always missing deadlines

I find it interesting that in an age when anybody with any vocal control whatsoever can make it sound like they are a good singer, anybody would do anything but that. Granted, there are a number of artists out there who make unusual singing a big part of their draw, in which case manipulating their voice in order to sound doesn’t apply. But for the majority of pop artists, the amount of talent necessary to become a singer has never really been lower. I’m not going to hate on the majority of popular musicians because the reality is, doctoring up a vocal track or retaking and splicing tracks does make people enjoy a song less. Hell, listening to a singer whose voice is being modulated in a live concert doesn’t even make someone enjoy a concert less. What would be worse would be paying fifty bucks to see your favorite artist, only to find out that in person, they actually suck at performing.

The tragedy is that this happens quite a bit. People do the rally cries about how much the music industry sucks and how manufactured it feels (as if commercial music had ever been anything but a manufacturing process). But you shouldn’t pay any attention to those people because they don’t know what they’re talking about. The truly awful singers get found out and the good singers (and I will define good singer as a person who can control what their voice does at the volume they want for the amount of time they want) also get found out. Those two things aren’t particularly interesting. What is interesting is the way that a third class of singer seems to spring up by being a combination of the two. Those are the great singers.

In my mind, Lykke Li is a great singer. There is an element of foreignness in her English lyrics and an even more perfect usage of delivery that evokes the desired effect in her listeners. In her first record Youth Novels, she plays the role of fragile girl getting her first taste of the real world. Pretty much any song on this record is a good example, but my favorite has got to be “Time Flies”:

The whisper delivery of each line is what gives the heartfelt response, but what’s more interesting is how many times she’s off key. I didn’t break it all down, but I’m going to say somewhere around the 20% or more mark does she miss the note she’s trying to hit initially, only to find it the longer it goes on. Missing pitches with regularity is often the first mark of a bad singer, but here’s where her particular type of songwriting style turns it to her advantage: sure, she misses notes, comes in flat or clips of a phrase too sharp. She doesn’t hide it either, because her songs are composed to give her plenty of opportunities to hit those notes, sandwiched between lots of vocal breaks. What makes the notes she sings magical is that when she hits them, she really hits them. By allowing her vocal mistakes, she gives the audience the feeling of surprise and incredible satisfaction when her delivery is right on. It’s akin to a song that goes along in a minor key for a long time finally being resolved into a major. I have to believe that this is an intentional practice.

In her second record, Lykke Li matures. It would only be appropriate that her voice mature with her. It’s deeper, more throaty than whispery. She’s supposed to have grown now, seen the world and been hurt by it. The title of the record Wounded Rhymes leaves little room for interpretation of this fact. Here’s a sample to compare:.

Her act is nothing if not direct. Listeners aren’t supposed to be confused about her personality, they aren’t supposed to get lost in complicated compositions or arrangements. From top to bottom, Lykke Li is simple. This extends even to her live shows. She dances on the stage a little, looks seductive and sings her songs with backup singers. Here is where her lack of true vocal mastery really comes out to shine. She makes as many or more mistakes as she does on her records in person because it’s the same approach. You aren’t being treated to a virtuoso giving the performance of a professional lifetime. You’re getting a girl who sings some catchy tunes she wrote: .

The simple elements of Lykke Li don’t make her a great singer: her inconsistent voice does. It is the lack of natural singing talent she possesses that allows for each song to become a treasure hunt for those moments when you sift through all the dirt and dust, smiling because there's a glimmer in there that you know is a hint of a great reward.