Lana's vocal quality and vibrato

[Rem 2,392]

Smoking doesn't help her that's for sure..I've noticed her voice breaks more often these days and less fluid.

 

She needs to quit.

 

 

Her voice was a lot fuller and more agile. She switched between lows and highs easily esp during the paradise tour.

 

 

Her voice deteriorated after coachella this year. I was surprised how the american critics were raving about it because i genuinely thought that it wasn't her best vocally.

[Honeymooner 336]

Smoking doesn't help her that's for sure..I've noticed her voice breaks more often these days and less fluid.

I haven't noticed a change for the worse in her voice at this point... it seems stronger than it was 2 years ago. Either that, or she's just gained confidence. In the live performance videos I've seen on YouTube, I've actually only ever heard her voice crack once, and that was at the iTunes Festival back in 2012. When she sang "National Anthem," when she does all that "oooohhh"-ing at the end, I heard it crack once when she reached up for a high note.

 

She needs to quit.

I'm with you there... I wish she'd give up smoking, too. I'm afraid for what it will do to her voice in the future.

 

 

Her voice was a lot fuller and more agile. She switched between lows and highs easily esp during the paradise tour.

She can still do that now... have you seen/heard her perform "Cola," usually her opening number? She belts out some really high notes near the end of that number, and seems to not have any problems doing it.

 

Her voice deteriorated after coachella this year. I was surprised how the american critics were raving about it because i genuinely thought that it wasn't her best vocally.

A lot of people actually had problems at Coachella this year. Apparently, it was very dusty out there. Lorde came back with a chest infection and had to postpone her Australian tour, and even Pharrell Williams was almost completely hoarse by the end of his performance.

[technicolor 243]

I do remember one European performance I saw where she changed "bitches" to something else, possibly a word more appropriate to the country she was in?  I just can't remember what it was now.

 

"Love you more than them tricks before." On The voice UK at least, some others as well probably (and the Blue jeans demo).

[toshi 948]

I agree.  She makes me swoon.  And I'm not a swooner. 

 

 

Having only been a fan of Lana since May, I didn't see the SNL performance when it came out.  (And I don't have cable, so I never would've seen it anyway... plus, I don't watch SNL anyway... heheh)  I saw videos of more recent performances before I ever saw the SNL videos, but even so, I did not think the SNL videos were bad at all.  I thought she sang quite well, actually, despite being nervous.  She just didn't have much stage presence.  In that department, she has improved by leaps and bounds.

 

Oh, and you may have noticed in the SNL video that she changed "shit" to "shoot," since she was on national TV...   Though "bitches" stayed as it was, since that word is allowed on TV now.  But "shit" is the normal lyric.  I do remember one European performance I saw where she changed "bitches" to something else, possibly a word more appropriate to the country she was in?  I just can't remember what it was now.

 

 

Yeah I think that was more the problem, that she didn't have much stage presence, I mean she is 'different' to other pop singers, so that didn't help I imagine as people didn't know her well. The hate she got though she definatley did not deserve. At least now she is respected. 

[Honeymooner 336]

Yeah I think that was more the problem, that she didn't have much stage presence, I mean she is 'different' to other pop singers, so that didn't help I imagine as people didn't know her well. The hate she got though she definatley did not deserve. At least now she is respected.

 

Yeah, having seen the videos 2.5 years after and reading about all the backlash and hate, I felt soooo bad for her. I could see that she had already gained a lot of respect, even more so after Ultraviolence came out. I really did not understand the hate that her SNL performance generated. I mean, sure, it wasn't her best performance, but it really wasn't bad, either.

[Honeymooner 336]

I know we got a little off topic, but one thing I forgot to mention in my original post is that in general, it seems that her vibrato is stronger and more consistent when she's in her upper register, rather than the lower. I'm not sure why, since at least in my opinion, her voice sounds better overall in the lower register. But even in the earlier years, when you hear her sing songs like "Born To Die" and "National Anthem," where she does some showy stuff near the end of the songs, singing mid to high notes, you can hear some nice vibrato there.

[Honeymooner 336]

Resurrecting this old topic... I liked how Lana's voice sounded in "Is This Happiness," but having listed to "Big Eyes" and "I Can Fly" a few times now, I find her vibrato even better in "Big Eyes." Two particular spots where it really stands out are both in the second half of the first verse. At 1:15, she hits a fairly high note with the words "trust you," and that one sounds just gorgeous! Then followed by "I was your woman," where on the last syllable of "woman," she sounds really beautiful again. Those two spots give me chills every time I hear them.

[Valentino 885]

I think the famous SNL performances weren't as bad as people made them out to seem. Video Games in particular doesn't deserve the rep it got. BUT I'm listening to Blue Jeans now and at the beginning her voice sounds like she was caught in a burp. I don't think it sounded good at all. Thankfully it doesn't last throughout the performance. She does some actual belting on the second chorus, which impressed me because I'd never heard her sound like that (I will love you TILL the end of time). Her attempts at belting on studio recordings like Tired of Singing the Blues and Queen of Disaster sounded completely different. She definitely has a wide variety of vocal colors to exploit.

 

Although her low voice is, indeed, haunting, I don't think it's a natural or comfortable form of singing before. Listen to Kinda Outta Luck, a studio performance. Her pitch wavers on the lowest notes ("I was born baaaaaaad" and "I did what I had to dooooooo"). That she doesn't sing the lowest notes of SS and VG life is more evidence that she's not all that comfortable singing down there. She herself says she "started singing lower" to be taken more seriously, so it wasn't a natural way of singing for her. If you listen to Sirens-era material, her voice is lighter and freer. She has a really beautiful vibrato on Drive-By, which she appears to have lost when she used her "smoky chanteuse voice" (think SS chorus, intro to KOL, OUAD) and "baby Lolita voice" (chorus of OTTR, Lolita obvs, basically whenever she uses her full voice in a higher register). It makes sense - those are forced 'voices' she puts on. If she sounds better now, as many people seem to think, perhaps she's gotten enough practice with using these unnatural registers to sound better.

 

Having talked about the smoky chanteuse, I must now confront the Baby Lolita voice. It reminds me of Gaga's baby-ish voice on The Fame (if you're not a Gaga fan that's ok but please don't go on like 'how dare you compare the Queen of New York/Saigon/Disaster to that illuminati harlot you philistine'), very affected. It's more like she's singing as a character, if you get what I mean. Much like her flaw with the Smoky Chanteuse is sounding forced, her flaw with the Baby Lolita is a lack of control. A lot of people like Million Dollar Man live, but I think it's pretty bad and hard to listen to even as a Lana fan (listen to the Album de la Semaine performance where she goes off pitch on "one for the monay-EEEEEEEEE"). She does this fluttering thing that's pretty notable; the only example I can think of right now is "sometimes LOOOVE is NOOOT enough" from BTD, but I know other Lana fans have noticed this before. While I'm not sure it's something she does on purpose, I like the effect it gives.

 

There are other vocal qualities she uses on her non-album unreleased tracks. Listen to her belting near the end of Queen of Disaster and compare it to the falsetto high note in Cola. True Love On The Side is a very different performance of Lana, and I loved it from the first time I heard it. The chorus of Velvet Crowbar uses this voice too ("you're like crack to me" "my baby's on his eight life darling"). I can't think of a name for this 'voice'. It sounds like what Lana would sound like if she belted using her full voice in a mid-register as opposed to lightening and thinning her voice for Baby Lolita. She does have attitude when she uses this voice ("yo, GOOD LUCK" from Noir). I guess I'll call it Cartoon Character.

 

Last but not least, the Sirens era voice. I really like her tone here - it's so pure and you can tell she's singing without any pretensions. She's not a femme fatale or alluring jailbait or a cartoon - she's just Elizabeth Grant, singing quite frankly about finding a really cool belt at this lame department store. I think this is her singing at her "most natural" and also her "healthiest." The trade-off, if you can call it that, is that there isn't much to distinguish her from other soft-voiced singer-songwriters. Smoky Chanteuse and Baby Lolita are cartoonish, but they are recognizable and inimitable. I'll call it Sensitive Singer-Songwriter.

 

Maybe you've read this and thought "wow, you're so harsh on Lana. why are you even a fan go stan for katy perry smh." I would like to take this time to say that a specialty of Lana's is being able to reach all of these different voices in the first place! She has not just a chameleon soul, but a chameleon voice. From the comfort of the studio, she can exploit her ~vocal palette~ as she wishes. Adele has a strong soul voice, but Lana is at least four different people in one. Considering her penchant for essentially portraying characters, it makes sense that she's flexible in this regard! And she can switch between these voices in one song - OTTR goes from Smoky Chanteuse to Baby Lolita in just the verses. Blue Jeans is another great example. If variety is the spice of life, Lana is a spice rack. She has a lot of weird idiosyncracies; her lyrical ones (daddy, red party dress, pale moonlight, etc) are the most notable but she's vocally interesting too. That's why she's so ~~~special~~~

[HugoRockz 55]

Personally, I don't think Lana have any coaching, but I think she have grown more confident with herself overtime. I don't know, that's what I think.