[SINGLE] 🔥 Flames 🔥 w/ Mod Sun

I honestly don't agree at all - Avril has a voice and she can absolutely sing.

Is her voice electronically processed? oh yes absolutely. But she was autotuned in It Was in Me.. she was autotuned a lot in Tell Me it's over, she was electronically high pitched in songs like Hello Kitty or Take Me Away from Under my Skin.

It's not a news. But she can sing live. Differently, but she can. And most of time I don't like this discrepancy but Studio versions are always different. 

Clearly, in Flames the electronic process is more pronounced, but this is the late trend. Also after all she doesn't really scream too much in this song, instead I have the feeling Modsun's voice eats Avril's voice, which seems more calmer and less "screaming" if I can make myself understood. She sounds more girly. 

If I should not listen to any song "electronically processed" I should put in the trash The Best Damn Thing, Goodbye Lullaby, Avril Lavigne.. 

Oh ok, I absolutely understand what you mean and Yes I think you are right!

The meaning of my message was simply I don't feel like there's a reason to be so dramatic about not listening to this song anymore because of the electronic production .. because as you said, it reminds of other songs like HTNGU or RNR which are very processed too, so we should have stopped hearing her songs way way way earlier than today 

I think it boils down to personal taste, which is to be expected and is perfectly fine.
I personally have no qualms about the way the vocals were handled. The intro could have been adjusted differently for me, but it's nothing that flat out ruins the experience of listening to the song. I thought the production was super solid, but if you dig deep enough you will always find things you wish sounded different, specially when you have a musical ear and can easily break down the different layers of a song. For me personally, this song showed me John Feldman can take pop-rock/pop-punk and make it sound like it belongs in 2021. I'm hopeful that the material he's been working on with Avril will have consistent quality, which I'm very happy about.

I remember watching a YouTube video of the Honest Vocal coach reviewing her vocal development over the years and she addressed that Avril being an imposter shite. Anyway, the vocal coach explained how the change in key or whatever which has mostly been seen post UMS is potentially to do with her having better training.

I’m no vocal coach but there’s definitely a noticeable difference in how she sings post UMS even between LG and UMS, but she sings noticeable higher on TBDT probably because the songs are faster. And she has sang in this key since. I do prefer the way she sounded on LG but again that could be because she was younger. I really don’t know what I’m talking about, but I think what I’m trying to say is a don’t necessarily think her voice has been over processed. I think she’s just had different training which may suggest the change in sound. Or it’s because she hasn’t taken care of her voice. I dunno!

At first, I thought she sounded like Bebe Rexha. Since Avril's part is very pop. Just as I expected it would be. It's an okay song though. Might be a grower. I think it is basically Listen 2.0 and this might be because of the burning part but do I detect a bit of Bright? One thing is for certain though this song does not sound like the foo fighters! Not even the good drum part towards the end. Which brings me to the production which is fine by my standards. The part I didn't like was the trap beats. They weren't necessary. But that's like mod Suns signature or something. Not a fan of his music personally.

Overall, I think it's a forgettable track. I wish the song was more upbeat. Think MGK/Halsey collab. Or the Yungblud/halsey track. I swear I don't like those songs because of halsey lol I just enjoy the style. Because I did not expect for Avril to be belting out the lyrics. I thought it was going to be a regular upbeat singing style like on OOTG. But good for Mod Sun for using Avril's nice singing voice. Hope it gets added to some official playlists.

Autotune is nowadays used as a generic noun for a common practice in modifying singer's voices. Again, when it is meant to perfect one vocals, it's named pitch correction. However, autotuned can be used to generate other voice effects as part of the production of the music itself. Cher is the most glaring example of this. Radio head also played with the idea. Many contemporary hiphop, trap and reggaeton artist use heavily this "autotune" as staple for the genres.

I actually started hearing it more clearly when I got to hear the HQ version (and yeah, with headphones). I do think she sounds more nasal since Lyme and is also something here, but thats not what Im talking about. She sounded nasal in HAW, specially in many live performances, and still manage to make really powerful vocals with it.

I never expected the song to not be autotuned. The thing is that it is too clearly present in this track. I don't know how to define it more clearly, is just a thing you can hear the vocal procesing in the voice, and when it isn't something made to part of the production itself it usually is somewhat an "overdo" of the vocal production. The same thing can be said about Modsun, it is also there, is just that it is easier to hear in the brigther color of Avril vocals.

That being said, this is not a justification for disliking the song. I like the song, I'm pleased that it isn't a boybashing teenagy pop-punk song and that she is not trying to push a "maler" voice like she used to do back in her rockier days. I think the song has clever transitions from part to part and the mixture between soften piano parts and heavy guitar parts makes the song way more interesting that a punk song that sounds the same from start to finish.

The worst I thing I can say (and that's my main suspicion) is that the song feels "rushed". Those production mistakes that bothers me (And I completly understand that it could be a nitpick and other actually don't mind it!) And the repetitive lyrics could be easily corrected if the song were matured a little bit more. The rest is up for personal taste. Not my favorite, but something I'll hear from time to time.