I Believe in a Thing Called Love

[jco5055]

https://www.box.com/s/440f301c8b31da383bac

Here's a cover of the song, performed by my cover band (I did the vocals). Overall I think it's pretty good, although I feel the high notes might be a little too "clownish" for my taste (though we kept the track because the original version's high notes are also pretty extreme/"falsettoish"). Any critiques or comments would be greatly appreciated!

[ronws]

The high notes are supposed to be clownish. Have you seen the video? Or seen the clip of them at the Download Festival? You might happen to notice that Justin clowns quite a bit, tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating, even.

I think it will get better when the whole band learns the song. I had to strain to hear the bass but I think he had the groove. The drummer wasn't quite sure. And the guitar player was stomping on everyone with his Eddie Van Halen - inspired solo.

You did good, vocally, though there were some wavers here and there, something that will smooth out once you realize it's okay to act the clown. That's what I did on my cover of this song. It sounded like you recorded into a little mic with a tape of the band in the background. But, for a live version, this would be good.

So, in the whole band effort, you and the bassist had the groove just right.

[jco5055]

well admittedly, the guitarist literally practices 9 hours a day and has no life outside of music, so he is quite good. The bass is really hard to hear, he's going to have to re-record his parts because for some reason it just didn't come out too audible. Our drummer is a bit of an interesting case. He can play fast and double-bass no problem, but he just has basic time-keeping and beat problems. The guitarist and I have told him he needs to use a metronome, but he doesn't listen. He also is pretty much only capable of staying in 4/4, no shuffles for him. Both the bassist and drummer actually follow the guitarist and I (we switch off between guitar and vocals) at practice, which we are trying to get them to fix this.

Anyways, thanks for the critique! Live I'll definitely be more clownish, I was a bit serious trying to get the song down (this was actually the second time recording this, the first time my vocals weren't up to snuff)

[ronws]

Cool, J. Let yourself go in the song. You did sound a bit hesitant in places, which probably caused the pitch wobbles that I heard.

Must be nice to practice guitar 9 hours a day.

Anyway, the guitar god could step back just a smidge and let the bass in, or was that a mixing problem for the sound levels?

[jco5055]

yeah, for some reason the bassist really low, like the input level was. We'll goin to re record him

[izzle1989]

Nice cover.

I believe you should work on the basics of singing. Breathing and Cord closure.

Work on speaking the vowels as clearly as possible with as resonant of a voice as you can. I like to say the alphabet as loudly and clearly as possible on a comfortable pitch. When doing this you should focus on being very staccato like with the tone. This will really help you to get the onset down pat and feel the support of the lower body.