I saw over at Cas’ site that she just recently found a new voice that she loves. I did the same thing a couple days ago, sort of. I didn’t discover a new voice, but instead, rediscovered one. While browsing my music in iTunes, I noticed a band I’d not listened to in a really long time: The Cranberries. Wow. How I’ve missed this band, and in particular, Dolores O’Riordan’s voice.
I used to listen to The Cranberries all the time. Their CD No Need to Argue was actually the first CD I ever purchased, on a whim after getting my first CD player as a kid. (In hindsight, my parents actually bought it, seeing as I didn’t have a job and thus no money, but I digress.)
Her voice is really amazing. It has qualities that I’ve never heard in any other voice. Unfortunately, I can’t really describe them because my music lingo is pretty much non-existent. (I will include a video of them at the end of this post though, so if you’ve not heard them before, you can have a listen.)
Another awesome thing about her singing is that she retains her wonderful accent. A lot of singers seem to lose their native accent when singing in English, often sounding like they’re American. She never does this. She always sounds blatantly Irish, and I love it. It may just be her beautiful accent that makes her singing so unique, instead of innate vocal quirks. I just don’t know. All I know is, her voice is probably one of my favorites of all time when it comes to music. 
It’s right up there with Hansi Kürsch’s of Blind Guardian.
Here’s a couple of videos to watch / listen to, if you’ve not heard the Cranberries before (or if you just want to hear them again 
).
Dreams:
Promises:
There’s some more over at YouTube if you want to check them out.
Technorati Tags: cranberries, irish
2 responses so far ↓
Joshua J. Slone // September 30, 2006 at 4:50 am
“A lot of singers seem to lose their native accent when singing in English, often sounding like they’re American. She never does this. She always sounds blatantly Irish”
But… wouldn’t she have always been speaking /singing English anyway? It’s not like someone whose native tongue is German learning to sing English.
Josh // September 30, 2006 at 11:13 am
Well, I was thinking that her native language was actually Irish, but after looking at the Wikipedia page on the Irish language (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_language), it’s questionable as to whether that’s true or not.
Here’s a bit more on the topic of singing with an accent:
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view.php/74336
Snippet:
“It is very common for singers to emulate various accents when singing, but it is not always so. I find Lady Fushia’s comment about the Beatles fascinating. It’s interesting because she is British (no?) and she feels that the Beatles sang with American accents. I’m American, and I have always felt the beatles had a British accent even when singing. I never thought they were even trying to sing with American accents.”
That’s kind of where I was coming from. British singers often times (to my ears, anyway) sound as if they lose their accents when singing. David Ford is such an artist. For the most part in his songs, I can’t really hear his accent. It’ll pop out occasionally, but mostly he just sounds ‘American’ to me. His MySpace page is here, with some music available on it:
http://www.myspace.com/davidford
Unfortunately, as I write this comment, the music player doesn’t seem to be working. It just keeps saying ‘Connecting…’