I have a weird relationship with singers. There’s a thin and ill-defined line between what I think of as unacceptably pretension and compellingly pretensions when it comes to the human voice. Eddie Vedder? No thanks. David Bowie? Yes please! I seriously doubt either gentleman lathers up in the shower singing Call Me Maybe by growling like a dog, or in a voice that constantly sounds like it’s on the verge of tears but that’s how they sing for us, the audience.
Samuel Herring, the lead singer of Future Islands, is full of shit. Seriously. His voice is 100% stage—angry at times, then sad, then just plain spastic—it is an invention. But it’s an invention I like. Is that a british accent? Is he narrating a Shakespearean play? I really don’t care—it’s cool, and it moves me. It’s a lie, but all good truths are.
b.klops
Filed under: Mixtape, NEIMT, Vol 12, future islands
Never Ending Internet Mix Tape 