Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Shawn
Another singer that I like that everyone here probably would disagree with me is Billy Corgan. Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream has to be one of my favorite albums of all time.  |
I agree with you there. Siamese Dream is a great album and I've always liked Smashing Pumpkins.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Drew
2.) Cobain. Really, it depends what you like in a vocalist, of course, but I think a lot of the criticism leveled at Cobain is unwarranted. He didn't have a very "clean" voice, per se, but for that raw, raspy sound, I thought he was excellent. I never really considered his vocals "out of tune" either - sure, maybe the occasional drunken live show, and he undeniably did a bit of sliding into notes here and there, but keep in mind this is a guy who considered Leadbelly his favorite performer and had a pretty in-depth knowledge of the blues; it's not like he wasn't familiar with a tradition where this was accepted, even encouraged. And while his melodic range wasn't jaw-dropping, his dynamic one was. I consider his vocal on "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" off Unplugged in New York one of the greatest rock vocal performances I've ever heard, ranging from a disarmingly innocent near-whisper to a tortured wail over the course of the tune. Would I have thought the same about that vocal had they just been some bar band? Hell, I was in my big anti-mainstream thing when I first heard that performance - I didn't even LIKE Nirvana very much until I heard that Leadbelly cover, and then suddenly I began to "get" them.
Could the guy play guitar? Eh, well enough to belt out some power chords, but that's about it. Could he sing, though? Sure, not as a metal guy would, but if you treat Nirvana as coming out of the blues tradition and not the hard rock and punk one, suddenly his vocal style makes a LOT more sense.
|
I wasn't saying Cobain sucked as a singer or a guitarist. I own all of Nirvana's albums and I can say that I'm a Nirvana fan. But, if I were talking about "best vocalists" or "best guitarists", Kirk Cobain would not be anywhere there.
And, as for Korbain, I can think of at least 20 singers who I think can get across "anger" better than Cobain. Not that Cobain couldn't do it well, but he definitely isn't the best. Korbain had no reasons behind what he said other than he likes Kirk Cobain and doesn't like Dexter Holland. I vastly prefer Nirvana to Offspring, but I think Dexter Holland is a much more skilled "singer" than Cobain.