Bands where the other guy has a better voice than the lead singer...

fugazi's (male) singers are distinct

As for rock bands with very different vocalists I nominate Fleetwood Mac. Peter Green vs Lindsey Buckingham and Christine Mcvie vs Stevie Nicks.

Yeah, was about to say. Or Drive-by Truckers. Or Mekons (four distinct singers!).

I don't know about 'better', but Clint Conley is definitely the Colin Moulding to Roger Miller's Andy Partridge in Mission of Burma.

Talking of Rogers - Roger McGuinn doesn't sound much like Gene Clark, or vice versa.

dl, Depeche Mode IS a counterexample for your second point - they sound quite distinct. Actually, many of the bands that answer the first question would fit

It did take me many years to realize Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr alternating singing lead in the Cars and were not the same person though

Almost everyone in the Beach Boys has a better voice than 'lead singer' Mike Love. Not that I dislike Mike Love's voice.

'Better' is debatable, but I've always preferred the deeper-voiced one out of Wild Beasts

FWIW I agree with Moka about the Clash

Conway Savage in the Bad Seeds

Bunny Wailer in the Wailers.

Jason Isbell was the best singer of the three in the Drive-By Truckers.

Pink Floyd too

I honestly almost never know whether Gilmour or Waters is singing.

Rick Wright and David Gilmour are more similar, Waters' foghorn vocals are easier to spot.

Yeah I’m in the same boat they sing in a very similar style.

Parquet Courts for the first question, if you count Savage as the other guy.

Martin Gore's vocal on 'Home' sounds uncannily like Alison Moyet when I come to think of it.

Again, pretty much everyone in Parliament/Funkadelic was a better singer than George Clinton, though considering George Clinton the lead singer might be pushing it - he was the lead singer in the Parliaments though.

With the caveat that "better" doesn't necessarily mean "more appropriate for the material," Jerry Cantrell vs. Layne Staley in Alice in Chains.

Tanya Donnelly arguably has a "better" voice than Kristen Hersh, but I wouldn't want them singing each others' songs.

(xp) Yes.

that recent supergroup Gizmodrome is a good example of this, Stewart Copeland handles nearly all of the vocals despite having Adrian Belew in the band

Some would say Florence Ballard was a stronger singer than Diana Ross in the early Supremes, but Diana had the more "pop" voice so...

It was years before I learned that "Candy Says" is sung by Doug Yule. He makes such a great job of it that I'm tempted to say I prefer his voice to that of Lou Reed.

― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Friday, February 9, 2018 9:38 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i used to play this game with my friends called "doug or lou?" with my friends, skipping through tracks in itunes.

still blows my mind that he's singing lead on "who loves the sun", "new age", "lonesome cowboy bill", "she's my best friend" and "candy says" !! dead ringer if there ever was one.

er and " oh! sweet nuthin' "

tom and/or sally. if jon is considered lead.

Mills and Stipe for the second question

i think, don't know about y'all

corin tucker's voice is distinct from everyone's, including carrie brownstein's

hearing Karl Bartos sing "The Telephone Call" was pretty surprising - he's no great singer of course, but the fact that a guy in that group could sing at all...

utterly distinct: colin newman and graham lewis of wire.

David Lovering in Pixies

for distinct I'd say Devo, no one on the planet sounds like Mark Mothersbaugh

And not only did Noel wrote ther biggest hits, his voice is better (I find Liam’s croaky voice annoying as hell after a couple songs) and he proved to be far more professional and commited to his fans.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, February 9, 2018 7:41 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

in the live forever documentary they show clips of noel singing wonderwall, he originally intended to do the lead vocals on the track. then it cuts to liam doing it. it's night in day in terms of quality, liam was just a far better vocalist (yes his voice has an annoying and abrasive quality)

I'm very surprised that people can't tell Yule's and Reed's voices apart.

agree about Corin Tucker

Agree about Stipe/Mills as distinct (NOT that Mills was the better singer). What about Mike Love/Brian Wilson?

Him with the gravel voice off Gomez - where 'better' is a relative category. And they sound completely distinct.

I'm trying to think of a rock band with more than one singer of the same sex who sound utterly distinct from each other and I'm having trouble.

Husker Du

Lee & Thurston in SY

that's not as extreme as Husker Du though, Mould & Hart are a world apart

Him with the gravel voice off Gomez - where 'better' is a relative category. And they sound completely distinct.

― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Friday, February 9, 2018 6:55 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ian Ball > Ben Ottwell (the gravelly one) > Tom Gray

Animal Collective ?

― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, February 9, 2018 3:42 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nah, they all sound whiny, American and shit.

I'm trying to think of a rock band with more than one singer of the same sex who sound utterly distinct from each other and I'm having trouble.

the grateful dead
the band
the byrds
the beatles
the wailers

ah i see the band was already mentioned

that's not as extreme as Husker Du though, Mould & Hart are a world apart

― flappy bird, Friday, February 9, 2018 1:59 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the production on even the cleanest Du records is so muddy that it can be hard to tell them apart, even though I agree that their voices are different.

nobody would call Ronnie Lane the lead singer of the Faces, but you can always tell when he's singing instead of Rod lol

extreme metal bands, black especially i think, will often have e.g. one growly and one shrieky vocalist : )

I'm trying to think of a rock band with more than one singer of the same sex who sound utterly distinct from each other and I'm having trouble.

fleetwood mac
crosby stills nash & young

I feel I've posted just enough to go out on a limb and suggest you're not entirely rational when it comes to the productions of Animal Collective, Turrican.

Billy and James in the Pumpkins sound utterly distinct but that feels unfair because there are literally only 8 of out 150+ songs where James sings lead in all of the Pumpkins' discography (original run obv)

i mean, it sounds like that to me too. but i've seen it credited to rother in a number of places. i'm not really sure if it's true though, especially since i've also seen the vocals credited to dinger (and dinger's vocals on "hero" credited to rother).

xpost

Rother doesn't seem the type to indulge in any "By the way, I'm totally out of my gourd here, man" vocalizing.

Rother doesn't seem the type to indulge in any "By the way, I'm totally out of my gourd here, man" vocalizing.

imo

That as well.

Ugh if there are vocals on Neu! and Neu! 2 then I've forgotten, I've only got Neu! 75 on vinyl

I was always under the impression that Rother wrote (and sang) what is on the A-side of Neu! 75 and Klaus Dinger did the same for the B-side

Either way "Hero" is great, thank you very much, good bye

People who are new to XTC tend to find an entry point with Colin Moulding's more melodic vocal style than Andy Partridge's nasal West Country bark

i don't disagree but most of partridge's singing comes in an irritating faux-american accent

xpost

NEU!’s recording commitment with Brain/Metronome was three albums. In order to fulfil this contract and because I felt a musical interest working again with Klaus Dinger to realize certain ideas, which weren’t possible in the Harmonia context, I composed some tracks and Klaus and Conny Plank went to the new Conny Plank Studio in 1974. It was my agreement with Klaus, that we would record one side of the album in the classic NEU! style just the two of us, and the B side would be recorded in a four piece band, in which two drummers would take over Klaus’ drum part: Thomas Dinger, Klaus’ brother and Hans Lampe, who had worked as an assistant engineer with Conny Plank. Klaus back then insisted on performing live and for this purpose he had trained both of those musicians with his style. For me this line-up wasn’t musically satisfactory for a live performance, but in the studio we did alright. "Hero" is one of my favourite NEU! tracks (when I am in the mood). After recording NEU! ‘75 I moved on with Harmonia and Klaus started his project La Düsseldorf, still working with both drummers.

http://www.furious.com/perfect/michaelrother.html

i don't disagree but most of partridge's singing comes in an irritating faux-american accent

― rove mcmanus island (Autumn Almanac)

cf. the beginning of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR8MQOmIVoQ

this arguably applied to the Goo Goo Dolls before Takac took a backseat to Rzeznick, but some would argue the opposite

xp good lord

Nash Kato and King had pretty different vocal stylees in Urge Overkill. Nash was the hipster. King usually had the emo story tunes.

the cars

― mookieproof, Friday, February 9, 2018 10:36 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Straitjacket Fits - Andrew Brough's voice much easier on the ears than Shayne Carter's, regardless of which one you prefer...

Who was considered the lead singer in the Monkees? I always figured it was Davey Jones, mainly because he didn't seem to play any instrument beyond the tambourine. And Mickey Dolenz clearly had the better voice. But then again, Dolenz sang lead on many, if not most, of their big hits. I'm so confusing!

I don't know that the Monkees really had a lead singer. Dolenz and Jones contributions were fairly evenly split with Nesmith not terribly far behind.

always thought James Iha had a more pleasant voice than Billy Corgan but I didn't particularly "like" Iha's voice either.

Bill Ward was a better singer than Ozzy technically, though he'd have never fit the doomier stuff.

also Corrosion of Conformity, Pepper was a better vocalist than Karl Agell on the Blind album which is largely why he became the lead vocalist after that album (that and Karl's departure).....

Sonic Youth? Lee Ranaldo's voice is passable at best, Kim Gordon's voice is 100X more distinctive.

Most SY albums have an approximately equal number of Moore-sung and Gordon-sung songs, with one or two Ranaldo songs thrown in. Not sure who counts as "lead singer" in this case.

Oddly, I sometimes argue that Gordon was the better singer but Sister and Murray Street, maybe the two that are most Moore-dominated, are two of their albums that I play the most.

The Flaming Lips should let Steven Drozd sing lead on more songs

they'd certainly be less irritating without wayne

Joy Division

No

I suppose you are the expert. Well argued. I would delete my comment if I could but my humiliation will just have to live on.

https://senselessramblingsofthemindless.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/butthurt.jpg

Massively butthurt. How could I not be with that take down! Fortunately taste isn’t subjective.

Jeez, dude. I wasn't pulling rank or even making an argument, just expressing a more-or-less irrational but strong personal disagreement on that particular opinion. 2xp

Hook sounds a bit like Chris Rea here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U08U2RbqFi8

while obv not the case overall, I do think oates's gives his all to songs like 'friday let me down' whereas hall would sleepwalk his way through it, so theres usually an oates banger on each of their albums. Also noticed between song like this, 'youve lost that loving feeling' and 'alone too long' that poor old oates seems to live quite the lonely existence :(

ZZ Top. Bassist Dusty Hill tends to sing a song or two per album and has a much higher, cleaner voice than Billy Gibbons.

I know Suzanna Hoffs has the more distinctive voice, but I feel like Michael Steele and the Peterson sisters have prettier voices.