And now for something completely different...

Enough about books for now, how about some music?

...well, this isn't really what I wanted to write about, but Maybe just started playing on my radio and I always have to grin when it does. Maybe is a song from the Sick Puppies, an Australian band who released their album Tri-Polar at the beginning of this year in Germany (it's the first they released here), with Maybe as the first single. I had already known the album for over half a year at that point, and listened to the song, oh, maybe a few dozen times? When I first heard the single on the radio - I didn't recognize the song. I don't know if this is only the case for Germany, but the single version was... a disaster.
So after I'd finally recognized the song and listened to the whole thing in the vain hope that surely it had to get better somehow, I sat down at my computer and did something I had only done once before: I wrote an email to my radio station, with roughly the following content:

Please, I beg you, don't ever play that version if the song again and use the album version instead. The single has so obviously had its teeth pulled to make it suitable for the general public that it almost physically hurts.

I'm not even kidding, I really cringed when it dawned on me that this was supposed to be Maybe.

So, now you might be wondering why I have this strange reaction now when I hear that song on the radio. Easy, because they listened. It was the one and only time that I heard them play the single version. (I also want to note that another station, which is supposed to be for 'young people' and usually plays music even I don't really want to hear, still plays the single version. Which is laaaame.)


Right! Now back on track. What I did want to write about was singers. And voices. And how some singers and their voices ruin their music for me.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has some voices that just grate on my nerves. I have to admit that Adele is one of them, though I think the only song of hers I know is Set Fire to the Rain. But I just don't like her voice. The Fray is such a case, too, as is Kings of Leon. Though it's not so bad with Kings, I still listen to them.
Strangely enough I never had any problem with listening to Brian Johnson, though Bon Scott is pretty borderline. Andrew Stockdale? Bring it on. Anastacia? Love her. (What? She has a great voice, but I'm pretty sure it's an acquired taste for a lot of people.)

With Sophie Ellis-Bextor it's the other way around: I think she has a great voice, but I don't like her music. Just can't win, can I?

If anybody is actually reading this blog, tell me which singers you just can't listen to.