I’ve been a long time fan of Eric’s tone and technique but my god I cannot get into his songwriting. Cliffs of Dover is alright but even that feels cheesy. Ah Via Musicom sounds like if Are You Experienced was an adult contemporary soft rock album and Venus Isle was sickeningly clean and boring
Anybody else feel this way. I feel somewhat guilty cause his playing is so damn good but the actual music he makes with it, bores me to tears
You’ve created this thread exactly at the same time I was going through EJ’s material on Spotify looking for hidden gems! And I think there are many! Talking about hidden gems, I am right now practicing the main riff of his song with the same name “Gem”. Beautiful track that I’ve never noticed.
I am not into the acoustic and the clean stuff either and I usually avoid the singing tracks coming from Guitar virtuosos like EJ, Joe Satriani Steve Vai etc. But I have to admit that I could listen to an entire album from Steve or Joe without having to skip a song. I can’t say the same about EJ, because I might skip most of the tracks with vocals. Not to be disrespectful to this guitar legend, but that’s just not what I am looking for. But it’s just my musical taste in general, I prefer melodies that try to tell a story than actual lyrics. I hope that doesn’t sound too cheesy.
Cheers! \m/
As an album I vastly prefer Tones to Ah Via Musicom. If you are coming from heavier stuff EJ is definitely an acquired taste.
I have to agree with you, although I think Venus Isle had some okish stuff on it.
A lot of these highly technical guitarists are quite poor songwriters IMO.
I get the same thing with “Jazz fusion” - I love the playing technique and guitar sounds and speed, but the music makes me physically ill. There’s some kind of chord or harmonic blend that makes me feel bad.
That’s interesting. I don’t like light fusion too much but the heavy rock kind that was borne out of Miles Davis’s groups in the late 60’s? That’s my jam
I’m sure it’s some kind of chord/harmonic relationship that causes it!
I think the problem is that EJ is only a passable singer and his albums are largely vocal tracks.
More power to him for doing it his way, but vocal music really needs an exceptional singer.
Someone said that Joe Bonamassa is a weak version of EJ, but imo he has a better singing voice even if he’s not quite as virtuoso on the guitar. I’m not a fan of JB either, but he shows that this style can fill the seats.
Well, taste is subjective, but I love his instrumentals, and not just C.O.D.
Trademark, Manhatten, Zap, there’s plenty of them.
But yeah, his voice sucks. But oh well… few guitarists have good voices.
For me, I wouldn’t even be picking on Eric specifically: I’d say that I find most instrumental guitar songs don’t really grab me. My exception is probably Satriani, because he writes a lot of catchy hi gain main riffs that appeal to me. For guys like Steve Vai and many others, there are a few songs here and there that I like, and in the case of Vai, there will be things like “oh, I love this specific 45 second stretch of [insert song name]”. But if I were trying to “win someone over” to instrumental guitar rock albums, I’d be really hard pressed to think of one that I wouldn’t expect would bore people. Maybe Satch’s “Flying in a Blue Dream”, or “The Extremist”. I liked certain moments on Vai’s “Passion and Warfare”, and there are bits that I love on some of his other albums, But I probably haven’t played a Vai album in full from front to back in one sitting since the first month Passion and Warfare came out. That doesn’t mean I don’t respect Vai, Johnson or Satch as players, but if I’m honest, I don’t spend much time listening to them apart from a small number of favorites that pop up in my playlists nowadays. (That also speaks to differences in technology re: how most of us listen to music now v.s. back in the day, but that’s a bigger topic.)
Still miles better than the recent Yngwie albums where he gave up looking for a singer and decided he could do vocals (spoiler: he can’t.)
Seemingly, your opinion isn’t all that unpopular here.
As many of this forum are already aware, I’m a huge fan of Eric’s music, and that extends beyond just his guitar playing and his instrumental pieces.
I think some of the criticisms of his voice here are overly harsh. He has good pitch and his range and projection are adequate. Timbre is a matter of taste.
There are many famous singers who are technically inferior to Eric as vocalists. The vast majority of popular music is vocal music, and proportionally very little of it features exceptional vocalists.
Limiting the discussion to vocal music featuring virtuoso guitarists, precious little of it features an exceptional vocalist also. Among the elite virtuoso guitarists themselves, I’d struggle to name a single one that was also an exceptional vocalist.
I’d initially be inclined to say Richie Kotzen, until I remember real exceptional vocalists: David Coverdale, Roy Orbison, Whitney Houston, Freddie Mercury, etc.
Erics voice is small, has a very narrow range, and is clinical for lack of a better word. If his voice was a guitar, it wouldn’t have any vibrato or bends.
Pop music these days actually has a TON of vocal talent.
If you want a guitar virtuoso who has worked with amazing vocalists, look no further than Yngwie. My favorite album of his is actually Eclipse where he worked with Goran Edman.
He had some amazing singers in the past. I don’t know their names. But I don’t think YM will be known for his songs… its his instrumentals that stand out.
If you like that style of vocals, his albums are quite enjoyable. His leads give the songs fire that rescue them from being pop tripe.
Paul Gilbert writes pretty funny songs
I assume you mean small in terms of timbre. I think the lack of glissando or vibrato is a stylistic choice rather than a technical deficiency. His range is adequate for what he does.
While there is a lot of vocal talent out there, little of it is exceptional. The majority of popular vocal music features singers who are competent but no exceptional, and a great deal of is songwriters who themselves are only passable singers.
The majority of everything is mediocre. The exceptional singers are by definition the exceptions.
Also, for every Yngwie album with Marc Boals or Goran Edman, there’s another with Jeff Scott Soto and his muppet-like falsetto or Yngwie’s own vocals. Do you really rank Boals or Edman among the likes of David Coverdale or Freddie Mercury? I don’t, so I will look further.
Outside of a hair metal (or maybe prog) context, it’s pretty difficult to list music featuring a virtuoso guitarist and a virtuoso vocalist. Thelma Houston appears on some of Scott Henderson’s albums.
Paul Gilbert is a competent singer. I enjoy his work. I think his voice really suits his songs. I was at one of his clinics once where he said that making his pop style vocals work with his guitar playing was a challenge for him initially.
I share pretty much the same sentiment. Even though Vai’s voice isn’t super great, I vastly prefer Flexable to his later instrumental albums. It seems to have more character. Generally speaking I don’t dig much instrumental guitar music. Big exceptions for Jeff Beck and John McLaughlin though, I can always listen to their instrumental pieces
I would rate edman at freddy mercury level, absolutely. Love them both. I took private voice lessons when i used to sing. Edman has a fantastic range and vocal stylings. Ej not only is untrained but his voice lacks confidence like he has no breath control.
Too many talented pop voices atm to list. Lady gaga for instance has a great voice. Even mediocre pop singers put ej to shame. Mick jagger is 100x the singer that ej is, even tho mick is often not on pitch, Hes got so much more going on. They are like opposites.
At least yjm had the sense to hire great singers.
Power metal bands like Stratovarius, Kai Hansen era Helloween, Rhapsody, Sonata Arctica, and Angra come to mind.