the Top 200 Greatest Rock Singers- 60 to 51

Now we are getting deeper into the second half of the list, harder choices are having to be made. I am having to be more honest with myself  in what we are doing here which is  focusing  not only on technical vocal ability, in terms of range and power, as well as their dynamics, phrasing and the overall character of their voice. Can they emote from different places? How well does their voice hold up live? . How they control a crowd or their entertainment value as performers is also not a factor; there are some great front men who are also sub-par singers. There are also not going to be any Bob Dylan like singers, who are better songwriters than vocalists. 

Pop singers, are far and few between, with; a few country or jazz singers who crossover just enough to qualify for this list, while having a significant influence on rock music. Don't expect rappers on this list or metal vocalists who just scream or growl, but never actually sing. I am keen on singers who are derivative of other singers. The bulk of these do their own thing, the few paying tribute to other artists made enough of an impact with their music. Having a unique vocal quality is going to be one of the most important factors often trumping technical ability. If they sound too much like Steve Perry from Journey after listening to their vocal coach rather than developing their own style, it is also not going to fly. Some of these might have been ignored by mainstream music media, but by the time we get to the top 10, I am sure it will all make sense, so here are the Top 200 greatest rock singers.

60-Warrel Dane 

The late  Nevermore / Sanctuary singer was a myriad of shifting registers that held dramatic power, but rather than sounding too triumphant and happy there was something dark and bleak to his delivery which appealed more to me.

   

59 Tracy Chapman

Like many artists so far on this list if you judge them by their radio hits, then you only know a fraction of what they are capable of. Sure her hits give you a glimpse of her urgent alto, but they do not show you the full scope of her voice and the emotional colors at her command.

   

 58-Lauren Mayberry

 Seeing her band Chvrches live, you can hear how it is the opposite of most pop music , she is holding back in the studio. One of the best live bands I saw last year and she is a pivotal force of their sound.

 

57- Mark Lanegan 

 He took what Leonard Cohen did and made it rock. His brooding gravely voice is the sound of your soul exhaling it's last joint. The darkness inside him was more introspective than that of Alice in Chains or the other Seattle scenesters, Mark was not tied to a scene but timeless.

   

56- Robert Smith

If you have not already noticed singers on this list and though that it was odd I had not ranked them higher due to how much I like them, then this one will really high light the fact this is not a list of my favorite singers but a judging based on the merit of their pipes, which I feel Smith's are overlooked ,however he is good at what he does, if he covers say Zeppelin it is going to sound like a Cure song not Led Zepplin as he sticks close to his range of sound, which is beautifully glum.

   

 55- Glenn Danzig

Some of you are wondering how I ranked Danzig higher than Robert Smith. Well his voice is more powerful. Robert is more emotive, but I would not want to hear him sing the Misfits. Now Danzig might have shit the bed on his album of Elvis covers, so it is everything else that got him to this place on the list.

   

 54- Joni Mitchell

 She might be a folk singer, but she knows how to emulate jazz phrasing with her voice. She has a very original style of singing that is all her own. Sure the Counting Crows might try to rip her off, and Sheryl Crow might owe her career to her, but there is something very pure to Joni's voice that can not be denied.

   

 53-Annie Lennox 

 Her wide range only extends the manner with which she can play the 80s diva role with. Her alto is androgynous as her look. Her solo work stood up against her 80s classics.

   

 52- Ozzy Osbourne 

 Most conversations regarding the Ozz-man have to do with his Sabbath days. While he knocked the hell out of notes on Hole in the Sky, lets talk about his solo work where he covered a lot more ground and settled into his role as being a mad man so he uses his voice to convey the desperation needed to make you a believer.  

 51-Miley Cyrus

 She is not just Hannah Montana gone wild and twerking, in fact that has nothing to do with her voice. The fact she tackles songs by Led Zeppelin, Metallica and the Cocteau Twins live is a testament to the range of what she can do as the powerhouse of singer she is. I tried to put Ozzy in the spot of above her , but there was no way I could be honest with myself and say that was real.

 

R.I.P : Mark Lanegan

If I say the name Mark Lanegan you mind might go to the Screaming Trees The band vaulted him into his iconic status. But He left his mark as a musician with greater depth on his worked that continued on after the Screaming Trees. The world lost a greater talent than just a rock singer now that Mark Lanegan is dead at the age of 57. He was like the Oscar Wilde of grunge, now he is the voice of wisdom crawling from the shadows, almost a bard of Tom Waits magnitude.  

Mark died his home in Ireland. We should all be surprised Mark Lanegan made it to 57. He lived a life wrestling with addiction and mental illness. Early reports suggest it was covid related, but the singer had already penned a book called 'Devil in a Coma" regarding his experiences with co-vid.   It is likely that he had worn his internal organs out from abuse so he never fully recovered, or the media are like ghouls when it comes to death so we might never know. Early speculation was suicide, which lines up with his grunge peers he survived. This pretty much leave Eddie Vedder as the last of the grunge singers. 

After Screaming Trees he went on to work with Queens of the Stoneage. His smoky baritone known for slithering around grooves provide a change in mood from the other vocal approaches of that band.  Rather than try to carry a torch for the music of an era which was a cultural shift more than just a music genre. I think this more reflective nature he possessed kept him alive as long as it did a rip 30 years longer than his friend Kurt who joined the 27 club. What I appreciate about Mark and the music he left behind for us is he died leaving a body of work that is free form venturing forward into lost years of confusion aging rock stars sometimes never come back from. His memory is intact and honored, we celebration what he left behind as he is passing on into the sweet oblivion.   

Mark Lanegan : " Straight Songs of Sorrow"

Going into this you have to  know this is not going to be the Screaming Trees. What you might expect is something more akin to Nick Cave or Leonard Cohen given the nature of his voice. I was not expecting something so electronic and experimental. The first song sounds like he recorded the vocals and then put the music haphazardly atop it. His vocals sound pretty optimistic and not at all sorrowful. If Jim Morrison had lived I could see him putting out something similar. He has a impressive array of musicians that guest on this album they are from every genre from metal to trip hop.  Mark Morton from Lamb of Gob provides the fingerpicked acoustic guitar on "Apples From a Tree" . This comes much closer to what my expectations were. Folk music that is country inflected, you are hear traces of the grunge roots without directly acknowledging them . Morton also adds guitar to "Whiskey For the Holy Ghost". You can hear how he influenced the National on "the Game of Love" a duet with his wife Shelley.

"Ketamine" takes folk and marries it with a narcotic throb, making it the best song so far. Lanegan's voice might not be as resonate as even his guest spots with Queens of the Stoneage, but his lower registers is hinted at more here. His song writing is what makes the other oddly upbeat sounds on "Bleed All Over". Jack Bates the song of Joy Division bassist Peter Hook, plays bass on drunken gospel musing of "Church Bells, Ghosts". Then things get weird again with " Internal Hourglass Discussion". The album begins to remind me of the last one by Iggy Pop. At 55 his voice has held up better than Pop's voice did not have much range to begin with. Then we are back to a more the  organic flavor on "Stockholm City Blues". The arrangement is layered but simple.  His voice does find his more classic sound on "Skeleton Key" . This song also have a drugged out drone to it that is counterbalanced by Lanegan's vocals. Adrian Utley from Portishead provides the atmosphere on " Daylight in the Nocturnal House". John Paul Jones shows up to play mellotron on "Ballad of a Dying Rover" .  This song is cool, it might not be the album's best, but you can hear traces of late period Zeppelin in it's mood.

I  think the parts that do not sit right with me are the places where his free form vocal lines clash with the music and sound improvised. The lyrics are more like poetry being recited than sitting neatly on melodies. He does deliver the melodies I want from him on some songs so it's a mixed bag in that regard. "Burying Ground" has more of a blues soaked Americana feel to it which I think works better with his rustic voice. Greg Dulli from the Afghan Wigs and Warren Ellis join Mark on "At Zero Below" .  This one comes across darker than most of the songs on this album so it works for me. The album closes with the bleakly soulful "Eden Lost and Found" . This might not find Lanegan aging as gracefully as he could, but it does serve as a powerful testament to the mark he continues to leave on music. It is powerful enough for me to give this album a 9.

The Top 100 albums of the 90s :50 to 41

Ok here the countdown continues , we don't care about the biggest sellers , but albums that have stood the test of time and sound just as fresh today.


50- Jimmyeatworld - "Clarity" Before they hit big on the radio and pushed emo into the mainstream they had already released their best album. Tender and atmospheric , the melodies and harmonies both are filled with wonderment and yearning in equal doses and proves the genre once had actual emotion infused in it and was not about the hair cuts of the proto-hipsters.

 

 49- Soul Coughing - "Irresistible Bliss" 

 When alternative actually turned out to be an alternative to the current trends at the time. While band's like Cake used a similar quirky narrative, these guys did it with organic trip hop grooves played with real instruments and little button pushing. Mike Doughty's voice has a ton of personality and his non-sensical lyrics were and odd form of poetry. "Soundtrack to Mary" might have been my favorite song on this album , but this one got worn out one drug summer.



 48- Voivod - "Angel Rat" 

 The 90's were a little weird for Voivod because having been ahead of their time, it felt like with "Nothingface" they had already been there and done that, in fact Soundgarden and Faith No More opened for Voivod when those bands were poised to break through. You can touches of Killing Joke in what would be one of Voivod's rare stabs at having a more   radio friendly sound , though it is still steeped in the prog they had begun to explore on "Dimension Hatross".


 


47-Satchel- "EDC"

 If Prince decided to make a shoegaze album it might yield similar results. Shawn Smith's other project Brad might have been more popular due to having one of the guitarists from Pearl Jam involved, but this album was hands down better than Brad's "Shame" album. Ethereal but still possessing plenty of groove and soul and they even rock out when called for. If you get too stoned it might seem like a concept album about Reservoir Dogs are samples from the movie crop up
through out.

 


  46-Ours - "Disorted Lullabyes"

Jimmy Gnecco's voice resembles Jeff Buckley's, but he rocks out more frequently than Buckley with no family ties to folk music and a taste for writing from a darker place as he explores things like addiction in his lyrics. Post-grunge his music really stands up well with time and could have come out last week.

 

  45-Neurosis - "Souls at Zero" While some people will swear by their more punk rooted "Pain of Mind" this is the album that put them in my radar. It's more melodic and darker than "Through Sliver and Blood" which is clearly more of a metal album where this one is more of an inner apocalypse.

 

  44- Screaming Trees -"Sweet Oblivion" One of the more introspective albums from the grunge era. The thing that struck that me about these guys is they didn't just seem like punk band that wore flannel. Mark Lanegan's Morrison like croon helped separate them from their peers.



  43- Siouxsie and the Banshees-"Superstition"

She might have been the queen from the 80s , but Siouxise transitioned well into the following decade with this album being her crown jewel.


 

42- Deftones- "Around the Fur" Chino and the boys took a step away from rap-rock on this one and helped to set themselves apart from the nu-metal scene their friendship with Korn wrongly placed them in. Their song writing hit the next level with this one.

 

  41-Killing Joke- "Pandemonium" The 80s post-punk war lords returned to show all the industrial bands that popped up in their wake how it was done. This album is one of their best and always a timeless listen

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