| 1 | %%Image chosen via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions102 |
| 2 | %%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1452266899092104700 |
| 3 | %%Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | [[quoteright:276:[[Webcomic/{{XKCD}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1d2adb7b_3251_41b5_9ca4_d53dfb9a22fd.png]]]] |
| 6 | [[caption-width-right:276:[-[[AltText To me]], trying to understand song lyrics feels like when I see text in a dream but [[SelfDemonstratingArticle it𝔰 hอᵣd t₀ ᵣeₐd aกd 𝒾 canٖt fཱྀcu༧༦࿐༄]]-]]] |
| 7 | |
| 8 | ->''It's unintelligible\ |
| 9 | I just can't get it through my skull\ |
| 10 | It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss ([[EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped ???]])\ |
| 11 | With all these marbles in my mouth'' |
| 12 | -->-- '''Music/WeirdAlYankovic''', ''[[Music/OffTheDeepEnd Smells Like Nirvana]]'' |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Some songs feature lyrics that appear to be complete gibberish. The listener might sometimes be able to hazard a guess at what's being sung, [[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein but such a guess is overwhelmingly unlikely to be anywhere near the mark.]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Distinguished from a {{Mondegreen}} by the fact that a Mondegreen tends to be sung relatively clearly, but with the listener perceiving word breaks in the wrong place. And distinguished from WordSaladLyrics because that one features actual words, only not in a way it makes much sense. Often caused by the PerishingAltRockVoice. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | The difference between this and LyricalShoehorn is that this would be where nonsense isn't intended... it just sort of happened. Maybe the recording sucks. Maybe the singer is singing too fast to be heard clearly. Maybe he was drunk off his ass and thus couldn't pronounce his own ''name'' clearly, much less sing coherently. But there is a difference. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | The TropeNamer is a round from British PanelGame ''Series/NeverMindTheBuzzcocks'', in which contestants are asked to make sense of such lyrics--typically they first come up with a comedic nonsensical version and sing it along, and only then attempt to come up with the actual lyrics. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Compare TheUnintelligible and {{Scatting}}. If the lyrics are unintelligible except for one line or two, then that's SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | ---- |
| 25 | !!Examples: |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[folder:Generic examples]] |
| 30 | * ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'': Bad Girl's theme. "I love you ''something something'' yes no ''something yadda something like this,'' so let's go." |
| 31 | * "Twister," the theme of ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'', is almost incomprehensible thanks to the heavy AutoTune on the vocals. It's barely any better in the various remixes of the song. You might be able to hear the words, but they're so fast-paced and random that you'll never be able to comprehend what they mean. |
| 32 | * Japanese bands who use GratuitousEnglish in their lyrics have a tendency to heavily slur the words into an indecipherable mess. |
| 33 | ** This is usually a consequence of the differences between the two languages. In Japanese, the only consonant that can be followed by another consonant is N, so a lot of extra vowel sounds get added to English words when written in Japanese or pronounced by a Japanese person not fluent in English. |
| 34 | ** There are also certain consonants (like TH and V) that don't exist natively in Japanese, as well as irregular patterns of syllables (consider, e.g., the sequence TA, CHI, TSU, TE, TO, all of which have the same consonant phoneme), forcing many approximations in writing. Singers who know English well enough can bypass these problems if the lyrics weren't written to Japanese phonology. |
| 35 | * Most BlackMetal is notorious for this. Emperor's early albums are one of the worst. Even with the lyrics, you cannot make out more than four words in a whole song. |
| 36 | ** Gorgoroth is by far the worst offender because they prefer their lyrics to remain unintelligible; they go so far as to instantly sue anyone who dares to post their lyrics online. |
| 37 | ** It's perhaps fair to say that most extreme metal bands — and particularly those who have vocalists who primarily scream, bellow, or growl their vocals — fall into the category of indecipherable. A good example would be the {{Djent}} band Meshuggah, whose lyrics usually deal with complex metaphysical and spiritual themes yet are rendered almost completely unintelligible by frontman Jens Kidman's brutal, Dalek-like shout. |
| 38 | ** Applies to DeathMetal as a whole, too, especially with brutal and slam death metal. |
| 39 | ** Some grindcore bands decide that since no one will be able to understand their lyrics, they wouldn't bother writing them and just growl randomly into the mic. |
| 40 | * SymphonicMetal listeners often find it difficult to understand the lyrics without a sheet, due to the operatic style favored by many of the genre's vocalists. It doesn't help that the lyrics tend to either [[HeavyMithril feature fantastical themes with dense lore-related name-dropping]], be written by lyricists with a dubious grasp of English, or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs feature fantastical themes written by lyricists with a dubious grasp of English]]. All of that + operatic style + the very thick accents of many vocalists in the genre = good luck understanding the lyrics. Unsurprisingly, {{mondegreen}}s are common, with some being notable enough to become in-jokes among fans. |
| 41 | -->'''[[Music/{{Nightwish|Band}} HAMSTER! A DENTIST! HARD PORN! STEVEN SEAGAL!]][[note]]"Master! Apprentice! Heartborn! Seventh Seeker!" from "Wishmaster"[[/note]] |
| 42 | * The opening theme to the TV series ''Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete'' is notorious for its "unknown line", the third line of the title song "Hey, Sandy", which for years remained a mystery to fans. Recent sources have begun speculating anew as to the exact wording of the line; however, no confirmation has been forthcoming from the artist as of yet. |
| 43 | * ''Anime/YuriOnIce'': "In Regards To Love: Agape" is Yurio's short program's song. It has an angelic voice chanting during the song, but it's difficult to understand what is being sung or even in what language it is. [[http://klass1196.tumblr.com/post/154751892262/look-what-came-in-the-mail-today-and-we-finally The official release of the soundtrack]] reveals that the lyrics are in Latin. |
| 44 | * Dancehall reggae is notorious for this. |
| 45 | ** Parodied in ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' when Will is singing along to a song by Shabba: |
| 46 | -->SHABBA himmitihommmtishimmitihommitisee SHABBA! |
| 47 | ** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the soca song "Ragga Ragga", where the singer likes dancehall and wants to try singing it, but the lyrics all sound like "Raggaraggaraggaraggaraggaragga..." to him. |
| 48 | ** This may also be due to differences in dialect. Most dancehall music is made by West Indians, who usually speak their own creole. As a result, the song may be completely understandable to West Indians but not anyone else. |
| 49 | ** The dancehall songs that don't fall into this trope often fall into SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein, with a memorable chorus but indecipherable verses. |
| 50 | ** Also parodied in the reggaeton song Chacarron Macarron, the title being the only recognizable words. |
| 51 | * OminousLatinChanting can often fall to this, especially if this is present in trailer music. |
| 52 | * The opening music to the first ''VideoGame/RuneFactory'' game is nearly indecipherable. Even if you try to figure out what the lyrics are, they still don't make any sense. |
| 53 | * ''VideoGame/Persona4'' and ''VideoGame/Persona3'' music is in English, but you are forgiven for not knowing this. Even if you look up the lyrics, it's still hard to tell what they're saying. Same with the major boss theme and the "fierce battle" theme in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne''. |
| 54 | * The lyrics to the theme from ''Series/TheState'' seem to consist of [[{{Scatting}} "na na na na"]] and unintelligible screaming. However, once you learn that the song is officially named "Boys And Girls Action", it becomes apparent that what's actually being screamed is "Boys and girls! Action! Action!". It's also more intelligible in an alternate version heard on some of the menus on the DVD of the series since the lyrics are being yelled by children instead. |
| 55 | * Most of Music/FerreGrignard's lyrics are so hard to make out even his records sleeves have given up. "On My Dying Bed" is a great example of this, as is his international hit "Ring, Ring". It's probably the fact he's Belgian singing English and stoned at the same time that causes this. At least he hasn't got Music/BobDylan's horrible voice. |
| 56 | * Most [[{{Industrial}} Terror-EBM/Aggrotech/Hellektro]] songs, due to using harsh guttural vocals. |
| 57 | * Early HardcoreTechno used to feature unintelligible lyrics -- mostly frantic, excited, sped-up verses that were sung way too fast and slurred to be understood. The few times the lyrics were actually parsable, their meaning sometimes turned out to be gibberish too: for example, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJBRbT4dNtM "Blood of an English Muffin"]]. |
| 58 | * "Lookalike" from ''Anime/SonicTheHedgehogTheMovie''. It doesn't help that most of the lyrics make little sense. |
| 59 | * Music/RichardCheese typically takes the gibberish out of the songs he covers but his version of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XeT4MFPDg8 Lollipop]]" by Lil' Wayne is this as a TakeThat, with only three words being comprehensible. |
| 60 | * Music/EveryoneKnowsThat has such bad quality, nobody can tell what the real lyrics are. |
| 61 | * "Sure Thing" from Music/StGermain's ''Music/{{Tourist}}'' makes use of a Music/JohnLeeHooker sample, but it's quite difficult to make out what the man is mumbling half of the time. We can make out: "It's so hard, morning, droning, to you-ou, and that ain't right". |
| 62 | * Good luck trying to understand the lyrics of the song ''Calabria'' by Enur without looking at the lyrics. |
| 63 | * ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' has the Tomato Mart jingle[[note]]"Anata no conveni Tomato Maato!", lit., "Your convenience store Tomato Mart"[[/note]], which especially applies for those not familiar with Japanese. |
| 64 | * Music/ViennaTeng: "In The 99". The verses are sung so fast that they're hard to understand without lyric sheets, and the backing doesn't help either. |
| 65 | * Guren no Yumiya, the theme song to ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''. The first lyric of the MemeticMutation theme song to most is either "Yipee, a Datsun, yabeedee ''YEAH!''" or complete gibberish. (It's only made worse by the fact that it's actually GratuitousGerman, rather than the GratuitousEnglish a casual listener might expect.) |
| 66 | * "What's Up People", the second theme to ''Manga/DeathNote''. |
| 67 | * The [[MachineMonotone robotic vocals]] in Dastrix's "Dude in the Moon" are mostly unintelligible, with the TitleDrop and [[SingerNamedrop Band Namedrop]] being the only decipherable lyrics. |
| 68 | * "Charlotte's Thong" by Connan Mockasin - official lyrics were never released, and the artist himself supposedly said the vocals were in-studio {{improv}}, so portions of the lyrics might just be gently murmured {{scatting}} anyway. Fan transcriptions [[EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped tend to throw up their hands when it comes to certain passages]], leading to "lyrics" that read like: |
| 69 | -->It's a man and his manners |
| 70 | -->A work and a force that you blame it on |
| 71 | -->[?] |
| 72 | -->There's a thong [?] |
| 73 | -->[?] |
| 74 | -->Wrong, there's a thong [?] |
| 75 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'''s theme for Titan, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WR1-pds8qM Under the Weight]]", ''supposedly'' starts out with "Bow down overdweller!/Bow down overdweller!/Bow down overdweller!/Titan!", but good luck hearing anything intelligible besides "TIIITAAAAN!!"—a standard the rest of the song is more than happy to live up to. The lyrics are so infamously inscrutable that the devteam had to put out a [[https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/blog/000567.html partial lyrics sheet]] to set the record straight. |
| 76 | * Parodied on the panel show ''Series/ShootingStars'' with the "Club Singer" round. Vic Reeves would be asked to perform a song in the style of a club singer, which in reality was just Reeves singing in complete gibberish. After a guess was made, Reeves would reveal how the song "should" have sounded, which would just be the same nonsense song but using ''different'' gibberish. |
| 77 | [[/folder]] |
| 78 | |
| 79 | [[folder:Artists / Bands]] |
| 80 | %%* The majority of Music/NewKingdom's lyrics are this. |
| 81 | * The obvious example is "Louie Louie", as performed by the Kingsmen in 1963. The song was a radio hit with a totally indecipherable slur of syllables, and some of the song's popularity came from public discussion of what the song was about. As rumors flew wildly, the song even caught the attention of the FBI, which investigated the song, believing that a song slurred so seriously must contain obscenity or pro-drug propaganda. The FBI agents were never able to decipher the song's mushy audio, and charges were dropped. The singer admitted he was so drunk that he couldn't remember exactly what he did sing at the time. (Other sources say that he had vocal strain that day, and was a little far from the mic due to its being so high.) Famously, ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' spoofed this during the 1988 election with an ad by the Meadowcrats (the political party formed by the main characters) which tried to use the candidates' respective interpretations of the lyrics to show their character. |
| 82 | * Music/{{Can}} during the Damo Suzuki years. Very much intentional - Damo sang whichever syllables he felt like singing at any given moment, regardless of whether they formed words or were clearly articulated. ("Did anybody see the snowman? Stannah wit deleeeeaux.") |
| 83 | * Snow's "Informer", particularly the chorus. At one point, MTV actually ran the video for it with subtitles. According to British series ''Series/NeverMindTheBuzzcocks'' (see above), it's about him opening a bed shop using cheap "leaky boom-boom down" to stuff the pillows with. |
| 84 | * So much of this in Music/{{Fugazi}} whenever Guy Picciotto is on vocals. Ian [=MacKaye=] just blares the words in the listener's ears, but it seems that Guy Picciotto has a strange way of pronouncing things when singing, and it often makes the lyrics a jumbled mess, when in fact, they are very poetic in nature. It feels very much like he puts his AccentUponTheWrongSyllable. |
| 85 | * Much of Music/{{Nightwish|Band}}'s music before "Dark Passion Play". Special mention should go to the last part of the song "Fantasmic". Then again, even with the lyrics next to you, you don't have a clue what it all actually means. It's one long {{nerdgasm}} about the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WVP3JUCwGQ No, really]]. |
| 86 | * Anything by the Music/{{Cocteau Twins}}. Except on ''Four-Calendar Cafe'', on which Elizabeth Fraser was uncharacteristically comprehensible for long stretches. Fandom was split on the merits of this. |
| 87 | * "Forgot You Now" by Music/MaryAndTheBlackLamb has a few parts sung in a static sounding way with a crazy guitar solo playing on top of it. Some of it can be understood but the last line is very hard to pick out. |
| 88 | * Music/AnalCunt's lead, the late Seth Putnam, sung in a screechy voice. You can make out the words, but only under the right conditions or if you have a really good ear. |
| 89 | * "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Music/{{Nirvana}}, as with most of their songs. "Tourette's" doesn't even have lyrics, just [[SingingSimlish gibberish screaming]]. Parodied in "Smells Like Nirvana" by Music/WeirdAlYankovic. See the quote. Reportedly, when Al asked Kurt Cobain for permission to do the parody, Cobain asked "It's not going to be about food, is it?" and Al responded "No, it'll be about how no one can understand your lyrics." That was what really sold Kurt on it. A good example is the ongoing confusion as to what exactly the chorus of the outtake "Token Eastern Song" is - the main contenders are "hold it in your gut" and "born in a junkyard" (it was sometimes bootlegged under the latter title). Even on the clearer recording used for the ''With The Lights Out'' box set, that section remains pretty unintelligible. |
| 90 | * Music/TheVines has Craig Nicholls, who in the band's heyday was infamously prone to {{Freak Out}}s on stage that inevitably lead to mush-mouth vocals. On record, he's a little more SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein. |
| 91 | * As ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwAhuEVuM7c pointed out]], several Music/{{Sting}} songs are incomprehensible except for a few words. |
| 92 | * There is the scene in the movie ''Film/JumpinJackFlash'' when Creator/WhoopiGoldberg's character, Terry, is trying to decipher the lyrics of the title track by listening to the song over and over again. |
| 93 | * Many Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}' songs. Music/MickJagger often intentionally slurred certain lyrics so nobody would be able to tell how dirty they were. |
| 94 | * Music/{{Interpol}} are notorious for this. The fact that the band have never issued official lyrics either on their website or their album sleeves only makes it worse. |
| 95 | * Michael Stipe of Music/{{REM}} had a reputation for this as well (particularly on the band's earlier albums), as his somewhat quieter vocals were wedded to often fragmentary and elliptical lyrics. And then the loud, fast, overlapped vocals of "Star 69" on the ''Monster'' album was an entirely new way of being unintelligible. (though that came after "It's the End of the World as We Know It", where the random words sung very fast [[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein inspired a related trope]]) Lampshaded with one press advertising campaign for ''Music/AutomaticForThePeople'', which had a series of speculations as to what the single-line chorus of "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" actually was. |
| 96 | * Many Music/SystemOfADown songs. The opening riff of "F the System" is a rapid-fire string of syllables that may or may not mean something. The most well-known example is probably [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unugmLvFeCE Chop Suey]] ("WAKE UP! grababrushandputalittle MAKEUP hidethescarstofadeawaythe SHAKEUP"). |
| 97 | * The choir in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrmA-nZjTh8 Blue]]" from ''Anime/CowboyBebop''. Music/YokoKanno is well know for using [[WordSalad utter nonsense phrases]] and even [[SpeakingSimlish making things up entirely]], more interested in RuleOfCool sound than actual comprehensible words most of the time. |
| 98 | * The song "Cyberbird" for ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex''. If you open up the booklet for the OST, you'll find the lyrics in both Japanese and English. Whatever language the song is being sung in, it definitely isn't either of those. |
| 99 | * "Bennie and the Jets", particularly the part Music/EltonJohn goes falsetto. Parodied in a Music/BeastieBoys cover, where Mike D intentionally sings the song in Elton-ish gibberish. Also parodied in the film ''Film/TwentySevenDresses'' where the drunk protagonist sings the chorus wrongly, in front of an audience. |
| 100 | * "Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Music/{{Iron Butterfly|Band}}. [[FunetikAksent Its intended title]] was "In the Garden of Eden." |
| 101 | --->'''[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Reverend Lovejoy]]''': Wait a minute... this sounds like rock and/or roll. |
| 102 | * Music/MarilynManson's "The Beautiful People" from ''Music/AntichristSuperstar''. The verses at least, given that in the chorus the lyrics are [[MetalScream yelled]] and easier to understand. |
| 103 | * Almost all of Music/{{Mudvayne}}'s songs are hard to understand. "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIqbdnaPcT8 Dig]]" is the worst offender here. |
| 104 | * "Song 2" by Music/{{Blur}}. Some of the blame for this can be pinned on creative use of AccentUponTheWrongSyllable ("well I feel hea-VY me-TALL"), but not all of it. |
| 105 | * Several 2D-heavy {{Music/Gorillaz}} songs - "El Manana" for instance. Even the lyric videos for their ''Song Machine''-era music poke a bit of fun at this tendency, by occasionally adding in lyrics that are blatantly incorrect, but there's just enough room to wonder if they just ''might'' actually be accurate. |
| 106 | * Everything by Music/JoeCocker, especially "Feelin' Alright". [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] hilariously in [[http://jeffpicard.com/blog/?p=1646 this video]], "captioned for the clear-headed". |
| 107 | * Almost any Music/{{Hanson}} song, at least the ones with Taylor on lead vocals; "Mmm Bop" is only the most famous example. One of the infamous leaked demos features Taylor singing gibberish in place of the unfinished lyrics; it sounds nearly the same as any other Hanson song. |
| 108 | * Music/KateBush's "Leave It Open", in which the vocals are distorted to the point of incomprehensibility because Kate played the original recording backwards, did her best to imitate the sounds she heard, and then played the resulting recording backwards for the final song. |
| 109 | * Some of the songs on Music/PearlJam's album ''{{Music/Ten|PearlJamAlbum}}''. The ''Ten'' outtake "Yellow Ledbetter" too, making for an amusing Misheard Lyrics [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLd22ha_-VU video]]. |
| 110 | * There's various overlapping chants towards the end of "I Am the Walrus" by Music/TheBeatles from ''Music/MagicalMysteryTour''. A popular interpretation of one of the more audible ones is "everybody smoke pot!", which is close enough since it's actually "Everybody's got one, got one, got one" (the other one is "Oompah oompah stick it up your jumper"). |
| 111 | * "Güero Canelo" by Music/{{Calexico}}. |
| 112 | * "Carousel of Progress" by Music/JoyElectric. |
| 113 | * El Mudo's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l12Csc_lW0Q Chacarron Macarron]]. |
| 114 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEulQJkc9UE "murmur twins"]] from ''[[VideoGame/{{Beatmania}} beatmania IIDX]]''. There's also "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttApRGnRO74 Little Little Princess]]". It's not clear, other than a few words here and there, that it was even in ''English''. |
| 115 | * The closing music to ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati''. |
| 116 | * "Kiss Kicker '99" by The Fontanelles, as performed by the band itself in ''Film/{{Hobgoblins}}''. |
| 117 | * The entire ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DCD67CE98D531DCE&search_query=coraline soundtrack]] is made of these. |
| 118 | * Music/{{Muse}}: |
| 119 | ** "Micro Cuts". This song is sung so insanely high (even by Matt Bellamy's standards!), that it's near impossible to tell what he's saying the first time through. |
| 120 | ** Also, the outro to "Plug In Baby" is so shrill and poorly pronounced that Matt doesn't even bother to sing it when playing this song live, making strange screeching noises or even just ignoring it at all (and maybe throwing himself on Dom's drums or whatever). |
| 121 | ** Also "Exogenesis: Symphony Part I (Overture)". |
| 122 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yaYO0_NXhc Execution Commentary]] from the Plug in Baby EP. Just... listen to it. If you check any official page for lyrics, chances are it'll read [[spoiler: (Indecipherable screaming)]]. |
| 123 | * "One Day" by Music/HavalinaRailCo is so bad that even the band doesn't know the lyrics--the album liner notes read: "We only know the chorus... Special Havalina prize if you can figure out the rest of the lyrics and hand deliver them to Mark Cole." Reportedly, the prize was never claimed. |
| 124 | * For a more obscure example, check out "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP0rxQ7peL0 Zombie]]" by Methusalem. Good luck trying to decipher the other lyrics besides the song title. |
| 125 | * Subverted by Music/SigurRos, since some of their lyrics are in a made-up language called "Vonlenska" (an Icelandic word, rough translation is "Hopelandic") , although they also sing some songs in Icelandic. |
| 126 | * Karl Jenkins' ''Adiemus'' projects use the human voice more as an instrument -- none of the lyrics mean anything in any real language. |
| 127 | * Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance (and solo) fame also sings in a made-up language that has no "real" meaning. |
| 128 | * Music/{{Enya}} also announced an album with a similar concept. Though it's worth noting that Enya's lyrics are already pretty indecipherable when she sings in ''English''. |
| 129 | * Music/LambOfGod falls victim to this due to the style of their singer Randy Blythe. If you sit down with the lyrics and read them as you listen to the song, you can get 99% of it (and remember it), with the notable exception of their first record ''Burn The Priest'', where it is all but impossible to understand a single thing that comes out of Randy's mouth. There are also some songs from "New American Gospel"; a radio station even had a competition where the fans had to try and decipher the lyrics to the song "Black Label" |
| 130 | * If you can understand the lyrics to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyITEQDiJq4 this]] song (starting at 1:10) from the ''VideoGame/{{Einhander}}'' OST, you have a better ear than many. Not that some haven't [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3436nmuU8ho tried;]] one finally [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_a8zstttak worked it out]]. |
| 131 | * Fair To Midland is sometimes impossible to understand. A few good examples would be [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjW-j2PAv-I this]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-3-t1Ypayo this]]. Compounded by their habit of writing WordSaladLyrics. |
| 132 | * Music/{{Tool}} occasionally falls under this, though a good ear eventually picks the words out. |
| 133 | * The cover version of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEt8xJ_m4QM "Hot Limit"]] by John Desire, which can be found in ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution 5th Mix''. It was a Japanese song by T.M.Revolution, [[TranslatedCoverVersion translated into English]] and sung by an Italian {{Eurobeat}} group trying to sound like they're American. |
| 134 | * "1979" from ''Music/MellonCollieAndTheInfiniteSadness'' by Music/TheSmashingPumpkins has a few intelligible sentences where it counts, but most of the song is a dreamy slur. |
| 135 | * The first Music/MeatPuppets album, from when they were more of a noisy hardcore band, was consistently unintelligible even for HardcorePunk: Curt Kirkwood seemed to be imitating the frequently slurred vocals of Music/TheGerms' Darby Crash, only taking it even further; you frequently couldn't tell there were any ''consonants'' in the songs, let alone words. Interestingly, if you find the official lyrics for the album, it was full of very silly and tongue-in-cheek songs about mundane topics like cats ("Litter Box"), playing concerts in front of a rowdy audience ("Saturday Morning"), and spending all of one's money on marijuana ("Blue Green God"), as opposed to the WordSaladLyrics they started using once you ''could'' understand them. |
| 136 | * Part of the chorus of Music/SmileEmptySoul's "Bottom of a Bottle". The specific part is "I do it for the drugs. I do it just to feel like ahh ahh ahhhhahhh (it's supposedly "I do it just to feel a-liii-ive", but it's hard to tell)." Note to any bands here: when singing a song about drugs it ISN'T required to be under the influence of those drugs. |
| 137 | * Music/FallOutBoy: |
| 138 | ** Vocalist Patrick Stump is well known for his...lack of enunciation. The first line of the chorus of "Sugar, We're Going Down" has been translated to "We're going down tuuu in a luleelurah"[[note]]We're going down, down in an earlier round[[/note]], "Dance Dance" has become "Ted's Pants", and "This Ain't a Scene (It's a Arms Race)" apparently has the line "I'm a little man, and I'm also evil and also into cats"[[note]]Actually "I'm a leading man, and the lies I weave are oh so intricate"[[/note]]. |
| 139 | ** The last line of "Sugar We're Going Down"'s chorus sounds like it's not even in any language humans speak; for all anyone can tell by listening to it, it's "A lewded gah complex caught in the pudding." Yes, it does sound like he is singing about pudding.[[note]]The real lyric is "A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it"[[/note]] |
| 140 | * Music/MyBloodyValentine on their second album, ''Loveless''. Their vocals were sunken into the rest of the music and not only is it hard to hear the words, it's damn near impossible to hear the vocals themselves in some places. |
| 141 | * Most vocals in spacesynth are this, if the song has vocals at all. Laserdance's "Digital Dream" is one of the genre's few songs to have at least partially comprehensible lyrics. |
| 142 | * An excerpt from a recent Bill Simmons article (a running diary of [[ProfessionalWrestling Wrestlemania XXVI]]) demonstrates this well: |
| 143 | -->'''0:01:''' For our first match, tag-team championship belts are on the line: R-Truth (a rapper/wrestler) and John Morrison (an entertaining Jim Morrison ripoff) challenging the champs, The Big Show and The Miz (carrying two belts apiece, for some reason). R-Truth came out prancing and singing his hit song, "What's Up?" The lyrics go like this: "Shshshn cnbcnsbdb fhdehsh fhdhs dhdhan dbdjdndjd dbdbdbdbdb shshsnhs ffrhdhhjs xbcxbbffgfhhj WHAT'S UP? WHAT'S UP? WHAT'S UP? WHAT'S UP?" I don't think he wrote that one with Burt Bacharach and Carly Simon. |
| 144 | * "Ball of Ballos", from the ''VideoGame/CaveStory [[http://kwixmusic.com/cavestory/ Remix Project]]''. The remixer, Tackle, [[http://csremixproject.myfastforum.org/sutra1133.php&highlight=#1133 explained]] that the track is a medley of the ''Cave Story'' tune "Running Hell", and Music/{{Opeth}}'s "Closure". After recording it, he wasn't happy with how his vocals turned out, so he manipulated them electronically and mixed them real low in the final version, so they wouldn't sound as bad. |
| 145 | * Very common with Music/{{Radiohead}}, due to both how Thom Yorke sings and a few songs where they deliberately make it hard to discern ("Kid A" is sang into a vocoder, half of "Like Spinning Plates" is played backwards, and "Daydreaming", has distorted, backmasked voices in the ending). |
| 146 | * Any song by Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge that former bassist Nick Oliveri [[CarefulWithThatAxe "sang".]] |
| 147 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDl_s6GAzt4 Emptiness and]] from ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou''. Really, the only thing you can understand ''in the entire song'' are the words "emptiness and". And even then, you can't tell if she's saying that or "happiness and". |
| 148 | * Mark E. Smith of Music/{{The Fall|Band}} has made a career out of notoriously indecipherable wordplay (accompanied by equally inscrutable music). |
| 149 | * Music/SeanPaul's thick Jamaican accent is tough enough to understand when he's talking; it's almost impossible to work out what he's singing in "Temperature" [[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein aside from 'love' and 'temperature'.]] |
| 150 | * "His Loyal Love" by Music/WovenHand. |
| 151 | * Shudder To Think's "Chakka" - no one can really agree on much of anything beyond "I bet you wanted to get me / you're waiting to wreck me / I'll manage to go" and a possible title drop. It isn't helped by the fact that the lyrics to that particular song aren't printed in the album's booklet and Craig Wedren ''himself'' no longer remembers what the lyrics are. |
| 152 | * A lot of lines from Asobi Seksu's songs are hard to make out, but 'Me & Mary' is 95% incomprehensible. |
| 153 | * Anaal Nathrakh are a good example. Not only does their singer scream and growl unintelligibly most of the time, but they don't even publish their lyrics! When he does sing normally, though, it's pretty easy to figure out. |
| 154 | * Most of The Black Dahlia Murder's first two albums "Unhallowed" and "Miasma" are impossible to understand without reading along to the lyrics. The higher vocals are almost indecipherable, while some of the low ones can be figured out after a few listens. |
| 155 | * [[WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}} Dethklok]] frontman Nathan Explosion [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this hilariously: |
| 156 | --> '''Pickles:''' We got any songs with "destiny" in the title?\ |
| 157 | '''Nathan:''' Um, no, but I could stick it in. Doesn't matter. No one can understand what I'm saying, anyway. |
| 158 | * Many songs from Creator/CirqueDuSoleil productions (especially those from TheNineties) are sung in the indecipherable faux-language of "[[SpeakingSimlish Cirquish]]". |
| 159 | * Music/{{Dragonforce}}, Dragonforce, [[RuleOfThree Dragonforce]]. It's fairly easy to guess (at least vaguely) what any given song is about, though, since most of the band's music is about fire, war, and dragons. The bridges in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ts9b4QI-mY "Starfire"]] deserve special mention here. |
| 160 | --> And we're standing on the ground, final dewy fun, looking for a manatee! |
| 161 | * The [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous [insert language here] chanting]] in the songs in ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' can make some versions nigh incomprehensible. |
| 162 | * The Nightcrawler's "Push the Feeling On" (the dub mix and subsequent remixes): "Ir in their lives again ir in their li to pull us" ad nauseam. |
| 163 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjOqwDAYaig "CLEVER SLEAZOID"]] and [[http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/direngrey/childprey.html "CHILD PREY"]] by Music/DirEnGrey are three-minute streams of GratuitousEnglish. The listener can be forgiven for not realizing either song contains actual words in any language. Popular reinterpretations of the lyrics include "I heard the sound of all the [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Chanseys]]" and "Let's get a SMOOTHAY." |
| 164 | * Music/TheDingees: "Ronnie Raygun" and "Conspiracy Against the Youth" from ''The Crucial Conspiracy'', and "Capital Imperial" from ''The Rebel Soul Sound System''. The singers are hard enough to understand when they're singing clearly, but on these lo-fi hardcore punk tracks, it's well-nigh impossible to make out anything. |
| 165 | * Music/Sum41 is this with their short, fast songs. The most egregious example is 'Never Wake Up', in which the only intelligible line is the TitleDrop. Another example is the bridge from 'Motivation', in which Deryck sings a mouthful of words at an [[MotorMouth insane speed,]] which ends up sounding like "[=LeaLeavingfriendsjustbecomeatrendjanamsnsndnIcan'tpretend=], afraidofbeingthisway, it'snotthrsamebutwho'stoblameforallthe STUPID THINGS I NEVER SAID!" Have fun singing that on VideoGame/GuitarHero. |
| 166 | * Music/RandyNewman's singing style, and his habit of composing enjambment in his lyrics, frequently makes him an example of this trope. |
| 167 | * Music/ESPosthumus has their lyrics in a fictional Latin derivative. People still try to translate them. |
| 168 | * Music/{{Korn}} has their song "Twist". |
| 169 | * Music/{{Starflyer 59}} has a lot of these, especially in their first couple of albums. |
| 170 | * Lampshaded in Music/FlightOfTheConchords in the song "Leggy Blonde", which even the subtitles cannot decipher: |
| 171 | --> Oh leggy blonde you got it goin' on |
| 172 | --> Wanna see you wearing that thong thong thong |
| 173 | --> See you get it on til the break of dawn |
| 174 | --> mumblemurblemrr panties on |
| 175 | * Not a band, but Dennis Edwards' 1984 song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH3rx8LhrQo "Don't Look Any Further"]] has a chorus that nobody understands and that may not even be in English.: |
| 176 | -->Day o umba day o mambu ji ay o |
| 177 | -->Don't look any further. Don't you look no further |
| 178 | -->Day o umba day o na jam bay um bay o |
| 179 | -->Don't look any further. |
| 180 | * "Bleeding Heart Theory" by Straight Line Stitch has the word "SUFFER!" screamed repeatedly in the chorus, but it sounds for all the world like "SHERBERT! SLOBBER!" if you don't know what it's ''supposed'' to mean. |
| 181 | * Wakusei's cover of [[Music/SurferRosa "Gigantic"]] by Music/ThePixies, owing to the fact that they're a Japanese band who apparently attempted to learn the original's lyrics phonetically. The chorus is much more intelligible than the verses, although they ''do'' consistently pronounce "gigantic" with two hard g's, making it sound like the separate words "gig" and "antic". |
| 182 | * Try understanding the lyrics in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zd6DrceGyI "Ants"]] by Devin Townsend... Good luck. |
| 183 | * Music/TheDecemberists, frequently. The most triumphant example is probably [[http://www.4shared.com/audio/GtQMpnDp/13_-_The_Decemberists_-_The_Pe.html The Perfect Crime #1]], [[WordOfGod said to be]] a consequence of an absinthe binge (if you can tell apart the English and the French, congratulations). It's pretty common in all of their songs, though, thanks to Colin's...''distinctive'' accent. |
| 184 | * Good luck trying to understand more than three words in Music/FooFighters' "White Limo". And its spiritual predecessor, "Weenie Beenie" (which is already in an album chock full of WordSaladLyrics, but like "White Limo" has modulated vocals to top it). |
| 185 | * Most of Music/{{Mew}}'s discography, [[WordOfGod intentionally]] [[MindScrew so.]] |
| 186 | * Most English-speaking Music/{{Versailles}} fans don't realize that 90% of the lyrics to "The Revenant Choir" are in English until it's pointed out to them. Kamijo's pronunciation is ''that bad''. The fact that the song has WordSaladLyrics doesn't help. |
| 187 | * Most of Music/{{Converge}}'s music would fall under this trope. |
| 188 | * A lot of songs by the French band Music/{{Phoenix}} fall under this trope. For some reason (possibly because of his French accent), Thomas Mars just doesn't tend to pronounce a lot of the words very clearly, and it isn't necessarily all of the lyrics that can't be understood. A lot of their songs tend to switch back and forth between words that are actually quite clear, and then phrases that are nearly impossible to understand unless you look up the lyrics. "1901" is a perfect example of this. |
| 189 | * ''Theatre/ForbiddenBroadway'' parodied [=Patti LuPone=]'s performance in ''Theatre/AnythingGoes'', with her sloppy diction making the lyrics increasingly incomprehensible. |
| 190 | * Music/ParovStelar's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moyE-ppadZ4 The Mojo Radio Gang]]" has only one line, repeated over and over, but beyond the words "I gotta..." (or maybe "I got a") it's anyone's guess what the heck is it supposed to be. |
| 191 | * Music/CaravanPalace has plenty of songs where the lyrics are unknown and there's no concrete agreement on what they are. |
| 192 | ** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sBZdSHAIZI Clash]]" is not as bad as other examples, since you can more or less understand about half of the words, but still, good luck trying to comprehend the singers. (The lyrics come from a song called [[http://rock.totaltabs.com/tablature/Brook_Benton/Shadrack_Chord_64674/ Shadrack]], but they're jumbled and garbled.) |
| 193 | ** "Wonderland", in part due to the singer's French accent and some odd wording choices. |
| 194 | * Music/{{Crystal Castles|Band}}, mainly due to the deliberate audio distortion of Alice's vocals. |
| 195 | * Waking the Cadaver's "Chased through the woods by a rapist". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzMgYkBeogc This song about brutally raping a woman]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCBSX0XDSVI somehow gets interpreted as a song about food, of all things.]] The fan-translated lyrics actually fit the vocals better. |
| 196 | * Most of Guitar Wolf's songs, due to Seiji's Japanese accent and screaming vocal style, and the fact that said vocals can get drowned out by very loud distorted guitar. Without looking at a lyric sheet you might think the lyrics have occasional bouts of GratuitousEnglish instead of actually being entirely in English (the most commonly intelligible lyrics are song title drops, "rock n' roll", and [[StudioChatter "One, two, three, four"]]). Their CoverVersion of "Summertime Blues" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLTJAZu70zo received a]] GagSub via Adam Buxton, despite ostensibly retaining the English lyrics of the Eddie Cochran original. |
| 197 | * Darby Crash of Music/TheGerms would fall under this in studio most of the time (not aided at all by terrible production quality), however live - and especially towards the end of his life - he would go onstage completely intoxicated, heavily slurring his words, and sometimes being too wasted to properly finish a show. A good example of this would be their performance in ''Film/TheDeclineOfWesternCivilization''. |
| 198 | * Music/TheJesusLizard, so much so that even the lyrics sheets are sometimes wrong. Just try to figure out what the hell Yow is saying on most of their songs, particularly off their "Down" album. |
| 199 | * Music/TheAgonist, due to the singer's tendency to combine growling vocals with MotorMouth. She is very much aware of this and has stated in interviews that she would enjoy seeing what the "misheard lyrics" videos would be like. |
| 200 | * Desmond Dekker, one of the first internationally popular reggae artists, had a heavy Jamaican accent which made many of his lyrics difficult to understand to non-Jamaicans. The most commonly cited example is his 1969 single "Israelites"; the opening lines became "Get up in de morning, baked beans for breakfast!" and the refrain, "Poor me, Israelites" was often misheard as "Ohh, me ears are alight". An advert for non-dairy spread took advantage of this, claiming the song was about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0zN4nXXvSc Vitalite]] spread. |
| 201 | * Ice MC combines this with MotorMouth. |
| 202 | * Some {{Music/Mogwai}} songs seem to have lyrics. Or at least sounds made using a human mouth. There might be words in there. If you can figure it out there are probably some guys in signal processing research who will pay you a lot of money. |
| 203 | * Whenever Enzo Siffredi puts lyrics in his songs, they end up like this. (Granted, it's hard to tell if the lyrics are even supposed to be Italian or English, but still.) The LoopedLyrics of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgeY-3IsdBE I Don't Care]]", for example, sound mostly like "Why-donk-yoo"--it just might be the TitleDrop, but then again, maybe not. Then there's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwOmtkxPzvw My Blue Ray-Bans]]". |
| 204 | * {{Music/Devotchka}}. Nick Urata's singing style can leave what he's singing hard to understand. It's worse when he sings in another language (mostly Spanish) as his mastery of them is...questionable. They also dip into SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein. |
| 205 | * {{Music/Coldplay}}'s song "Chinese Sleep Chant" (which is a HiddenTrack inside of "Yes") is virtually impossible to discern lyrically. Why? Because it sounds as if it were recorded in a ridiculously long & echoing hall, with the singer at one end, and the recording equipment at the other. The instruments also drown the lyrics out even more. |
| 206 | * Music/MissyElliott's "Work It" has the line "Is it worth it/Let me work it/I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it/[incomprehensible gibberish]". The gibberish is actually the previous line played backward. |
| 207 | * Just try to listen to "Disco Volante", by Mr. Bungle and find the words. Even with the lyrics in hand, they are almost impossible to decipher. Granted, their other albums are also known for unintelligible lyrics, but this one takes the cake. |
| 208 | * Everything on Clap Your Hands Say Yea's "Coming Down" qualifies as this, especially when [[Music/TheNational Matt Berninger comes on]]. Also the ending. "nenenenenennennenenenememehnehnehnehmehnemehIT'S THE WAAAY THAT IT IS STAY RIGHT THERE YOU KNOW I'M COMING DOWN" |
| 209 | * "Good To Know That If I Ever Need Attention All I Have To Do Is Die" by Music/BrandNew. Jesse Lacey sings the chorus in a rapid-fire manner, making the lyrics completely unintelligible unless you already know them. |
| 210 | --> "You constantly make it impossible to make conversation/We're comatose but audible/But I like it the farther I get out" |
| 211 | --> "We pass it up/But it's all on us/For common conversation, it took everything I got/I like it the farther I get out" |
| 212 | * Music/VampireWeekend are known to be mush-mouthed, but especially in "A-Punk" where almost none of the lyrics are comprehensible (and it having WordSaladLyrics certainly doesn't help). |
| 213 | * Music/ArianaGrande [[http://gawker.com/ariana-grande-girl-what-are-you-even-talking-about-1626555476 has been cited for poor enunciation in her singing at times]]. One fan's youtube video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hllUqChyjd0 featuring "more accurate" lyrics to "Break Free"]] includes lines like "I only want to dye a lime / never bite the hand of a broken harp" [[note]] "I only want to die alive, never by the hands of a broken heart[[/note]], and when it comes to the bridge EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped. |
| 214 | * Music/SpawnOfPossession is an amusing example: the indecipherable part actually comes from [[MotorMouth how fast the lyrics are being growled]] than said growls themselves. |
| 215 | * Most of the newer {{AutoTune}} rappers, led by Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan, whose lyrical prowess could easily be mistaken for mumbling at best and pure gibberish at worst. The two's song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGt_JGHYEO4 Lifestyle]] is a prime example of this. |
| 216 | * Most Music/PaleSaints songs are rife with this, particularly on ''The Comforts Of Madness''. Mostly averted on ''Slow Buildings'', however. |
| 217 | * The opening lyric/chorus of "Gold" by Kiiara is indecipherable, with many people assuming that it's backwards (a la Music/MissyElliott), or just straight up gibberish. According to [[http://genius.com/8732076 Rap Genius]] and other sites, it's actually various lyrics from the song cut up and pasted together. |
| 218 | * It depends on the song, but Rusted Root's Michael Glabicki can be difficult to understand. SignatureSong "Send Me On My Way" is rife with unintelligible sections, including at least one lyric that abruptly goes from {{scatting}} to English and back again, said to be a PermanentPlaceholder that was left in because the band felt it fit the mood of the song better than anything else they could come up with: "oomba-see you / oomba-tell you to run". |
| 219 | * Bratisla Boys, a "[[{{Ruritania}} Slovakistanese]]" joke 80's band created by French humorists Youn, Desagnat and Morgaine in the early 2000s, and their nonsensical hit ''Stach Stach''. According to the [[ComicalTranslation translation]], it seems to be a song about wanting to own a fridge… |
| 220 | * Billie Joe's singing on Music/GreenDay albums can be very difficult to understand at times, especially on the earlier albums. When they performed [[Music/{{Insomniac}} "Geek Stink Breath"]] on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', they got away with saying "shit" because [[TheUnintelligible nobody understood what Billie Joe was saying]].[[note]]This was before the song was even released, so it's not like anyone at SNL could have consulted a lyric sheet[[/note]] |
| 221 | * Music/TearsForFears: |
| 222 | ** Most listeners have trouble discerning the backing vocals on "Head over Heels" at the 2:04 mark, so Curt Smith clarified in a [[https://twitter.com/curtsmith/status/1094676509334405120 tweet]] that the verses are: |
| 223 | --->''Nothing ever changes when you're acting your age\ |
| 224 | Nothing gets done when you feel like a baby\ |
| 225 | Nothing ever changes when you're acting your age'' |
| 226 | ** The CarefulWithThatAxe parts at the end of "Sowing the Seeds of Love" can fall into this. Roland Orzabal at one point says "What about the workers?", but it's not printed on the lyrics sheet and isn't easy to make out in the studio version (it's more easily decipherable in some live versions). |
| 227 | ** "Year of the Knife" also contains a similar example: the screamed line after the second instance of "I made my bed on love denied" is "And now I ain't gonna sleep tonight." However, Orzabal's delivery is still difficult to parse even when one knows the words in advance. |
| 228 | ** There are two verses in "Who You Are" which are so distorted that they almost sound like the "wah-wah" noises spoken by the adults in ''Franchise/{{Peanuts}}'' cartoons. |
| 229 | --->''Someone's folding paper planes\ |
| 230 | Someone's on the line again'' |
| 231 | * Music/{{SZA}} is known for this, as like Ariana Grande she doesn't always enunciate when singing. For example the chorus of "All the Stars" is often interpreted as "This may be the night that my dreams might let me know/All the stars are kosher" instead of "All the stars are ''closer''". And that's assuming they're able to understand the first line. |
| 232 | * [[https://patriciataxxon.bandcamp.com/track/sd-bbb "sd_bbb" by Patricia Taxxon,]] best known for an accompanying animation called [[https://youtu.be/v1K4EAXe2oo "EEEAAAOOO"]]: the vocals sound like robotic {{scatting}}, but there are actually lyrics, albeit [[WordSaladLyrics surreal]] and [[SingleStanzaSong repetitive ones]]: |
| 233 | -->Baby blue buildings far above the crystal grove |
| 234 | -->Magenta plated terrace with a table and a stove |
| 235 | -->Guarded golden railing just to frame the pretty stars |
| 236 | -->Fix that old piano and the birds will fall apart |
| 237 | * Averted ''but good'' by Music/NeilYoung. His ''lyrics'' may be strange, but his enunciation is crisp and clear.[[note]]This may be a side effect of what Music/JoniMitchell calls his "Canadian Prairie" accent, similar to hers.[[/note]] The Music/BobDylan 30th Anniversary Concert finale, "My Back Pages", features an assortment of legendary artists, who are all influenced by Bob and trying to mumble -- er, sing -- like him (including Bob Himself); Neil doesn't, and he is the only one you can understand. The only exceptions might be the majority of songs from the album ''Trans'' - six songs on the album had Neil making use of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocoder vocoder]], which could make some of the lyrics difficult to understand without consulting a lyric sheet. |
| 238 | * "[[https://youtu.be/z272PWsraRM In De Ghetto]]" by dancehall house group The Bad Yard Club has comprehensible refrains, but unintelligible MotorMouth toasting for its verses. |
| 239 | * Very often, ''Music/GlassAnimals'', especially on ''Zaba''. |
| 240 | * Music/InfantAnnihilator falls victim to this thanks to frontman Dickie Allen's absolutely ''demonic'' screams and growls. |
| 241 | * Most of Music/TheAngelicProcess' discography is this, especially ''Weighing Souls wih Sand'' |
| 242 | [[/folder]] |
| 243 |
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