His voice sounded tired and this is a pretty drone-y song anyway. I think the strings were the wrong accompaniment, live. Just added to the whining, samey kind of tone.
Not keen on the motif played by the strings, either.
One of my favourite performances on Jimmy Fallon is Joanna Newsom playing Soft as Chalk.
I think Billy could borrow a lot from this performance. Piano is a second instrument to her as well, but she's been more intentional in adapting to it.
She is careful to play softer to allow room for her voice when she needs to, rather than playing the piano at the same volume and then having to strain her voice to make herself heard over the top.
She also creates a good deal of variation with tempo and mood even though it's just her at the piano. WPC's performance is a bit flat, a bit samey.
The piano lacks variation unless the arrangement and technical ability of the player are able to create it. Without that, he really has to bring something special to the audience, which he can't do if he's just trying to power through it.
The Berlin performance was better. And it's not a good lead single. Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes
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