(07-15-2015, 02:05 AM)john Wrote: (07-15-2015, 01:19 AM)XAtlantic Wrote: In my opinion, her amazing voice is more than just a mere means to sing text - it is an instrument working (mostly) with text, and produces the music from so many angles and possibilities. She flows with the music and shapes it, she doesn't just perform it. That's why she is an artist and not just a singer. And this is where she's at right now.
There'll always be the nitpicky who know exactly how they think the edges of lawns should be cut (which they can do, but in their own yards). Just my opinion ...
Yes. This enunciation issue keeps coming up in the comments and I like hearing peoples reactions to it. Back in the day when you couldn't just google the lyrics to songs I recall being puzzled as to the exact lyrics in lots of popular songs. I don't think that was uncommon and people didn't bitterly complain about it even when they acknowledged not making out the lyrics because of the way the vocalist sang them. Suddenly it is this big issue to lots of people listening to Haley's PMJ work.
Perhaps many of the comments come from people who listen to music and singers of a certain type -- where diction is highly valued. Some of it is the influence of prior comments I'm sure. And some of it may have to do with qualities of Haley's style they may not like that end up described as poor enuciation, but really have to do with more than that.
But I like your manicured lawn with cut edges metaphor, XAtlantic. I was thinking about that as I read this part of the YT comment I posted:
Quote:Painters still need to paint something, sculptors still need to sculpts, if a song has words, a singer should sing them.
Painters do need to paint something, but they need not always stay inside the lines.
One can paint like this (good diction)
![[Image: peder-monsted.jpg]](http://fineartblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/peder-monsted.jpg)
But others choose this (I can see Haley's style a bit)
![[Image: 49319e29bf9afab078f40519341032fa.jpg]](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/49/31/9e/49319e29bf9afab078f40519341032fa.jpg)
Or paint by numbers (a risk I think if one were overly focused on the enunciation)
![[Image: d4549ec454a93f1d558c2eb5e53f47bc.jpg]](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d4/54/9e/d4549ec454a93f1d558c2eb5e53f47bc.jpg)
what happens when I try to put paint on a canvas.... I don't think they're very good or anything,, but they came from my mind and hands and I like the colors I guess..
![[Image: two-paintings.png]](http://tomnorian.com/p-imgs/two-paintings.png)
type of things I spend my life staring at.. and feeling.. the texture wetness and color of the sand as it transitions to wate.. the smell of the water, the glow of the sky.
![[Image: beach-circle.png]](http://tomnorian.com/p-imgs/beach-circle.png)
and I like abstract lyrics, that still have words that are both understandable yet cause a sense of wonder
LISTEN UP! had many lyrics that I appreciated.. I found many fairly abstract in a good way
maybe my favorite listen up lines:
Code:
Can't see the halos,
Can't feel their wings, no.
But I got faith that the angels will sing
[Chorus:]
Walking on heaven, walking on heaven,
Streets we're on are paved in gold.
Walking on heaven, walking on heaven
Free your mind and let it go.
She did enunciate them on the album I guess.. some not others as it goes..
I too think the ennunciation is a matter of style choice... sometimes style choices work better than others.. if you're going to be abstract it's gotta be because being abstract is helping you express something in ways that open different senses though...well.. I guess that's more a theory ..
I 'm with you on the paint by the numbers thing John...
of course some great artists can/were expressive in a more realistic way
Johannes Vermeer
![[Image: 506px-Johannes_Vermeer_-_A_Lady_and_Two_...A24639.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Johannes_Vermeer_-_A_Lady_and_Two_Gentlemen_-_WGA24639.jpg/506px-Johannes_Vermeer_-_A_Lady_and_Two_Gentlemen_-_WGA24639.jpg)
Vincent Van Gogh
![[Image: van_gogh_woman_sitting_in_grass_vintage_...vr_512.jpg]](http://rlv.zcache.com/van_gogh_woman_sitting_in_grass_vintage_fine_art_postcard-rc9b2c280ff3b47aeb84abb6972c211a9_vgbaq_8byvr_512.jpg)
and well
this isn't even an "out there" picasso as it goes
![[Image: PicASSODora.jpg]](http://www.actingoutpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/PicASSODora.jpg)
Sloppiness isn't art but art's expression can be quite abstract
I'm sort of on the fence with some of Haley's choices on diction.. I think she might be taking it a bit far on some of the sentences but.. then again it grows on me
---just tailing off at the end of sentences might be too strong a pattern though.. .. can be distracting if it seems like sloppiness not a choice based on the individual words .. but.. maybe "letting go" then end of statements is an attitude ..a strut, a point made about how to live ?.. we absorb these things and take em or leave em.
oh.. and just because I was listening to the song earlier..
and because I hadn't written and essay here for a while lol
.. a type of lyric I really like... each word means something but together the message is more a matter of freely associating words and thoughts more than looking for a concrete "this means X" sort of message. (and I don't read walkin on heaven congretely either even if someone wanted to they could.. and might find the message too cutesey trying to interpret it at face value ? ....everyone would be different with that.
Ripple
Song by Grateful Dead
If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung
Would you hear my voice come through the music
Would you hold it near as it were your own?
It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken
Perhaps they're better left unsung
I don't know, don't really care
Let there be songs to fill the air
Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
Reach out your hand if your cup be empty
If your cup is full may it be again
Let it be known there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of men
There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone
Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
