Can you clarify what you mean by “gotten stale” over the last fifteen years? That’s seems like an extremely broad statement.
This is how I feel. There's a ton of variety in the songs themselves. The vocals don't detract from that. I mean, there are far worse singers in this genre. It's not like pop punk singers (aside from some exceptions like P!ATD, Fall Out Boy, etc.) are the most talented vocalists. So you think "drunk face", "bloody valentine", and "jawbreaker" all sound the same? Songs are a lot more than just vocals to me.
yup - if Paramore's retired the song for being toxic, it feels even worse having a dude sing those lyrics
My biggest issue is that they tweaked the genders in the lyrics to the point where they actually don't make sense. He's singing to a dude most of the time, but certain parts are left with the original genders in tact ("she's got a body like an hour glass / It's ticking like a clock" and "There's a million other girls who do it just like you..." I mean, if you're going to do the "no homo" thing and flip genders (which I think is stupid to begin with), you have to do it all the way. Come up with a couple other lines that make sense for describing a guy's body. And "whore" can be changed to "cheat" with the original intent kept but being less slut-shaming.
not to mention there are about a million other "emo nite"-level songs that would sound great in this context and wouldn't require the awkward gender stuff.
Sure. I use that word in terms of the mainstream’s appetite. I believe the last hurrah of guitar music was that mid 2000s push of FOB, PATD, Paramore etc. Those were newer, younger bands getting platinum releases and as their careers progressed the songwriting expanded beyond their early work. Guitar centric bands have their fans everywhere, but at some point they stopped accumulating fans outside of their radius that would push them to the level of chart topper week after week. Bands became more and more content with playing to their core audience, while other genres took hold of the charts. And that’s okay. A person entrenched in the scene can easily pick out what’s fresh to them, but it’s just not translating to a wider audience on a large scale.
That’s what I thought, totally agree when you put it that way. Tons of bands we know as being primarily traditional rock set ups have moved away from that to a more synthesized or less guitar based sound, and I too am really hoping this signals a larger interest more organic sounding recordings for bands in this genre.
Yeah, unfortunately they do. I mean the style of the songs have enough to be different songs, but if we’re making a melodic vocal centric album I’d like to hear a lot more from it in terms of range. just carrying a melody inside the key center isn’t enough imo.
The pitch correction on his vocals is quite pronounced. Has he ever performed any of this stuff live? I can’t imagine him being able to deliver quality live vocals.
Thanks for posting that! Doesn’t sound nearly as bad as I thought but he has no range at all. Was this genre always this cheesy or were we all just younger?
I think I’m indifferent, honestly. To reference my example of Paramore, I think After Laughter is their best album (as well as my favorite) and that strayed furthest from their original sound. As long as what artists put into the recordings serve the songs, I’m up for any experimentation.
Wow, he actually sounds truer to his album than the majority of pop-punk vocalists live. This man continues to surprise me. Let's just hope this wasn't a one-and-done sidestep from his rap career.