Thom Yorke (37,813 views)

[EddieCheivz]

Feb 22, 2023 16:25:37 GMT quartzstq said:

Mark: "I wanted to ask you also about the vocal treatments, 'cause maybe this comes back to what you were saying about being bored with the limitations of your instrument, or trying to find new sounds. So I was really struck by the way sometimes the vocals are very disguised, I mean, particularly on 'Kid A', there's almost a Stephen Hawking sound to the vocal. Is that something you were deliberately trying to do?"

Colin: "With regards to Thom... I think, I suppose, he's obviously... he's someone who's very into the fine voice that he has, and at the same time, you know, he's always looking for new ways to try and express different personae, and a way of doing that is by treating the voice, you know, and the... I don't know which track..."

Jonny: "'Kid A'."

Mark: "'Kid A' was the one which struck me..."

Colin: "Oh yeah."

Mark: "It does all sorts of things."

Colin: "Well, that was a vocoder whose notes... he sang through a vocoder, and the notes were triggered by the Ondes Martenot that (to Jonny) you were playing at the same time as he was singing, wasn't it?"

Jonny: "Yeah, that's right."

Colin: "That was pretty mad."

Quote from an Interview with Thom:

Turning the voice into an instrumental texture, Other-ising it via effects, allowed Yorke "to sing things I wouldn't normally sing. On "Kid A", the lyrics are absolutely brutal and horrible and I wouldn't be able to sing them straight. But talking them and having them vocodered through Johnny's Ondes Martenot, so that I wasn't even responsible for the melody... that was great, it felt like you're not answering to this thing."

I cannot confirm veracity of that previous interviews, but I've always haved same doubt about vocals on "Kid A" since sounds very much as a vocoder, which could be in a strong measure a good indicator to they're actually shift-pitched something like Bellamy's A2 from "MK Ultra", for example, where entire vocal line sounds an octave lower, and even I'd say here is more natural and cleaner his voice than Thom's one in "Kid A"

EDIT: I agree low notes from "Kid A" sounds (the little that can be appreciated with that huge vocal effect above) bit as him doing that getting down with his voice for the way it carries and for the weight and entonation on the voice in some different vocal areas from a singer, where some subtle vocal devices show off easily in which registry he's singing, just I'm not  100% certain about they are shift-pitched or not.

[quartzstq]

I suppose I didn't really mention it, but the way I interpreted those interviews was that he just read out the lyrics without actually singing them, and then put that through Jonny's ondes Martenot. It's sort of similar to Pulk/Pull, but there it was just put through Auto-Tune locked to the scale of the song. In fact, I think one of the things found in the Kid A Mnesia Exhibition was Thom's vocals from Pulk/Pull without the Auto-Tune.

[Osmosis]

Lol, I hate this but, technically, there is a D3 in the melody at the below timestamp on the word "would":

[quartzstq]

Just thought I'd leave this here.
Wall of Eyes: A2 [3]
Teleharmonic: G#4, C5
Read the Room: A4
Under our Pillows: A4, A2
Friend of a Friend: A4
I Quit: C3
Bending Hectic: G#4, G#2
You Know Me!: Bb4

Edit: Changed some incorrect notes. (Wall of Eyes B2* with footnote > A2 [3], I Quit C2 > C3)

[Osmosis]

Black note A4. D3s as well in the last section.

[jaredletoisbackagain]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGByJMB300s Radiohead's cover of Nobody Does It Better really deserves to be in the thread. Great A4s and then a falsetto B4 towards the end.

[WantToSingGood]

Not 2b that guy, but can we just say, he's a baritone, right?

[Yojojo]

Apr 9, 2024 17:24:03 GMT WantToSingGood said:

Not 2b that guy, but can we just say, he's a baritone, right?

nope. tenor. MOVIN' on

[Homelander]

Mar 2, 2022 15:24:46 GMT fallenalien said:

I don't know why, but for some reason I'm surprised that Thom doesn't sing in the fifth octave THAT much.

Even though he's obviously rather high placed and known for his falsetto, it seems like he prefers singing in the mid-range part of his voice.

It's actually rather impressive that he can create a sound so bright without going into his extremities too much notewise.

Yeah, it's kind of interesting to see a high-placed singer who doesn't really like singing high. Robin Gibb is the same way. It's nice to see high-placed singers who doesn't feel the need to stretch his/her range to its limits. Very refreshing in my opinion.

[Homelander]

Mar 16, 2023 18:51:49 GMT EddieCheivz said:

I cannot confirm veracity of that previous interviews, but I've always haved same doubt about vocals on "Kid A" since sounds very much as a vocoder, which could be in a strong measure a good indicator to they're actually shift-pitched something like Bellamy's A2 from "MK Ultra", for example, where entire vocal line sounds an octave lower, and even I'd say here is more natural and cleaner his voice than Thom's one in "Kid A"

EDIT: I agree low notes from "Kid A" sounds (the little that can be appreciated with that huge vocal effect above) bit as him doing that getting down with his voice for the way it carries and for the weight and entonation on the voice in some different vocal areas from a singer, where some subtle vocal devices show off easily in which registry he's singing, just I'm not  100% certain about they are shift-pitched or not.

Nice catch. Tbh, I never expected Thom to hit D2s so strong like that.

[wintrysparrow]

I noticed a brief G5 in Anyone Can Play Guitar (album version)

[IhateMana]

not the kind of note that demonstrates the singer's ability

[WantToSingGood]

POV: still waiting on the vocal summary

[IhateMana]

personally I'd be careful what i wished for

[amadeusd]

Mar 18, 2023 14:47:42 GMT quartzstq said:

I suppose I didn't really mention it, but the way I interpreted those interviews was that he just read out the lyrics without actually singing them, and then put that through Jonny's ondes Martenot. It's sort of similar to Pulk/Pull, but there it was just put through Auto-Tune locked to the scale of the song. In fact, I think one of the things found in the Kid A Mnesia Exhibition was Thom's vocals from Pulk/Pull without the Auto-Tune.

I wouldn't worry too much that this isn't representing notes he sang. Another singer who does this a LOT is James Blake. You can watch him, live, sing the melody to Lindisfarne and trigger the 'harmonics' with his Nord as a form of vocoding. Really interesting tech imo, but wont always be changing the melody in terms of pitching. 

[quartzstq]

There seem to be some E2s buried in the mix of the studio version of Zero Sum, although it's hard to tell if it's just a strange effect:

[asamic500]

The new smile album I like it more than the first one and new single out for another forthcoming album!

[quartzstq]

Bodies Laughing has A2s in the backing vocals of the choruses ("You've fallen on your ass"), and also some odd vocals that reach down to a D2. However, they sound slowed down, seemingly by two or three semitones, which only puts it at a E2 or F2. (If you'd even count that considering the manipulation). Oh, and falsetto A4s.

[quartzstq]

Feb 21, 2024 16:50:25 GMT quartzstq said:

Just thought I'd leave this here.
Wall of Eyes: B2*
Teleharmonic: G#4, C5
Read the Room: A4
Under our Pillows: A4, A2
Friend of a Friend: A4
I Quit: C2
Bending Hectic: G#4, G#2
You Know Me!: Bb4
*Needs more careful listening to determine if an even lower note is sung.

Also, just wanted follow this up. It seems that the lowest note that is actually reached in Wall of Eyes (the song) is an A2, sung very briefly on the four of the second-to-last countdown before the transition to the outro (3:52), and on the five before the outro itself (4:05). I'd imagine they're probably way too brief to count, though, and otherwise the lowest notes sung are B2s in the same section as the second A2, but I wanted not to miss anything just in case.

[quartzstq]

Instant Psalm: C3, A2
Zero Sum: E2
Colours Fly: C3
Eyes & Mouth: G#4, C5, C3
Don't Get Me Started: A4, E2
Tiptoe: G4, C3
The Slip: G#4, B2
No Words: G4, C3
Bodies Laughing: A4, A2, E2 [4]

Also, doing this has made me realise that I incorrectly marked the lowest note of I Quit as a C2 when I meant a C3.

Edit: Changed some notes and formatting (Instant Psalm + A2, Zero Sum E2 > E2, Colours Fly D3 > C3, Eyes & Mouth + C3, The Slip C3 > B2, Bodies Laughing E2* with footnote to > E2 [4])