Author Topic: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread  (Read 28673 times)

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Offline Cool Chris

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #70 on: November 25, 2021, 08:49:54 PM »
Same here.  I doubt I would have been drawn to DT back in 1993 if not for JLB's voice. 

I know it's cliche by this point, but:

Me listening to the first couple minutes of Pull Me Under the first time in 1993 "Cool instrumentation, sounds like this song is building up to something special, wonder where it's going from here...."
Me listening to the Pull Me Under once James hits the Sparrows Fly line "OMG THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING I HAVE EVER HEARD!
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Offline Madman Shepherd

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #71 on: November 26, 2021, 10:55:46 AM »
To those still unsure about James, just imagine what would've happened if DT chose John Arch (who did audition for them) instead... yikes! :eek

Arch is probably the no. 1 in my "completely unlistenable vocalists" list (along with most death metal growlers out there) :lol

That's pretty harsh. I love John Arch BUUUUUUUUTTTTT...I can see why some people wouldn't like his voice. There are very few vocalists I don't appreciate. I can love everything from King Diamond to Alice Cooper to some of those death metal growlers.

Not trying to be disrespectful to Arch, he surely can sing well and has his very own distinctive sound, I just can't listen to him. I've tried with early Fates, his Twist of Fate EP and the Arch/Matheos band and nope, can't even manage to listen to a full song start to finish :eek

He does have a very thin sounding voice. I can see how someone would be put off.

An ex of mine could almost pick out which songs I was going to respond to most when a new album was released because according to her, I "always like the theatrical sounding stuff the most." I never realized that especially since I don't care for musicals. But it's true. I typically respond to stuff that is out of the norm, somewhat dramatic, and I kind of feel arch is that way. Even though his voice isn't very diverse, it has a lot character.


Offline goo-goo

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #72 on: November 29, 2021, 12:00:38 PM »
By the way, EoP was released as a yellow vinyl for this year's RSD. EoP is one of my favorite all time albums.

https://www.newburycomics.com/products/james_labrie-elements_of_persuasion_2lp_color?variant=40966343884980


Offline RAIN

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #73 on: December 07, 2021, 09:52:10 AM »
He was kind of annoying for a while, though I don't know why.
But the last two albums, and especially the new one, he is simply fantastic.

Offline devieira73

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #74 on: December 07, 2021, 10:50:55 AM »
Just out of curiosity, in a recent interview for this magazine: https://roadiecrew.com/veja-a-nova-revista/
JLB said: "Even though it horrifies our fans, the record that really allowed me to show all the colors and all the different styles of my voice was The Astonishing".
He didn't said literally that, but I do think TA is his favorite recording (as it's mine).
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Offline Dublagent66

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #75 on: December 14, 2021, 11:15:50 AM »
I haven't heard TA enough times to make that determination.  I'll just take James' word for it I suppose. :dunno:
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Offline TAC

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #76 on: December 14, 2021, 06:37:15 PM »
I haven't heard TA enough times to make that determination.  I'll just take James' word for it I suppose. :dunno:

No matter what anyone thinks of the end product, TA is the best thing James has done in the band since the BC&SL Covers album.

James is so underutilized on the DT studio albums it's criminal.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline Dublagent66

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #77 on: December 15, 2021, 07:49:52 AM »
I'll take your word for it Tim.  I like James much better as a metal and hard rock singer than a ballad singer.
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Offline TAC

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #78 on: December 15, 2021, 08:06:05 AM »
I'll take your word for it Tim.  I like James much better as a metal and hard rock singer than a ballad singer.

Well, I'm with you on the ballad thing. It depends how breathy he gets. But there's plenty of hard rock moments on The Astonishing.

Steve, here's a link to my Astonishing Abridged playlist.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1vESXL238jGArSrka94iLx?si=b44dfe158c5f4121

There's tons of great James on this, and I generally cut out most of the ballad-y things. To me, it cuts out the fat.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline UndercoverMyung

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #79 on: December 15, 2021, 08:26:50 AM »
James sounds good in these cameos. I think this time off has helped him. We'll see in a few months.
I hope they do Innocence Faded this tour.

Offline Dublagent66

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #80 on: December 15, 2021, 09:15:01 AM »
I'll take your word for it Tim.  I like James much better as a metal and hard rock singer than a ballad singer.

Well, I'm with you on the ballad thing. It depends how breathy he gets. But there's plenty of hard rock moments on The Astonishing.

Steve, here's a link to my Astonishing Abridged playlist.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1vESXL238jGArSrka94iLx?si=b44dfe158c5f4121

There's tons of great James on this, and I generally cut out most of the ballad-y things. To me, it cuts out the fat.

Nice!  Surprised Our New World is missing. ???  That's one of 9 tracks or so I actually like.  It didn't quite fit into the mix?
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Offline TAC

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #81 on: December 15, 2021, 09:39:05 AM »
I'll take your word for it Tim.  I like James much better as a metal and hard rock singer than a ballad singer.

Well, I'm with you on the ballad thing. It depends how breathy he gets. But there's plenty of hard rock moments on The Astonishing.

Steve, here's a link to my Astonishing Abridged playlist.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1vESXL238jGArSrka94iLx?si=b44dfe158c5f4121

There's tons of great James on this, and I generally cut out most of the ballad-y things. To me, it cuts out the fat.

Nice!  Surprised Our New World is missing. ???  That's one of 9 tracks or so I actually like.  It didn't quite fit into the mix?

I kept the songs in running order, but I've never been in love with Our New World. It feels like such a detached coda. With my abridged version, I liked the epic styled ending of Hymn..."She lives again....". I was like fine, we'll just leave it at that.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline Stadler

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #82 on: December 22, 2021, 10:06:37 AM »
I listened to Six Degrees the other day and the one thing I was struck by was, "WOW does James sound great on this!".


Offline DoctorAction

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #83 on: December 22, 2021, 04:23:04 PM »
Nice. He is an absolute gem of a vocalist.
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Offline geeeemo

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #84 on: December 22, 2021, 09:43:01 PM »
I watched the Metallica 40 year concert the other night. James Hetfield has not aged as well as JLB. I love Metallica and the show was great!. But James has so much more to offer, even still.

Offline gzarruk

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #85 on: December 22, 2021, 10:21:42 PM »
Mike is better than Mike. James is better than James :coolio
It sounds like, "ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk." Instead of the more pleasing kick drum sound of, "gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk."

Offline Samsara

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #86 on: March 18, 2022, 11:36:40 AM »
Really enjoyed "Devil in Drag" this morning. Looking forward to James' next solo record. Impatiently waiting for it to appear as a CD on Amazon for pre-order.

As for the song, that sort of acoustic-driven prog is what I wanted DT to do before MP left the band. I hope that's the direction of the record. JLB sounds great. And I think it's killer his son is doing the drums. Sounded fantastic.
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Offline SeRoX

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #87 on: March 18, 2022, 11:41:25 AM »
Wrote in other thread.

Devil In Drag gives Mullmuzzlers and a little bit EoP vibe musically which I like the most among other JLB's solo albums. He sounds so fresh and confident. Production is killer. I also like acoustic driven albums and there is nice acoustic melodies backround.

I'm glad James always tries something different from what he does in DT.
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Offline DTwwbwMP

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #88 on: March 18, 2022, 01:11:48 PM »
It's OK. Nothing earth shattering but not bad either.

Offline Setlist Scotty

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #89 on: March 18, 2022, 04:37:42 PM »
It's OK. Nothing earth shattering but not bad either.
That's basically my feeling too after one listen. It's not enough to move me to order the album yet, but I have more hope than I did for his last 2 solo albums. For me, it's a step in the right direction and I'm interested in hearing the rest of the album.
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Offline Dream Team

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #90 on: March 18, 2022, 08:14:51 PM »
New single sounds good.

Question for singers: do you think some of James’ problems live is that he feels he has to belt all the time? What if he just sang the words normally and let the microphone do the work? Wouldn’t that be easier and possibly make certain notes more attainable? I don’t know singing at all so thought I’d throw it out there.

Offline TheBarstoolWarrior

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #91 on: March 19, 2022, 06:52:50 AM »
New single sounds good.

Question for singers: do you think some of James’ problems live is that he feels he has to belt all the time? What if he just sang the words normally and let the microphone do the work? Wouldn’t that be easier and possibly make certain notes more attainable? I don’t know singing at all so thought I’d throw it out there.

His live problems are from the fact that it is a live performance. You are moving around and sweating and getting fatigued. It is impossible to keep those things from affecting your vocal performance.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #92 on: March 19, 2022, 10:02:23 AM »
New single sounds good.

Question for singers: do you think some of James’ problems live is that he feels he has to belt all the time? What if he just sang the words normally and let the microphone do the work? Wouldn’t that be easier and possibly make certain notes more attainable? I don’t know singing at all so thought I’d throw it out there.

I do think he tries to do too much live.  When I saw them on The Astonishing tour, he sounded great, but there were a handful of moments where he tried to take it up a notch too far (above where he did it on the album) and it was like, "Noooo!! You were doing great, don't ruin it!"   He could get away with that more when he was younger, but not anymore.  On my list of favorite singers ever, he is still way up there, despite his live struggles.

Offline Cool Chris

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #93 on: March 19, 2022, 10:14:41 AM »
I do think he tries to do too much live.  When I saw them on The Astonishing tour, he sounded great, but there were a handful of moments where he tried to take it up a notch too far (above where he did it on the album) and it was like, "Noooo!! You were doing great, don't ruin it!"   He could get away with that more when he was younger, but not anymore.  On my list of favorite singers ever, he is still way up there, despite his live struggles.

Agreed. But I am not even sure how well it turned out in his younger days. Many times when he turned it up a notch were.... eh.... not good. His album performances were aces, no one was going to complain if he sang the difficult parts exactly like he did on record, or even turned it down to 90%.
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Offline KevShmev

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #94 on: March 19, 2022, 02:15:52 PM »
I do think he tries to do too much live.  When I saw them on The Astonishing tour, he sounded great, but there were a handful of moments where he tried to take it up a notch too far (above where he did it on the album) and it was like, "Noooo!! You were doing great, don't ruin it!"   He could get away with that more when he was younger, but not anymore.  On my list of favorite singers ever, he is still way up there, despite his live struggles.

Agreed. But I am not even sure how well it turned out in his younger days. Many times when he turned it up a notch were.... eh.... not good. His album performances were aces, no one was going to complain if he sang the difficult parts exactly like he did on record, or even turned it down to 90%.

For sure.  I remember being just amazed at the vocals when I got Images and Words, and then one of my first impressions of Scenes the day it was released back in '99 was, "Damn, James sounds awesome!!" That was back in my days of taking a 1/2 day off from work for new releases by DT and Rush so I could leave the office at noon, get the new CD and spend the rest of the day listening.  I didn't want to work all day and have to wait.  :biggrin: :lol

Offline Trav86

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #95 on: March 19, 2022, 02:49:13 PM »
I do think he tries to do too much live.  When I saw them on The Astonishing tour, he sounded great, but there were a handful of moments where he tried to take it up a notch too far (above where he did it on the album) and it was like, "Noooo!! You were doing great, don't ruin it!"   He could get away with that more when he was younger, but not anymore.  On my list of favorite singers ever, he is still way up there, despite his live struggles.

Agreed. But I am not even sure how well it turned out in his younger days. Many times when he turned it up a notch were.... eh.... not good. His album performances were aces, no one was going to complain if he sang the difficult parts exactly like he did on record, or even turned it down to 90%.

For sure.  I remember being just amazed at the vocals when I got Images and Words, and then one of my first impressions of Scenes the day it was released back in '99 was, "Damn, James sounds awesome!!" That was back in my days of taking a 1/2 day off from work for new releases by DT and Rush so I could leave the office at noon, get the new CD and spend the rest of the day listening.  I didn't want to work all day and have to wait.  :biggrin: :lol

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Offline hunnus2000

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #96 on: March 19, 2022, 04:42:20 PM »
JLB ROCKS!!!  :metal :metal

Offline SuperTaco

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #97 on: March 20, 2022, 07:14:31 AM »
He is good.
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Offline crystalstars17

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #98 on: March 20, 2022, 07:56:37 AM »
Voice of an Angel ✨✨✨💖

Offline TheRich13

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #99 on: March 26, 2022, 08:45:15 AM »
Love James ! Bothers me when people say his on stage banter is weak , boring , abysmal , not funny , etc … Hell , he’s a lead singer who brings it all every night ! He’s not a talker , comedian , motivational speaker , etc , but one thing he is when he speaks to the crowd is genuine ! And that’s good enough for me !
He’s just a great guy that id just love to hang with , have some wings or a burger and a cold drink… keep Rockin’ James !
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Offline Madman Shepherd

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #100 on: March 26, 2022, 09:49:13 AM »
Love James ! Bothers me when people say his on stage banter is weak , boring , abysmal , not funny , etc … Hell , he’s a lead singer who brings it all every night ! He’s not a talker , comedian ,

Gotta disagree. That dude cracks me up so much. Remember when Jordan was posting daily youtube videos? There's some off the wall gold there. My all tie favorite has to be when Portnoy was ordering Wendy's after a show and Jordan was throwing out suggestions, then pans over to James who I think was eating Raisin Bran and just yells, "This Raisin Bran is the shit! Fuck you Wendy!"

Tip of the iceberg there. I wish somebody would make a compilation.

Offline RodrigoAltaf

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #101 on: April 05, 2022, 02:17:35 PM »
I have a chat with him this week to talk about his upcoming album. Can't wait!

Offline gzarruk

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #102 on: April 05, 2022, 02:37:53 PM »
I have a chat with him this week to talk about his upcoming album. Can't wait!

I know this might not be the best thing to ask, but it'd be great if you could ask him to give more light on his ProgPower solo band cancellation a few years ago.
It sounds like, "ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk." Instead of the more pleasing kick drum sound of, "gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk."

Offline hefdaddy42

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #103 on: April 05, 2022, 02:55:29 PM »
I have a chat with him this week to talk about his upcoming album. Can't wait!

I know this might not be the best thing to ask, but it'd be great if you could ask him to give more light on his ProgPower solo band cancellation a few years ago.
Why?  What good could come of that now?
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Offline Trav86

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Re: The James Labrie Appreciation Thread
« Reply #104 on: April 05, 2022, 03:43:31 PM »
I have a chat with him this week to talk about his upcoming album. Can't wait!

I know this might not be the best thing to ask, but it'd be great if you could ask him to give more light on his ProgPower solo band cancellation a few years ago.
Why?  What good could come of that now?

If you can, could you ask why he went to Cuba in 1994? It might not be the best thing to ask.
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