Bonos voice on SOI

[Peterrrrr]

Well I havent talk much about Bonos voice lately, which alot you might have felt is good To much talk about his voice...

But I couldnt resist doing it now, would like to see everybodys thoughts around his vocal perfomence on this album.

The sound mix on the album isnt the best which sometimes isnt fair to Bonos voice, it inst to clear recorded. But after a few listens it appears more clear.

His voice is real mix up of his previous voice-eras, his 360 voice mixed with the Zooropa/Pop voice and on some songs like Iris and the acoustic version of California the JT-sound appears.

To me he does his best work ever, he is flying as a singer! There is no strainging, his voice is so smooth and he is hitting the high notes so easy.
He sounds so much younger.

The only thing that I miss in his voice is the deep falsetto from the ZooTV-era, but we cant have verything.

But the standouts vocally on this new songs is the acoustic versions of EBW/California/SFS and Iris.

 

[thavidesco]

He sings the best since 1993, his improovement since 197-2001 is enormous, I wonder how he managed to recover his demaged voice.

I agree his voice is way up in the mix, but I don´t mind it too much.

My only complaint is that some songs are pitched too high and Bono´s voice sounds a bit annoying on some spots, too hysterical. I wish they tuned it down.

 

[stray dog]

Bono's voice has been spot on mostly with the acoustic stuff they have been doing on the promotion.

 

[Airseven]

His voice is far too loud and dominating in the mix. Along with his silly lyrics, see: California (blah blah blah), he's the weak point of the album.

 

[Peterrrrr]

Bono's voice has been spot on mostly with the acoustic stuff they have been doing on the promotion.

On previous promotours he have had the same problems, his problems is stamina, too much talking, nervousity and not enough sining(a voice must be used regular to make it stable). Usally he gets better when they start touring. First part of the 1st leg of 360 tour and the 2010 show of 369 tour is a good example of that.

 

[angelordevil]

Bono's voice has been spot on mostly with the acoustic stuff they have been doing on the promotion.

Absolutely...

U2 "Every breaking wave" live @ Milano - Vidéo Dailymotion

 

[Tim Wallach]

He sings the best since 1993, his improovement since 197-2001 is enormous, I wonder how he managed to recover his demaged voice.

According to the man himself, it's all about allergies. He finally figured out he had a rare allergy and that more or less fixed everything.

 

[The Panther]

I've listened to the album now a few times. The thing that I find most striking about the whole thing is Bono's voice.

Basically, it sounds fantastic.

On NLOTH, it sounded terrible. May not have been his performance as much as it was that it was mixed too high and lost all the bottom-end, sounding shrill and girly throughout (except on 'Cedars'). But it was his fault, too, because he WAY over-sang on about 80% of the album. "You know what we need in this 8 second guitar-solo Bono? We need you to do another "Ooooh! Ooooh! Ooooh!, because there are only 79 on the album so far and we need 80. And we sure don't wanna have a Edge-moment without your vocals drowning it out!"

On Bomb, his voice sounds technically quite good, but the album is quite poorly mixed and mastered leaving his voice sounding exactly the same on every track. The straining on 'Sometimes You Can't-yadda-yadda' seems like grandstanding more than honest singing.

On All That I Can't Type Out, his voice doesn't sound right to me. Lanois has it mixed higher than the lead vocals on a Backstreet Boys' album.

Pop is poor vocally, and sonically is a mess as well.

So, imagine my shock listening to SOI last week and hearing his voice sounding its best since Zooropa. Actually, it almost sounds too good. It can't be real from a 53 year old...?

I guess MightyMouse deserves some credit here. The voice is really recorded well.

 

[CosmoKramer]

Bono's voice has been spot on mostly with the acoustic stuff they have been doing on the promotion.

I agree. Ironically, I found the one "electric" performance is where he sounded the worst vocally. It was the best band performance to date(The Miracle on GN) but he sounded out of breath and strained.


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[thavidesco]

According to the man himself, it's all about allergies. He finally figured out he had a rare allergy and that more or less fixed everything.

I think the real reason of the damage was mususing and overusing, moreover singing in ranges that was not naturaly equal for his voice

 

[tomtom]

Honestly, I feel like Bono has consistently been singing about an eighth or a sixteenth tone higher than the melody since NLOTH, which was offputting at first but I am used to now. I'm not sure if he's actually doing that or whether it's just me or a bit of both. But generally he sounds in better shape on this album than Pop-ATYCLB-HTDAAB. There was a lot of strain in his voice then and at the high end it sounded thin and reedy. Generally it's much smoother on the last 2 albums.

That said, he hasn't sounded consistently good on the promo tour....some amazing moments, like the chorus parts in SFS on the Graham Norton show, but in between lots of bum notes. Hitting the high notes consistently on the new songs on the next tour is going to be a real challenge given how high some of them are.

 

[mikal]

You'll never see me say anything positive about the U2 on a U2 forum.

Fixed

 

[Peterrrrr]

Pop is poor vocally, and sonically is a mess as well.

Thats one of the things that make Pop sound so good, I realy like his voice on Pop. Sounds so raw and worn.

 

[BVS]

he's the weak point of the album.

he's the weak point of the album.

he's the weak point of the album.

I'm a troll

he's the weak point of the album.

he's the weak point of the album.

he's the weak point of the album.

There, you should be good for a week now. See ya next week


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[womanfish]

Definitely one of the things that struck me first about this album. Something was different with his tone. I was very happy to hear him sing more... comfortably. Or at least with a better flow and connection with the songs that I hadn't heard from him consistently since POP.
But the voice itself was sharper, almost metallic. It really had a more cutting, clear sound to it.
RBW is an excellent example of him sounding about 20 years old.

I'm sure that other than Bono getting treatment for allergies, or rest or whatever... That DM, is using a different vocal processing chain as well. And I like it.
I also find it mixed a little too up front in a lot of the songs, but loving the quality of his voice right now.

 

[Hollow Island]

Bono sounds better than he has since the mid-90s. He seems to have repaired his voiced, and he sounds a lot more natural than he did on NLOTH. On that album he sounds like he's trying to convince himself he was into making a record, whereas he's fully committed on SOI. The vocals are mixed so loudly, though. I put on a few of these songs and some Achtung tracks and the mix on AB is so much better. The vocals are still clear, but they were a part of the song, not hovering above it. Between the overly loud vocals and and the unnecessary keyboard pads a lot of the music gets drowned out.

 

[Tim Wallach]

I think the real reason of the damage was mususing and overusing, moreover singing in ranges that was not naturaly equal for his voice

Smoking, overuse and too much strain in high ranges were undoubtedly factors, but I believe his allergy story to some degree based on how it has recovered.

 

[Hollow Island]

he's probably smoking less too

 

[thavidesco]

Honestly, I feel like Bono has consistently been singing about an eighth or a sixteenth tone higher than the melody since NLOTH, which was offputting at first but I am used to now.

.

WTF? Even if it was true, it is unrecognisable for human ear.

 

[Diemen]

WTF? Even if it was true, it is unrecognisable for human ear.

Not really. At A440, An 1/8th of a tone sharp would be a little over 3hz higher in pitch, and would definitely be audibly sharp compared to the instruments.

That said, if he really was singing that much sharper, it would sound pretty bad on the recording. He might be a little sharp here and there on the last notes of a line, but he's definitely not singing sharp overall.

 

[gvox]

I had a weird effect the first two times I listened to Iris. For the life of me it sounded like the vocals were ever so slightly off-key during the first verses. I've not noticed it since, but I think that might be just being used to the song. Anyone else noticed that?

 

[U2girl]

I've listened to the album now a few times. The thing that I find most striking about the whole thing is Bono's voice.

Basically, it sounds fantastic.

On NLOTH, it sounded terrible. May not have been his performance as much as it was that it was mixed too high and lost all the bottom-end, sounding shrill and girly throughout (except on 'Cedars'). But it was his fault, too, because he WAY over-sang on about 80% of the album. "You know what we need in this 8 second guitar-solo Bono? We need you to do another "Ooooh! Ooooh! Ooooh!, because there are only 79 on the album so far and we need 80. And we sure don't wanna have a Edge-moment without your vocals drowning it out!"

On Bomb, his voice sounds technically quite good, but the album is quite poorly mixed and mastered leaving his voice sounding exactly the same on every track. The straining on 'Sometimes You Can't-yadda-yadda' seems like grandstanding more than honest singing.

On All That I Can't Type Out, his voice doesn't sound right to me. Lanois has it mixed higher than the lead vocals on a Backstreet Boys' album.

Pop is poor vocally, and sonically is a mess as well.

So, imagine my shock listening to SOI last week and hearing his voice sounding its best since Zooropa. Actually, it almost sounds too good. It can't be real from a 53 year old...?

I guess MightyMouse deserves some credit here. The voice is really recorded well.

Cedars has a very gritty vocal. And unlike Bomb when he was almost drowning out everyone else, NLOTH and moreso SOI lets the music breathe. And it's Danger Mouse, not MightyMouse.

That said, not a fan of the ear-splitting high notes on California and EBW choruses. He used to be more pleasant sounding at those.

 

[thavidesco]

His full voice high notes sound quite annoying these days

 

[The Panther]

And it's Danger Mouse, not MightyMouse.

I refuse to call a grown-up male "Danger Mouse" unless he wearing tights and cape.

 

[gvox]

When Paul Hewson sings badly or belches after dinner do you refuse to call him Bono Vox, also?


Sent from my ass crack

 

[BVS]

I refuse to call a grown-up male "Danger Mouse" unless he wearing tights and cape.

Um, you're still confused...


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[U2DMfan]

His voice is far too loud and dominating in the mix. Along with his silly lyrics, see: California (blah blah blah), he's the weak point of the album.

Might be the single most baffling comment I've read about this album here at Interference. Not that I've read most all these posts and threads because I haven't. This is unequivocally Bono's best album in 20 years - lyrics + vox.

There are plenty of things to criticize on this album (as there always is on most any album) but Bono simply brought it. Period.

 

[david]

Yeah, the REAL Danger Mouse never wore tights or a cape.

 

[ImNotSleeping]

Might be the single most baffling comment I've read about this album here at Interference. Not that I've read most all these posts and threads because I haven't. This is unequivocally Bono's best album in 20 years - lyrics + vox.

There are plenty of things to criticize on this album (as there always is on most any album) but Bono simply brought it. Period.

You will now receive your official Mighty Mouse uniform!
You are 100% correct! Bono brought it fully, no holding back. The mix, well, that's not on him.

 

[Musikwala]

Definitely Bono's best contribution to an album since at least Pop if not Zooropa! Though his voice sounds strained on Pop, I think it suits the songs and themes very well like Peterrrrr has stated.

Sleep Like A Baby Tonight is Bono's best vocal delivery since Babyface. Love his vocals on Babyface!