Here's a couple of short excerpts from Electric Man, the first track on the new Rival Sons album Great Western Valkyrie:
 

 
 
Whatever they've put on the vocals sound very 'analogue', and to start with it seems to fit in with the retro sound the band are obviously attempting to emulate.
 
The effect is used across the whole album, it's apparent at all vocal levels, but the effect seems much stronger when singer Jay Buchanan is singing really loudly.
 
I must admit, after a few tracks it starts to get a bit tiresome, a bit wearing on the ears actually. Shame really, because it's a great set of songs.
 
Does anyone know what the process might be?
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

Plain ol' distortion, sounds like to me. An amp sim, perhaps. Although it could also be one of those lo-fi microphones where they stick a telephone mic into a piece of copper pipe.
 
And yeh, it does get weary pretty quick when used with a heavy hand like that. Not that I'm above using the same trick myself. However, I prefer to kick it in on the chorus so it's not engaged through the whole song.

Doesn't matter how good something is, too much of it and you want out. Crosby Stills & Nash's three part harmonies sound beautiful to me for a couple of songs. By the third I'm thinking about throwing on some Naplam Death.

You're not the only one - almost everybody abuses that saturation/distortion trick these days. 
 
Lo-fi'ed vocals stand right next to autotuned vocals on my list of pet peeves.
It's like the instagram of audio.

Good vibe though...very zeppy.

Rain
You're not the only one - almost everybody abuses that saturation/distortion trick these days. 
 
Lo-fi'ed vocals stand right next to autotuned vocals on my list of pet peeves.
It's like the instagram of audio.

I guess that makes Autotuned vocals the Photoshop of audio.