INDIE ROCK SINGERS

I don't talk much about modern rock on this blog, but I've been listening to a lot of it lately as there have been a number of high-profile first-quarter releases and very little interesting hip-hop or R&B. What tends to keep me away from indie rock is not the music but the vocals. Take critical darlings Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I've been trying to get into their new album Some Loud Thunder, but the big obstacle to my enjoying it is frontman Alec Ounsworth, whose voice is often compared to David Byrne's. And the funny thing is that I've always been open to Byrne's unusual style. I'm a big Talking Heads fan, and I love that their art-funk sound (or whatever you want to call it) is such a recognizable reference point in so many of today's popular bands, from Franz Ferdinand to the Rapture. But of all the things to mimic in the Talking Heads aesthetic, wouldn't you rather draw from, say, the experimentalism of Chris Frantz's and Tina Weymouth's killer rhythm section, than from Byrne's strangled vocals, which are more of an acquired taste? I know, it's hard to separate these elements -- the Talking Heads were just great all around -- but my point is that it's a risky move to try to sound like Byrne. And Ounsworth's voice is like nails on a fucking chalkboard to me.

(I find Of Montreal's singer Kevin Barnes' voice quite goofy too, but it only ruins some of the songs for me. Their new album Hissing Fauna, You Are the Destroyer is still getting a suprising amount of spins, or rather, repetitions on my iPod.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those listeners who is totally hung up on technical skill when it comes to singing. I'll take Mick Jagger or Bob Dylan over Mariah Carey or Celine Dion any day. But I guess I just prefer a certain unironic, passionate delivery in my rock vocalists -- I like singers who go for it, regardless of their chops -- as opposed to people like Ounsworth who seem to me like they're deliberately making their voice sound weird and whiny just to be different. Let me give you some examples. Two new rock records that I am enjoying are !!!'s Myth Takes and LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver. Now, by any measure, !!!'s Nic Offer (pictured above) and LCD's James Murphy have terrible voices. They wouldn't make it past the first round of "American Idol." But their performances are compelling to me.

I'm also really digging Deerhoof's Friend Opportunity, and its appealing blend of noisy freak-outs and sweet, catchy melodies. Vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki doesn't really fit into either of my categories of singers described above. I can understand why some might find her sound gimmicky -- but she's an integral part of what I like about this band and this record.

Finally, let me just say that Damon Albarn's voice is fucking beautiful and so is this new album The Good, The Bad & The Queen. (Briefly: Albarn is the former singer for Blur & the Gorillaz, and this outfit is a supergroup made up of him, the Clash's Paul Simenon, the Verve's Simon Tong, and Afrobeat legend Tony Allen.) It took a long time for the Gorillaz' Demon Days to grow on me, but once it did it became one of my favorite records of 2005. The charms of TGTBATQ are even more subtle, but it is affecting me in the same gradual but profound way.

Ps: And I'm kinda liking some tracks on the Shins' Wincing the Night Away, but singer James Mercer's voice is more in the Brian Wilson/Alex Chilton tradition, which has never really been my bag.