midiscover said:

Cinnie said:

midiscover said:

Okay

Why just sit back and laugh when I am contributing to your thread? how about explaining how u hear it?

Whining, noise and goat-like. Is that good enough for you?

She has a decent voice

Cinnie said:

midiscover said:

She starts to sing very flat for the range of notes in the last third of this video. Those pitches should have question marks starting around the 2:00 mark.

But she is very good at emoting, or at least sounding genuine, which I think is what most ears tend to favor.

Thats just my main issue with her, I feel completely the opposite regarding the bald part. The girl's singing voice is emotionally flat as a bland paper doll.

I would've disregarded the off-key strained mess in a heartbeat had the girl made me feel something,,,other than the "slit my wrist right now" sentiment. I have such an affinity with vocalists who are not technically proper anyway, so I can't really put much emphasis on her range(I'm a Billie Holiday fan after all, my prejudice when it comes to range is quite low).

The material could've been her saving grace, but even that she failed with too. To answer the thread's ?uestion, the woman has no redeeming musical qualities to me at all, not even her piano playing.

[Edited 6/21/10 1:51am]

Her existence in the music industry is just unnecessary

Never liked a single song from her……

Yup. She's ace.

Loved the first album, but everything since has been blah.

Also her voice seems to have completely changed; it has gotten rough and not in the good Billie Holiday way; she always sounds like she is straining regardless of the simplicity of what she is singing.

A Poser in every sense of the word.

Can't sing and her piano skills are 3rd grade.

midiscover said:

midiscover said:

TD3 said:

*unzips TD3's mouth*

Nay, I'm just messin' with you.

Just because you can sing and stay in key doesn't make you a good singer, good grief this is all that's required nowadays. Ms. Keys is a mediocre singer and I"m being charitable.

VoicesCarry said:

She's decent. Better than a lot of what's out there.

I absolutely agree. She's not good, but I've heard a lot worse.

She's okay.

midiscover said:

Cinnie said:

midiscover said: Why just sit back and laugh when I am contributing to your thread? how about explaining how u hear it?

Whining, noise and goat-like. Is that good enough for you?

I think you just described Shikira....especially the "noise and goat-like" part.

She may not be the world's best singer, but I quite enjoy her and her music. "As I Am" is an exceptional album.

=0P

PS. The whole "her existence in music is unneccessary" is rather overdramatic, don't you think?

[Edited 6/21/10 11:41am]

No. She thinks she's the best singer, but she's an arrogant little turd.

She is decent, but any guest singers she features blow her out of the water. As a musician, I feel she strains far too much(that raspy/whisper thing kills me) and as a pure vocalist, she doesn't stand up to the test of time.

She had a decent but not spectacular voice on her first two albums, but by the time she released As I Am, her voice noticeably began to crack a bit when she tried singing the really high notes. She has a naturally lower vocal register, so most of the time she is singing out of her range. She could get away with it earlier, since she was still growing into her voice, but her vocal chords are starting to show some serious train, and during some of her live performances she comensates by shouting some of her lyrics, which only further roughs up her vocal chords. She needs to get a vocal coach to help her with her range, or else she won't have a career much longer as a singer.

TonyVanDam said:

Alicia Keys is an average singer. She can improve vocally if her boss Clive Davis would just back off and stop trying to get this girl to be " poor man's Whitney Houston on the piano" all the damn time.

Yeah, I said it.

[Edited 6/20/10 22:44pm]

Rick James said something to that effect but Rick was probably high "cause that cocaine is a helluva drug". I don't get it. What does Alicia Keys have anything at all to do with Whitney. Why is Clive being accused of this. She has no more to do with Whitney than Gill Scott Heron, and he was one of Clive's artists.

Harlepolis said:

Cinnie said:

She starts to sing very flat for the range of notes in the last third of this video. Those pitches should have question marks starting around the 2:00 mark.

But she is very good at emoting, or at least sounding genuine, which I think is what most ears tend to favor.

Thats just my main issue with her, I feel completely the opposite regarding the bald part. The girl's singing voice is emotionally flat as a bland paper doll.

I would've disregarded the off-key strained mess in a heartbeat had the girl made me feel something,,,other than the "slit my wrist right now" sentiment. I have such an affinity with vocalists who are not technically proper anyway, so I can't really put much emphasis on her range(I'm a Billie Holiday fan after all, my prejudice when it comes to range is quite low).

The material could've been her saving grace, but even that she failed with too. To answer the thread's ?uestion, the woman has no redeeming musical qualities to me at all, not even her piano playing.

[Edited 6/21/10 1:51am]

I know that Louie would come back from the grave and smack me up, but I'm sorry. I just don't get the whole Billy Holiday thing. Now, she did emote the blues very well, but I hate the sound of her whining voice...which is why I hate the sound of Erica Badu's voice. Now I love Erica's songs, and work, but she must also be a big fan of Billie Holiday. I hate that sound, it sounds like someone who was singing it had a serious drug problem, and was doing heroin nods in between verses. Maybe I would have to had grown up during that time, but usually I can appeciate music either way. Ella Fitzgerald could run circles around Billy Holiday and I don't think it's fair to compare the two, but it's like Billy almost gets as much credit vocally as Ella. I just don't dig.

As was said in a recent previous thread about Alicia and Beyonce. Alicia does tend to strain too much. Sometimes she is off key and she's a damned musician, she's sitting right there playing the notes. Not sure how that happens. Not the best vocally mature singer....sings almost out of her limited range. Doesn't have a bad falsetto voice, she should use it more than trying to sand blast through many of the notes that she does. I fell for the whole she's a true "musician gimmicK" in the beginning. I have not seen very much strong musicianship either.

Girl needs to get off that Swiss Beats deal. I think her sound overall is somewhat "cheap", but kinda like one of the best that we have today....so we have no choice.

Real Talent is still out there but "businessmen" are looking for beauty and sex appeal instead of talent. Yet people continue to buy the garbage.

No!

Reel said:

Harlepolis said:

Thats just my main issue with her, I feel completely the opposite regarding the bald part. The girl's singing voice is emotionally flat as a bland paper doll.

I would've disregarded the off-key strained mess in a heartbeat had the girl made me feel something,,,other than the "slit my wrist right now" sentiment. I have such an affinity with vocalists who are not technically proper anyway, so I can't really put much emphasis on her range(I'm a Billie Holiday fan after all, my prejudice when it comes to range is quite low).

The material could've been her saving grace, but even that she failed with too. To answer the thread's ?uestion, the woman has no redeeming musical qualities to me at all, not even her piano playing.

[Edited 6/21/10 1:51am]

I know that Louie would come back from the grave and smack me up, but I'm sorry. I just don't get the whole Billy Holiday thing. Now, she did emote the blues very well, but I hate the sound of her whining voice...which is why I hate the sound of Erica Badu's voice. Now I love Erica's songs, and work, but she must also be a big fan of Billie Holiday. I hate that sound, it sounds like someone who was singing it had a serious drug problem, and was doing heroin nods in between verses. Maybe I would have to had grown up during that time, but usually I can appeciate music either way. Ella Fitzgerald could run circles around Billy Holiday and I don't think it's fair to compare the two, but it's like Billy almost gets as much credit vocally as Ella. I just don't dig.

Thats cool.

I wasn't a fan of Billie Holiday myself either, untill later in life, and the older I get, the more understanding I get from her phrasing, and its not even an age thing, its just personal. To me, her singing puts me in a certain state of mind(as cliche as it may sound). Miles Davis said that she had some kind of a "presence" living inside her, I believe it.

People get ticked by her music differently; some folks can't bare listening to her, others discover new listening/musical experience(s) each time they listen to her music.

She's going to be on ABC Good Morning America on Friday I think.

I've never been a fan. She has some talent as a singer, she's attractive, but I always thought she came across fake--from her name, to the way she talks to her piano skills, and her hair in a twist and her stupid hats

The New York "song" just put it over the top for me worst shit ever

Alicia's got a good set of lungs, and I agree with Cinnie that she has a certain broad awareness of emotion. That ability to soar helps her. What I don't hear in her voice is precision, nuance or subtlety, either in vocal control or the emotion behind what she sings. When everything that comes out of your mouth sounds like part of some soul-emptying anthem, everything is effectively robbed of any singular importance.

[Edited 6/22/10 13:08pm]

Layzie said:

'Do you think Alicia Keys is a good singer?'

No. She's not terrible, but I wouldn't call her good. For whatever reason she insists on singing far beyond her range. I still can't understand why 'No One' was such a big hit. That bitch's voice on that song made me wanna go out and kill babies and cats. Someone in another thread made an interesting point about her singing. They said that it didn't make sense why she, as a musician, can't seem to find and stay in the right key vocally. They pointed out that usually a person who can play an instrument is the first one to find and stay in key.

Because she's not as good a musician as she's purported to be. She's very overrated as a pianist mostly cuz none of these upcoming knuckleheads don't know shit about instruments. If you pay attention to her live performances you can see she actually plays VERY little. And like Timmy said she tries too gatdamn hard. She sounds like she's passing a watermelon.

But I truly wrote her off as a musician after I "heard" about her trynna jam with P at a set at his house and him trynna get her to play some very simple shit that she couldn't get, no matter how many times he showed her. He was giving her the side eye until she sat her ass down.

Cinnie said:

I think that's how her singles become hits, yes.

Whether it's the "oh! OH! AHHHIIIIII!!!" from Fallin

or

the "You can be SHOO OOH WHOA" from No One

she's putting everything she's got into those lines. Usually the ones with the worst "takes" but the ones that are kept anyway because it sounds like conviction.

I can give you that. I put MJB in this category too. Ole Murray couldn't find a key with a locksmith but folks always give her props for her emotional delivery. I must admit MJB is very powerful live no matter how bad her vocals. But the hystrionics can get old after awhile.

SCNDLS said:

Cinnie said:

I think that's how her singles become hits, yes.

Whether it's the "oh! OH! AHHHIIIIII!!!" from Fallin

or

the "You can be SHOO OOH WHOA" from No One

she's putting everything she's got into those lines. Usually the ones with the worst "takes" but the ones that are kept anyway because it sounds like conviction.

I can give you that. I put MJB in this category too. Ole Murray couldn't find a key with a locksmith but folks always give her props for her emotional delivery. I must admit MJB is very powerful live no matter how bad her vocals. But the hystrionics can get old after awhile.

At least Mary got grits and ham hocks to deliver you know? Sure, MANY off-key moments, but to me they're ginuine off-key moments(Teena Marie is also guilty of her share of off-key moments, and they too are ginuine).

With Alicia, everytime she attempts to wail, the image of a strangled cat in heat materialize right in front of my eyes,,,,,she could be singing about her mother being on her way to the electric chair, and I doubt that I'll FEEL what she's singing. Excessive, I know, but

[Edited 6/22/10 13:01pm]

Harlepolis said:

SCNDLS said:

I can give you that. I put MJB in this category too. Ole Murray couldn't find a key with a locksmith but folks always give her props for her emotional delivery. I must admit MJB is very powerful live no matter how bad her vocals. But the hystrionics can get old after awhile.

At least Mary got grits and ham hocks to deliver you know? Sure, MANY off-key moments, but to me they're ginuine off-key moments(Teena Marie is also guilty of her share of off-key moments, and they too are ginuine).

With Alicia, everytime she attempts to wail, the image of a strangled cat in heat materialize right in front of my eyes,,,,,she could be singing about her mother being on her way to the electric chair, and I doubt that I'll FEEL what she's singing. Excessive, I know, but

You are being awfully kind here, sister. Teena Marie's entire career is off-key.

Harlepolis said:

SCNDLS said:

I can give you that. I put MJB in this category too. Ole Murray couldn't find a key with a locksmith but folks always give her props for her emotional delivery. I must admit MJB is very powerful live no matter how bad her vocals. But the hystrionics can get old after awhile.

At least Mary got grits and ham hocks to deliver you know? Sure, MANY off-key moments, but to me they're ginuine off-key moments(Teena Marie is also guilty of her share of off-key moments, and they too are ginuine).

With Alicia, everytime she attempts to wail, the image of a strangled cat in heat materialize right in front of my eyes,,,,,she could be singing about her mother being on her way to the electric chair, and I doubt that I'll FEEL what she's singing. Excessive, I know, but

[Edited 6/22/10 13:01pm]

and