Christine's voice

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by MissLadyLoki

When I first started listening to the Mac, I thought they were the same person cause to my ears and limited number of songs I heard. I was convinced that Stevie and Lindsey were the girls (and that the person i found out later to be Christine was Lindsey, but I was convinced he was a girl based on his name and high-pitched, girly voice), and that Chris was some outside songwriter. Turned out I was very wrong when I figured out who Chris was, and was left wondering why this Lindsey girl had a beard lol.

Wow, gender-bender much?

To be honest, way back in the day, when I first listened to the 1980 Live album, I didn't know very much about FM, so I thought it was Lindsey who was introducing "Over My Head" and "Over and Over." My initial reaction was two-fold: 1) gosh, he sounds kinda light in the loafers and 2) he sounds really uppity with that faux-British accent. I know, I know... but for some reason it didn't occur to me that it was actually Christine; I guess her speaking voice/phrasing (which is rather manly) and singing voice are very, very different.

I have often wondered what Christine would sound like if she belted more and sang with a vibrato. As it is, when she hits a certain range, her tone is sort of like a vibrato-less Barbra Streisand or Barbara Cook. It's that similar kind of mellow/brassy tone that seems to sit on the cusp between her chest and head. So even though she doesn't have much of a singing voice in the technical sense, she gets by wonderfully with her tone.