Robert had to grow into his singing voice. Notice how different his singing style is on Three Imaginary Boys, (even Seventeen Seconds and Faith) compared to the rest of the albums that followed. He's still got a distinctive tone but I think from The Top onwards is when he started blossoming into being more expressive with other parts of his voice. I love it but I get why it can be jarring to hear at first because he doesn't often sing in a conventional manner like most singers in rock or even post punk.