Good vocalists, bad material
 

Pretty self explanatory. People with great voices that you never listen to because, for the most part, their songs aren't all that great.


Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star); Sometimes Always and Ha Lah are exquisite. Her voice is wonderful on the Mazzy Star stuff I've heard, but the material just drags on and on...

Otis Redding; Pain In My Heart, These Arms Of Mine, etc...great vocalizing, dreadful lyrics. Keepers? Security, Look At The Girl, I Can't Turn You Loose.

Michael Stipe (REM); Like Mazzy Star, I'd like to love REM, but I just can't. Their songs plod on and don't really say much. Eponymous does have some great tracks (Gardening At Night, Fall On Me, Talk About The Passion, maybe the original Radio Free Europe).

Elizabeth Frazer (Cocteau Twins); Candleland (the Ian McCullough song)? Wonderful. Pandora and Lorelei? Perfect. Other CT tracks? Eh.

I do like Liz Fraser and think that her style is perfect - Blue Bell Knoll, Lazy Calm, Sugar Hiccup are all class tunes.

I agree with you 100% about REM - a few great songs, but they're one of those bands I simply can't see myself getting into, for the same reasons you stated more or less.

Bono's a fantastic singer, but I don't really like U2 (I still love the Joshua Tree and a lot of Achtung Baby though).

Chester Bennington is a talented vocalist but I hate Linkin Park with a passion.

I'm sure there are others, but that's all I can think of at the moment.

Peter Gabriel (post-Genesis material): I find it ironic that Peter Gabriel earned most of his fame AFTER he left Genesis with derivative pop singles. There's just not enough good material to go around. It's rather obvious that he and Phil Collins always needed Steve Hackett to succeed.

Art Garfunkel (solo): Absolutely stunning vocalist, but a poor songwriter.

James Brown: Everyone's going to hate me for this, but I think he was an atrocious songwriter (did he write songs?). Obviously there's Live at the Apollo, but just because he could hold an audience's attention doesn't mean he's worth listening to. I give him credit; what James Brown did influenced generations of soul artists to come. I just don't think he's got anything worth hearing.

You know Eponymous is just a "best of" collection of their IRS years right? If you've never heard the actual albums those songs are taken from they're really worth a listen. REM's earlier albums are far superior to their later albums IMHO.

Agreed. I love early R.E.M. Completely different to what they have been doing since hitting it bigger with the Green album.

Cris Cornell is one of the best singers ever, but his songs suck big time, specially since Audioslave...

can't agree about the Cocteau Twins; the vocals are the highlight for sure, but I like the music very much.

No it was Fred Wesley who composed the songs. Fred Wesley rules, I'm starting to not like you Lucifer_Sam!!!!

Wuhuu! Joshua Tree is fantastic. Whats your favorite song (if you have one)?