Date sent: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 04:42:10 EST
Subject: Re: Sarah Mclachlan/Maria Carey (just my own totally subjective
view)
To: vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

I absolutely fell in love with Sarah's voice and I finally figured out one
reason why I enjoy listening to her. She sings with pure vowel sounds more
often then the majority of contemporary singers. Her diphthongs are not so
pronounced they are distracting. The warmth of her instrument lends itself
very well to the material she sings. She has a purity in her voice, a mellow
mezzo/alto range and she does use dynamics. Another thing is that the sound
just comes out less "manufactured" sounding, it has a "sincere" ring to it.
I prefer her to many, many of her contemporaries. Also, her lyrics lend
themselves to the flow of her voice as she sings those words. Not an over
abundance of sharp consonants.

For my taste, Mariah "breaks" up her vocal line so much, it's distracting.
For me, listening to her singing isn't as enjoyable because of all the vocal
manipulation she does. Her natural vibrato becomes absolutely obliterated
because of all the stop, starting glottal attacks instead of the words.. it
reeks of over embellishment and dilutes the impact of the actual voice, of
which I'm sure she has, if only she'd let it shine through once in a while
instead of giving in to what's currently "trendy" in the pop field. I would
love to hear her sing a song straight through without the "trademarks" she
relies on. Just as any singer singing one way all the time, once you're used
to hearing, "oh, she can really hit the high notes" or "wow, what
flexibility", the overuse of these "tools" seems to limit her. The
embellishments are used so much, they lose their effectiveness. If she were
interested in another field of singing and sang in that other style, it would
probably make her even more versatile. I believe it takes away from the
listening experience for me. I also can't stand this real "breathy" sound
that's out there, using that to create the effect of "softness" or
"lushness". It seems to dull the sound.