Carly Rae Jepsen - Artist Review

Artist grade: A

Vocal grade: C+

Vocal range/type: Soubrette (Soprano), C3-D6 (Three Octaves, One Note)

Best album(s): E•MO•TION

Worst album(s): N/A

Best song(s): "Sweetie, "Run Away With Me", "Call Me Maybe", "Cry", "Bucket", "Tonight I'm Getting Over You", "Good Time" (with Owl City), "Sour Candy" (ft. John Ramsay), "Your Type", "Part Of Your World", "Your Heart Is A Muscle"

Worst song(s): "It Takes Two" (with Mike-Will-Made It and Lil Yachty)

Positives: Nice, pleasant sounding, bright and airy vocals that fit all styles of music she has attempted. The voice is extremely light and has a youthful, but not immature tone that stays pretty consistent throughout her range, including her falsetto. Her voice does lose quite a bit of its breathiness in the upper range, starting around the A4. 5th octave notes are a bit raspy. Like said prior, her falsetto is bright, and she can easily transition to it from chest voice, and can stay in it for a long time. While she's had her share of immature songs, her songwriting often shows experience and maturity, which is good considering she's in her 30s. Often well-written compositions. Diverse personality, allowing her to play all sorts of roles in her content. While she often doesn't utilize it, she is a decent guitar player. 

Negatives: The immature songwriting at times such as with "Call Me Maybe" can come off as off-putting for some people. There's not a lot of support from her diaphragm, causing the voice to lack resonance throughout the entire range. A lot of people, particularly classical and choral music listeners, won't often be fond of the breathy vocals, especially in her lower range. She has trouble with intonation and support while belting. Not everyone is a fan of raspy vocals, and her more cute, girly tone is not to everyone's tastes. Her voice doesn't carry a lot of weight.

Overall: She's cute. Coming from someone who's over a decade younger than her, I'll admit that. Crush on her aside, while being far from stellar as a vocalist, she often has good production to support her vocals, and she knows what music works well for her voice. It's fun to think she has the same top note as me (a D6, though I can probably go higher). She is a competent songwriter and composer. She can convincingly play cute and innocent, sensual, or sexy in her content. I'd be willing to call her a hidden and very underrated gem. Carly Rae Jepsen shows you can be an amazing musician without being a great vocalist.

Drake Bell - Artist Review

Artist grade: B+

Vocal grade: B

Vocal range/type: Lyric Tenor, E2-G#5 (Three octaves, two notes, and a semitone)

Best album(s): It's Only Time

Worst album(s): Ready Steady Go! (though it's not really bad)

Best song(s): "Makes Me Happy", "In The End", "Found A Way", "Bitchcraft", "Big Shot", "Down We Fall", "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me", "Bull", "Somehow"

Worst song(s): "Melina", "End It Good", "Back Of My Hand"

Positives: Charismatic vocals, can portray emotions easily, which is likely helped by his acting career. His voice brings a lot of presence, drawing attention to a song. Sporting a good lower range for a tenor, as the typical tenor range only goes down as far as C3. Able to utilize different sounding voices, allowing for his voice to fit in several genres such as rock and pop. Has received acclaim for what is often mature songwriting for his age, having even won an award from ASCAP. Writing can range from depressing and sad, to happy, showing to be a versatile writer. Can play several instruments, although his primary instrument is the guitar. Refusal to use a ton of vocal effects is appreciated (he even recorded an entire album live).

Negatives: His more rougher sounding vocals he usually presents may not be to everyone's tastes, he can come off as too "try hard" with emotion. Live vocals are often not powerful enough it seems to go through the instrumentation, though that could be due to bad recordings rather than quality of voice. Some songs' compositions can sound similar, though this may be artistic choice. Also, he will occasionally not distance himself enough from his influences, and may come off as an imitator. 

Taylor Swift - Artist Review

Artist grade: B-

Vocal grade: C-

Vocal range/type: Soprano, C3-A5 (Two octaves, five notes)

Best album(s): Fearless

Worst album(s): Red

Best song(s): "Love Story", "You Belong With Me", "Our Song", "Picture To Burn", "Style", "Back To December", "I Heart?"

Worst song(s): "Bad Blood" (ft. Kendrick Lamar), "I Knew You Were Trouble.", "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", "Shake It Off", "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" (with ZAYN)

Positives: Charming, charismatic voice with a lot of personality. Can portray emotion very well through vocals. Despite being a soprano, sports a very good lower range, and has a relatively low tessitura. Has songwriting talent, and writes often basic, but very good sounding compositions.

Negatives: Relatively poor range, has a tendency to be off-key during live performances. And again, despite being a soprano, her upper range is pretty poor, often having to rely on her head voice. As shown in her live performances, her breath support isn't great, as she often sounds tired after a song or two. No vibrato. Despite her songwriting talent, it could be argued her compositions and lyrics are very "safe", with her public presence and mainstream support, she can afford to take risks, and has the potential to do so... but doesn't. Her change to pop has been criticized, as her songwriting seems to have lost a bit of that authentic feel often portrayed in her work prior to the Red album.

Yeah, Taylor Swift. This review was finally put up. I can't give her higher than a B- for now. While she has a few positives, her negatives often outweigh that. Her charisma does help a lot, and the fact she's such a talented woman, to take the sellout switch to pop was disappointing, to say the least. Next, I will be looking to do an anime review, but next on the artist review chopping block is Drake Bell, so stay tuned.