you mean awful I'd agree. I couldn't get past the first 45 seconds

Death by Auto-Tune

Craig David

I quite like it in a james Blake kind of way

'runs for cover'

I'm not sure about it, but I admire anyone willing to do something so different so far into their career.

What I would say, however, is that this single is for Comic Relief. Surely, the best thing you can do then, is to make a song which is going to appeal to the largest number of people and sell the most amount of records. If George Michael wants to explore this new avenue, then that's fine, but I think he's being a bit selfish here by not giving the people what they want.

Autotune....ugh.

dull, weird.

dear oh dear that's just wrongity wrong. No excuses just plain dull and sad. Shame really because he's done some cracking stuff in the past but most of his output after "Outside" has been plodding and unfun ( don't think this is a word but you get the meaning I hope ).

Kudos for doing something different with it; there's nothing more pointless than a straight cover of a well known song.

The auto-tune is not only horrible but redundant.

And it makes me think of this:

mostly of this:

It actually makes me want to punch my own ears off. I would donate to Comic Relief not to have to ever hear it again.

and people weren't wrong. Not only is the voice manipulation annoying the whole things just a bit dull. Also I'm not a big fan but isn't the main part of George's attraction his voice? Shame because a laid back ibza friendly version of the song could be good .
No doubt it will sell by the shed load just to prove us all wrong which seeing as it's for comic relief I wouldn't mind too much.

...once I can actually hear the tune. But then I think the original is one of New Order's most irritating tunes, never liked it all that much, and I'm particularly fond of them.

It could have been saved by not using the effect vocal too much and mixing it with a normally recorded vocal, especially on the choruses.

It reminds me a little of some of the more out there moments by the Super Furries....

in the nick, but whatever it was has made his voice go well funny.

I lasted 33 seconds. It is unlistenable bullshit.

I quite like the slow arrangement, and I don't even mind the effect on the voice. All his other records have his normal voice, and there's plenty of those.

What spoilt it for me was his 'soulful' mucking about with the tune. I think if he'd actually sung the real melody, at least most of the time, it would have been more successful.

But, having given it another earing or two, I've changed my mind. I now think it's a load of fucking old wank.

And is that Autotune/Melodyne, a Vocoder or something else entirely?

(And my version is well shit.)

I still like George, though.

and it needs more cowbell.

There might be an interesting cover buried under the ridiculous autotune, I quite like his phrasing for instance and the harmony bit at the start.

But it's obviously an odd production. It sounds like something you might do if you'd found an effect and were testing it out. I've also seen it attributed to late-night-not-entirely-sober mucking about (which wouldn't be unimaginable in his case). These are experiments not things you release to much fanfare as a comeback single.
Also, whether you like his work or not, one thing George Michael is capable of doing is singing. In tune. So why this?

I don't know but it made me think two things.
One is that his well publicised drug hijinks might not be kind to a man's pipes. I sort of doubt he's damaged his voice but it might have become rougher and he may not want to draw attention to this on a comeback single.

The other thought occured while I pondered what a missed opportunity this was - it could have been a very emotional, loaded response to the WMUBYG-GH's recent misfortunes. just look at the first verse:

"I feel so extraordinary
Something's got a hold on me
I get this feeling I'm in motion
A sudden sense of liberty
I don't care 'cause I'm not there
And I don't care if I'm here tomorrow"

(apologies, this is probably going to go very sub-Michael Gray and pretentious, but I'm no writer)

So something's made the singer feel all funny and nice and 'liberated' - so much so that he feels removed from the rest of the world ('I'm not there') and isn't concerned with the future or consequences. Resonance?

I'd never given them much thought before, but hearing them sung by an extremely famous man with an extremely well-publicised drug habit/problem who has done some quite self-destructive (and front-bumper-destructive) things and has recently separated from a long-term partner...gives one pause. There are more interesting and possibly relevent lines later in the song but you get the idea.

In this light the decision to 'hide' the vocal intrigues me more. 'New' or unconfident singers often like to put effects (double-tracking or distortion etc) on recorded vocals, it makes it sound less like 'themselves' (almost everyone hates the way their voice sounds the first time they hear it recorded). Possibly, having chosen a song which is (or could be interpreted as being) so confessional, he's got cold feet and the autotune is way of distancing himself from the sentiments. It's not 'him' singing them. It's Sparky's Magic Piano.

Much as it is to be applauded that someone is trying something new and a bit different for them, it shouldn't blind us to the fact that this is really not very good. A miserable, auto tuned deathly noise made by a man whose mojo is seemingly rapidly vanishing in his rear view mirror (and not because he's reversed over it)

A pity, as I kind of like him, and he's done things of merit in the past. But there you go

...George Michael hasn't done anything decent for years. I adored Listen Without Prejudice.

I think he is trying to do a 'Mad World' with True Faith and it hasn't worked.

Someone's obviously just heard "808s And Heartbreak" then. Unfortunately, when Kanye did it, he made the autotune weep. When George Michael does it, he makes people with ears weep.

As proof:

Say You Will

(Although I think a Mr A Harrison wouldn't be happy about me showing continual love for 808s on here...)