don´t believe he could make such lyrics in the seventies even his lyrics has never been bad.