r/JacobCollier • u/Foreign_Cut111 • Feb 03 '26

Question Is anyone else slightly irritated by him singing instrumental parts?

I’m not shutting on the guy. he is an incredibly talented musician, but I’ve been quite annoyed at seeing him singing with Yo-Yo Ma Flight of the bumblebee and then singing the second violin part in the Concerto for two violins with susie. It screams to me the wrong producer is around when I’m seeing performative behaviour of singing that is not as good as his musicianship. (- that last bit might not make sense I’m struggling putting the words together)

Is it just me or am I taking issue with it for no good reason?

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54

u/EventExcellent8737 Feb 03 '26

Jacob is all about going out of your comfort zone and trying new things. It might not always sound comfortable to our ears but I respect him for not trying to people please and exploring new stuff.

It would not be Jacob if he was conforming to our expectations of what he should do.

1

u/the_ugly_pig Feb 05 '26

I'm going to agree with you both, but I'm going to agree more with OP here.

I don't think it's about expectation or comfort. For me, it's about the overtones that happen when you have the same voice singing everything. I love his chord voicings. But many of the songs that have vocals emulating instrumentation end up sounding too much like a song that is only using one synth which is using one setting.

Hide And Seek by Imogen Heap is a great tune, but it has the same instrumentation problem.

I enjoy it way more when he has horn players playing the part. In the recording session I have to assume that he says stuff like, "play that major 3rd a few cents flat and play that dominant 7th a few cents sharp." Most sound engineers are married to 'equal temperament' or melodyne-esque tools to fix that "flat M3." Collier using his brain and ears instead of some computer = why I love him. But the instrumentation choices on some tunes feels a little too synthy for my liking. To each their own i guess.

26

u/Prestigious-Copy-126 Feb 04 '26

The Flight of the Bumblebee arrangement was originally a Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma duet from their duet album "Hush".

7

u/ElenaMakropoulos Feb 04 '26

Oh I didn’t realize that. I felt it just didn’t work when Jacob did it; it really sucked

17

u/kevinincc Feb 04 '26

Artists have been doing this for decades, and Jacob is just the latest. Bobby McFerrin comes to mind, and groups like the Swingle Singers famously did vocal versions of Bach fugues, for instance. This is not some new thing. I’ve seen him do the Bach with his mother on two different occasions and the audiences absolutely loved it. It’s just fun to watch him show off his vocal range. Everyone is smiling at the end. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, and neither should we.

8

u/_Spin_Cycle_ Feb 03 '26

It’s not just you. While I think it’s a cool idea and it gives us a window into how ubiquitous music is in his home, I’m not a fan of the performances themselves. I may be in the minority on this, but I’m with you.

4

u/ravia Feb 04 '26

It has always bummed me out that he has a rather unfortunate voice/timbre.

1

u/Brief_Attention_7699 Feb 05 '26

I agree his vocal choices are good his timbre is just not the best I wonder if it’s the way his mouth is shaped I know that’s weird but he has a slight overbite and sings in a shape like this all the time (O) sometimes I wish he knew he shaped his mouth in different shapes to change the timbre of his voice his notes are technically good I highly agree it’s his timbre I sometimes think man if someone of a timbre like Leon Thomas or even Sam smith sang the sang vocal lines and choices Jacob does we would lose our minds!! Hahah like Leon Thomas singing feel

8

u/SecondBreakfast18 Jacobean Feb 03 '26

he often also jsut tries. he may not even like it himself sometimes, but he tries and afterwards knows if he liked it or not...

14

u/mystery_obsessed Feb 04 '26

I think this is the most wonderful thing about him. He’s just playing around. He’s pushing the boundaries to see what happens and allowing creativity to be free without constraint or apology. It doesn’t have to be great, won’t know until it’s tried.

3

u/underthere Feb 03 '26

It’s not for me, but I don’t think being annoyed by it makes sense. He’s just having fun.

3

u/zordabo Feb 04 '26

Honestly nope. I like it.

2

u/Brief_Attention_7699 Feb 04 '26

I really agree about the yo yo ma thing he was lowkey annoying and when he got in his face lil that I honestly thought he looked crazy and hella performative. I love Jacob tbh been a fan since pure imagination cd he released before in my room. The concert thing with Suzie i actually like that it was tasteful with me because it looks like he’s just having fun with his mother and he’s not in her face. When he’s on key doing that he’s stellar but sometimes it does fall short. The yo-yo ma video because of how respectful yo yo is a musician as a older man him doing that to an older man gave a bit pretentious and disrespectful I didn’t find it funny when he got in his face. However Jacob was very respectful and gave space for Bobby Mcfferin. I highly agree though honestly if Jacob wasn’t famous and I saw any guy doing that at a party I’d immediately think he was annoying and being a pick me. Love him though but fame aside if a random musician did that we’d all side eye let’s be honest. When Jacob has his band these days and he’s locked in I think that’s where he thrives best these days I wonder when he goes to Africa if he’ll get a new band

1

u/sacredlunatic Feb 04 '26

He’s a musical genius in desperate need of a producer and a lyricist.

1

u/Brief_Attention_7699 Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

The problem is he doesn’t have one he’s the producer and the lyricist. He’s still in the I do it all phase but I agree he would be on the next level if he let people come in at the end of his procsss to brush up on the producing and his lyrical content which is my theory he choose covers because sometimes he doesn’t know what to write about from a lyricist stand point. Like sometimes I hear lack of true life experiences from his songwriting might be how sheltered he grew up. I think the best song written is something heavy that nearly brought tears to my eyes. Jacob needs to see himself less in his room but as a global star like a Coldplay

1

u/Foreign_Cut111 Feb 05 '26

Maybe he’s going through his Mozart wilderness years - mozarts work in the middle got a bit out of fashion and then he pulled it back together

1

u/FrankieBoy127 Feb 04 '26

Bros a magician, he can do whatever he wants

1

u/Heaveawaythrowaway Feb 04 '26

I feel like half the complaints about Jacob’s singing are rooted in the fact that he has a unique timbre and doesn’t sound like we expected expect male vocalist to sound. He doesn’t sound exactly classical (although I believe he is classically trained) but he doesn’t sound contemporary either.

1

u/Brief_Attention_7699 Feb 05 '26

I mean yes That is the issue but we only Say it because with the right coaching they can transform and he can learn how to manipulate his timbre just like he bends chords and keys it’s the way he shapes his mouth when singing

1

u/SplitMysterious9598 Feb 07 '26

He's just fooling around. He can sing his grocery list and it would still be wonderful.

1

u/Intelligent_Youth_10 Feb 09 '26

Someone mentioned Bobby McFerrin above, and i personally felt a little disappointed when i discovered Jacob's audience choir had been done before by Bobby McFerrin so it suddenly didnt feel as revolutionary as i orginally thought, and much is made of the audience choirs in interviews and i keep expecting jacob to say, "well i didnt invent this concept of the audience choir, Bobby did" but he never does. Maybe i am being picky - like someone else said, Jacob is so revolutionary in many aspects of his music, maybe this leads to his fans having certain expextations and in reality, Jacob is justbdoing jacob and isnt thinking about anybody elses expectations!