Originally posted by Steve Campbell
As for the boy Barney....look....fact....he can't sing ( and he can't sing in a register above the one I can't sing in, which gets on my baps something awful when I'm trying to howl along).If Barney entered pop idol, he'd be out in the prelim's, out with all the fake tan karaoke singing pondlfe, long before they weed out the ones with any spark of creative talent.BUT, he has his moments, and even at other times, his inability to sing is what makes him what he is. If he'd been some obnoxious little stage school tyke, he'd have learned scales and music theory and breathing [1]. None of our favourite songs would have happened. His lack of ability goes hand in hand with a musical innocence, an innocence which is at the core of all things New Order.[2]I think what really openned my eyes wasn't so much the accapella of Crystal that's out there somewhere, on which he sings perfectly ( for him). Rather it was the dub mix of AoC. Barney's vox on AoC, as has been mentioned here, are shrill and kinda crappy. However, mixing them up front and dry, far from being painful, lends a certain frail beauty to them. It puts Barney in the same category as all those other great singers who can't ( only one's to come to mind right now are Robert Wyatt, Jim Morrison ( much as I dislike the doors) and of course Ian, whose vocals get more powerful the more he wanders in his accuracy). Again it's down to the innocence of the sound. You hear someone singing what their heart wishes to sing, and I would rather hear that than a perfect performance of something sterile.[1] Barney has the lung capacity of a blue whale. Having tried to coherently sing True Faith, I can tell you, I had NO breath left for whoops.[2] And herein lies the problem with them doing JD songs these days, all the Whooping and popstar antics during them are not only not in the spirit of the tunes, they are not in the spirit many of us admire in JD/NO in general. Makes me cringe to be honest, which is a shame because they can do bloody good version when they control themselves ( H+S at reading, and Peel Isolation come to mind)
Always LOVED his voice, it has a frail authenticity to it, and the Idol cr@p means nothing to me. Isn't this why Ian is Ian, and Mariah and Whitney will be forgotten? Listen to a Smokey Robinson, or a Marvin Gaye song, and you see the very same thing that's been lost, truly talented vocalists who sing with a sense of authenticity. You believe them.
That's what also makes Ian and Barney so powerful as vocalists in spite of their limitations. Ian often sounded to me like he had some awful frog in his throat, I was never impressed with the pure technical ability. But his vocals were always exceedingly powerful, and immensely authentic, and you believed him, you believed that he felt what he was singing. The same applies/applied to Barney. Listen to PCL and you believe it, listen to Low-life and you believe it, listen to True Faith, or to Technique and his heart is on his sleeve or at least he sings like it is.
Maybe that's why some don't enjoy him as they used too? Because he sounds a lil more satisfied and contented, so the the same plainative quality to his voice might not be quite there anymore. All I know is that I have always loved his work as a vocalist, loved the sound of his voice, and loved the way he emoted the lyrics with a real sense of authenticity. Listen to Leave Me Alone, Lonesome Tonight, 1963, True Faith, the whole of Technique, or This Time of Night, and you believe Barney means it just as much as Ian did in Atrocity Exhibition. That's my sense anyway and that's why he's an amazing vocalist inspite of his obvious limitations.
, and stay as true to the orig. recordings as possible for the NO tracks 
