Singer/Songwriter = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

anony

Why is it all these so called singer/songwriters have to be so f u c k i n g Dull.....No Disco....plays alot of homegrown stuff, which is a good thing of course.....but so much of it is boring tuneless dirge usually peddled by one of these pious singer/songwriter types, that have multiplyed like gremlins around Dublin...... singer/songwriter seems to means deep and meaning full......but with one or two exceptions......what you mostly get is mumbleeee, forgetable crap with no choruses masquerading as Deep and .......y'know......... but that's just what I think........How about yourself?????

Lunar Junkie

Yeah I think I've got to agree with you here. There are far too many of these people appearing with far too few tunes between them. There's the odd exceptional talent (for instance Jeff Martin's very promising) but by and large the current trend for hushed acoustic non-events just makes me comatose.

o sleep

but it's the same throughout the music scene (especially in dublin); see Stand, Exit, the revs, they're all just as boring as whatever boring singer-songwriter you could care to mention. and just as unoriginal too.

knobbles

....as o sleep said you can pick it out of all music quarters.
A lot of lo-fi singer/songwriter stuff is fairly sh!te....a lot of
indie stuff on No Disco can be original but for a reason...
it's sh!te....i find a lot of todays succesful rock bands
sh!te....as for the majority of today's pop.....it's a business
not a music

But there'll always be a few gems, not a lot, but a few
precious gems. I've probably bought around 10 to 15
new albums in the last year, from AtTheDriveIn to David
Kitt to Garbage to Air....not a large amount of CDs for
365 days but they're so good, i don't need anymore.

Richie

Okay, I'll agree with you to an extent. Some of these lads are just jumping on the auld bandwagon and reeling off the same old same old boring blah blah blah music, but if you look a bit harder, you'll see that some of those singer songwriters out there really are worth listening to. You should check out the likes of Damien Rice, Pete Courtney, Mic Christopher, Gemma Hayes, Nina Hynes, Frank Byrne, Jeff Martin, Tony Fitzpatrick, Mush etc etc
I won't go on any more, but if you take a chance and go listen to some of these, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Gar_ptc

it's not that TO SOME EXTENT i do agree,but you just picked on
a particular genre;every genre has poor bands;
this one you just picked on/noticed more so.
lay off the bedroom muscians!!!

and no,im not one of them...
tho some of my songs are like that....

Beany

My problem with some of these 'acoustic singer/songwriters' is that they are under the with them relying only on an acoustic guitar and voice. There are very few members of this genre that can pull that off (Glen Hansard & Damien Rice are the only ones I can think of).

Acoustic Guitar + voice = Laziness, in my book.

These are people who are too afraid/unimaginative to arrange a song and really explore the possibilities within it. Perhaps they don't have the skills, or maybe they cannot work with other people. Whatever the reason its not good enough.

Some songs are complete with just acoustic guitar and voice, but so often it's just bland. Its like looking at a sketch that could be developed into a beautiful painting.

Colour them in, add salt...whatever.

Monkey

"There are very few members of this genre that can pull that off (Glen Hansard & Damien Rice are the only ones I can think of)." - I agree totally sure Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen aren't a patch on them !

knobbles

Wouldn't agree with your "Acoustic Guitar + voice = Laziness"
statement but your right that only a few talented ones can pull it off....and if a song is bland with just acoustic and voice I don't
think adding "colour" to them will make them anymore interesting.
Though adding colour/imagination to a good acoustic song can
do wonders.

I haven't seen Damien Rice live so I only know the single but I'd
have faith in him based on his previous work.

I'd like to hear more of Nina Hynes stuff.A while back, I downloaded her song
"this magic stuff" and LOVE it.

Gemma Hayes I have seen and she's f'in brilliant.

Dunno any of the other ones u mentioned Richie.
But I'm sure there's many more worth checkin out.

anony

I do like Nina Hynes......and you're right, whoever said it the majority of most things are bad....the good stuff is always the minority

I don't have anything against voice + guitar...I'm playing the f ing thing long enough

the only thing that I hate about the whole singer/songwriter is the boring mumbling vocal melodies.... in most cases you've forgotten how the song goes before it's over.....there's no hook.... I like a tune you can remember....without being over the top , trying to be anthemic (Embrace style) ..... that's what I get for growing up on 80's pop music

Raggamuffin

You can't really put an atist down for deciding to make music a certain way... i mean if you like it good if you dont really the good artist wont care i guess he just wants to play music.

possibly an example of an artist you can arrange songs beautifully is Nick Drake. The double bass sounds are really kool and if you can hear the lyrics pass the moaning hes actually very poetic.

Five leaves lost is the album i think.........

If you're looking for a good band to listen to that are around at the moment....... Les Savy Fav are good their song "hide me from next febuary" and "wake up" are nothing like acoustic singer songwriter.......

Embrace just plain suck i hate hate hate it..... its pointless liek star sailor and andrew WK go home PLEASE!! and NME SHUT UP!!!!!!!!

well i guess jeff buckley is agoo auld singer so is his dad Tim.....and New order pull off some great tunes on power corruption and lies.... but then again who am i to judge no matter what happens good artists will die and be forgotten by the masses.

see you

Tell me Dillon

yeah, has to be said...Embrace are B O L L O X !
i cant take that boring whine that so many punters are churning out.even if the music is alright...ye just cant listen to a bland voice. like that bloke from joan of arse.in fact the music is boring with them too.the only singer/songwriter acoustic ****er i know that i just that bit different is James Guilmartin.
some of it aint great..but some is...but he messes about with timing signatures and doesnt sing into his armpit like ****in david kitt.
there is a decent song of his on his web site....nightly blossom.
it takes a little while download...but its good.he plays with a band on that. JAMES GUILMARTIN

Raggamuffin

Check out some band called A.R Kane "love form outer space" its a great won but as for james guilmartin saw hi in molloys and i must say he was very very good and he sent me out a tape which i think is excellent too.......

great voice also......

thanks for the website address

Busby

I agree with you about a lot of singer/songwriter stuff being bland and unoriginal. Gemma Hayes is wondrous though, I'd have to agree. She posseses a most heavenly voice. Any of ya like Rufus Wainwright, I'm really enjoying his stuff at the moment. I'm sure he's one of these sorts that loves the sound of his own voice and could be quite annoying but he sings some gorgeous songs. I think if half these singer songwriter chancers heard some decent music music they'd prolly give up the game. Jeez, any of you heard 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields, is Stephin Merritt a ****ing genius songwriter or what. Just my tuppence.

vk1

When these singer-songwriters are good, they can be very very good (see Damien Rice ,Jeff Martin, David Gray) but when they're bad........well we all know what that sounds like.

Seriously though, this Damien Rice is very promising. "blowers Daughter" is fab. Anyone got the album?

vk1

When these singer-songwriters are good, they can be very very good (see Damien Rice ,Jeff Martin, David Gray) but when they're bad........well we all know what that sounds like.

Seriously though, this Damien Rice is very promising. "blowers Daughter" is fab. Anyone got the album?

Beany

The album "o" is not out yet....I think he's aiming for a February release date.

He's playing in The Stables in Mullingar this Saturday...there's no better venue to hear his intimate music.

Brautigan

You're right about that Beanie. When they leave the tables in it's a cool place.

This singer songwiter crap is getting out of hand though. You can't move for the bores. The worst offender has to be that
Paul O'Reilly. Jesus, I bought his album on the recommendation of loads of friends who marvelled at his voice, songs etc... It's absolute muck. A bore from start to finish. He played The Stables a while ago and, damn,I missed him. I betcha it was a right oul knee's up! He barely sings, barely plays and yet has this adoration all around him. For what? It's not his songs that's for sure, all they are is Nike Drake copies. At least Nick Drake had the decency to jazz it up every now and again. This O'Reilly chancer is the pits.

Bring back Turn! All is forgiven.