Outlasting many of their grunge-era, alternative pop peers and consistently delivering more hits as well, Stockbridge, Georgia's Collective Soul have stayed the course and remained remarkably excellent for years. Frontman/songwriter Ed Roland has never tried to be fancy or pretentious with his writing and this has been a saving grace for them. Utilizing simple chords, superb melodies, and sticking to a conventional pop formula that has always suited them, the uncomplicated ingredients have brought us so far nine solid albums and basically at this point, I am convinced that they are never going to make a bad one. As I am sure is the case with most of you, I heard "Shine" way back when it came out and liked it a lot, but further gems such as "The World I Know", "Gel", "Precious Declaration", "Forgiveness", "Heavy", "Needs", "She Said", and "Satellite" just graze the surface of how truly great this band always has been.
Who could have predicted that a band named after a bunch of dildos in William S. Burrough's batshit bonkers Naked Lunch novel would end up being the word's quintessential soft jazz rock outfit? Donald Fagan and the late Walter Becker met at Bard College in New York during 1967 and struck up a songwriting partnership that did not initially get them much success on account of their songs being too unorthodox for other recording artists to grasp. Once they put their own proper group together and got the hits "Reelin' in the Years", "Do It Again", and "Dirty Work" out of the way on their debut Can't Buy a Thrill though, a sturdy discography without a dud came in its wake. The band's biggest record Aja is their peak of excellence, and at that point Becker and Fagan had been expertly utilizing the industry's best session musicians. By primarily being a studio only duo, (since you could afford to do that in the 1970s), they likewise perfected the art of then modern, pre-digital recording techniques. All of the Dan's records still sound absolutely amazing because the patience was taken to make them sound that way.
The only guitarist that ever truly gave Tony Iommi a run for his money in the riff-writing department was Dimebag Darrell and good lord, what riffs these guys had. The first four Pantera albums for anyone who has actually heard them are far more silly than interesting, as they ultimately sounded like a poor man's Mötley Crüe before Phil Anselmo came aboard and the extreme southern groove metal elements starting finding their way in, even if Anselmo was only doing a Rob Halford impression at first. Once they were finally signed to Atco records in late 1989 and unleashed Cowboys from Hell on the masses, they had come into their own and never put out another bad record going forward. Even their swansong Reinventing the Steel, (though at the time comparatively disappointing), does get better with age, perhaps in part because it is the last Pantera we are ever going to get. At this writing, both Dimebag and Vinnie Paul are sadly no more, but Pantera's legacy continues to grow as it should and they are practically the tightest, sickest-riffed metal band in history.
Radiohead formed in 1985, consisting of a bunch of school mates that have stayed together for over thirty years now and for almost twenty of them, they have been exploring every avenue possible in making their instruments sound like anything but their instruments. Essentially a progressive pop band and the very best one at that, Radiohead's music has been as persistently excellent as it is boldly challenging. Before Kid A and everything wonderful that followed, they briefly were one of England's most exciting alternative groups, and even when playing more conventionally sounding guitars, bass, and drums on The Bends and OK Computer, the songwriting was greatly above average and the art rock leanings were readily apparent. Thom York's ability to not enunciate his words is matched by his effortlessly gorgeous voice, and even if it appears that Radiohead has found their electronic, experimental niche, their records continue to be anything but elementary.
Before Detroit-born, son of a pastor Vincent Furnier actually became Alice Cooper, there was a band named such that he and a few high school friends put together before they could even play any instruments. Said group was so out of control musically at first that Frank Zappa signed them to his Straight label, and when they got Bob Ezrin to come in to help fine-tune their songwriting and presentation, they joyously became the shock rock band that most parents hated. The records they made were of course fucking outstanding as well. I got into Alice Cooper hard at the same time that I got into Kiss, (unsurprisingly), but it was only in small part due to the horror-themed, villainous image. Love It to Death, Killers, and Billion Dollar Babies are as classic as any classic rock gets, and later solo Alice Cooper joints found him further collaborating with Ezrin, as well as Bernie Taupin, Desmond Child, and excellent musicians overall. Surviving both a horrendous bout with alcoholism and then later far worse, Cooper came out clean over thirty years ago and has remained a genuinely caring, funny, and golfing old rock dude who is still cranking out records, endlessly touring, and cutting his own head off on stage.
Germany's pyro-fueld Rammstein became a favorite of mine way back in high school, and because none of their to-date six records have anything close to a bad song on them, I have not held them in any lower regard since. It is always splendid when a band knowingly goes for laughs as much as anything else, and Rammstein have never stopped giggling all the way to the bank, whether it is while they chase each other around on stage with dildos, dress up in fat suites, or make a porno music videos staring themselves. Musically, though these guys have always been incredibly heavy. Their first two albums featured a higher emphasis on industrial elements, but the third Mutter was when things began to shift to their current more organic, groove metal sound. As nothing they have done throughout their evolution has suffered in quality and though they have often hinted at packing it in at some point, (possibly even after their still to be announced new album), I will soak up all of the Rammstein that I can in the meantime thank you very much.
The perpetually self-loathing, A-sexual, vegetarian activist crooner Stephen Patrick Morrissey has had a solo career that is only slightly less impressive than the one from that really great band that he briefly fronted. Striking out on his own as soon as The Smiths packed it in, Morrissey has put out eleven studio albums and also like his former band, a whole lot of singles and B-sides that continue to marvelously showcase his hilarious, overly-dramatic, miserable persona. Mostly working with long time collaborators and guitarists Alain Whyte and still Boz Boorer, Morrissey has played with rockabilly, straight-up Britpop, and even prog here or there, (check out Southpaw Grammar for evidence of that). His lyrics though have only grown more honest while remaining just as biting and funny. Many people find Morrissey's smug, anti-social persona too much for them, yet being a fan for most of my life and also reading his autobiography, I am convinced that he is in on the joke. Which just makes make me love the guy even more.
In one respect, Prince may have simply recorded too much damn music for his own good. Going through all of it, (meaning all of it that has actually been released), is a chore that few of us truly have the time for. Taking into account thirty-nine studio albums, (a handful of them double or triple ones), plus compilations, collaborations with lots of other groups that he put together, and all of the hit songs that he gave away, there sure is a whole lot of stuff out there. Thankfully, most of it is wonderful, and at the time of his sudden death from a painkiller overdose, he was still a guitar playing beast and one of the most ridiculously dynamic singers in all of popular music. Many people will probably have a different answer as to their favorite Prince song and record, (Sign o' the Times and "Adore" off of it for me), and that is part of the beauty of his work. Singing about sex, god, and then sex again, performing virtually every instrument throughout his career himself, and playing rock, funk, psychedelia, new wave, R&B, and pop occasionally all at the same time, a convincing argument can be made that Prince was the most talented musician who ever lived.
Only knowing of "Epic" and their cover of The Commodores "Easy" for quite some time, when I finally got curious enough to check out all of Faith No More's Mike Patton-fronted records, I gradually became all but obsessed with how fantastic this band was. Throw any title that you want at them, but theirs is a sound that cannot be pinned to the ground. This is partly due to the fact that like many of the best bands out there, FNM were able to successfully pull off various styles whenever they felt like it. They have the occasional country song, bossa nova song, R&B jam, punk song, and noise fest, but no matter what they are playing, the thunderous rhythm section of Mike Bordin and Billy Gould as well as Roddy Bottum's keyboards always make them sound just like Faith No More. Of course you also have to mention Mike Patton's superhuman vocal acrobatics as an integral piece to the puzzle. This guy can make his voice do absolutely ANYTHING, whether it is rapping, crooning, extreme metal screaming, soulful screaming, or throwing it into any register that he pleases with any modulation or cadence adjustments always remaining his willing bitch.
"So, when's that new Tool album coming out?" has become the new Chinese Democracy joke, but at least the guys in Tool have the good sense to be honest about their molasses-leaking creative process and do not themselves promise us new material each and every year. The amount of time between Tool releases went from three, to five, to at this writing over twelve fucking years, but if there is a pattern to acknowledge here, it will be well worth the wait once some new music is finally here. Tool formed in LA in 1990 and they seemed to have an agenda to get their audience to think for themselves and see through the world's bullshit right off the bat, while musically they have grown into one of the most complex, atmospheric, and unique progressive rock bands of all time. They rarely indulge in 4/4 time signatures, with Adam Jones' highly distinct drop D riffs, Justin Chancellor's effects-laded bass, Danny Carey's barbarian heavy and occult-based drumming, and Maynard James Keenan's often funny, intellectually stimulating lyrics sung with a voice that is eerily sweet amongst the darkness of everything surrounding it.
The greatest of all electronic bands, Depeche Mode is one of the handful on this list that has a flawless recording career. Fourteen studio albums since 1981 and perpetually maturing with age, it is almost easy to take their excellence for granted at this point. When another DM album drops, it is a given that it will be solid. Mere kids when they began, the group's early output was primitive and dated to the new wave, synth-laden dance sound of the day. By the late 1980s though, albums like Black Celebration and Music for the Masses were going in a darker direction before Violator broke them in a huge way. Songs of Faith and Devotion, (which like Violator was co-produced by Flood), is the one that has grown to represent their peak for me, as gospel elements and live instrumentation were first brought into the fold. After putting out his debut solo album, the Playing the Angel record established a new ere for the band as vocalist David Gahan began contributing material along with longtime songwriter Martin Gore, and Depeche Mode where all the better for it.
Is it unfair to expect yet another creative resurgence from the overall biggest band to come out of the 80s? So far U2 have had two artistic slumps that eventually flourished two comebacks with the Achtung Baby and All That You Can't Leave Behind records respectfully, and at this writing, they seem perfectly content to basically continue to remake various versions of the latter until they cease being a band. I cannot demand anything more from them at this point though. The Joshua Tree is the single best album put out in the 1980s and saw a sophistication in their writing and experimenting, (fueled by Brian Eno and Daniel Lenois, the absolute dream team of record producers). Its opening three tracks "Where the Streets Have No Name", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and "With or Without You" are still the best three opening tracks that any record has got. The band's music has always been unapologetically simple at its core, but the layers of sounds to it, (mostly stemming from the Edge's distinctive guitar effects), as well as Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.'s hefty rhythm section can do no wrong behind Bono's extremely emotional voice.
Having wrapped it up when they did, (meaning after their best album Synchronicity), The Police quitting while they were not only ahead but actually at their peak commercially as a band has sealed their fate as the best of all rock trios. Much like The Doors, taking any member out of The Police would completely change everything about them. Andy Summers mostly studied classical guitar, yet his approach to playing was highly dexterous and always tasteful, without ever succumbing to anything resembling shredding. Enough cannot be said about Stewart Copeland who is easily one of the most one-of-a-kind drummers; an absolute master of hi-hat flavoring as well as African rhythms applied to a contemporary drum set. Besides having still an ageless singing voice that sounds like absolutely no one else, Sting was a fusion musician who ended up being insanely gifted as a pop songwriter. I am still kicking myself for missing their 2007 reunion, but maybe if we are all lucky, they will forget that they did that and go do it again.
While most bands especially out of England in the early 1980s were balls-deep in the synth/dance sound of the era, out of gloomy ole, working class Manchester came The Smiths; a guitar pop group that wound up being the most influential and beloved since The Beatles. There is a pattern here of phenomenal bands who only stuck around for a small handful of years, and the five that The Smiths gave us were enough to drop four albums and nearly a couple thousand singles, so one cannot really complain that they short-changed us. With Morrissey practically coming out of nowhere, (having never been in a group before and only ending up on Johnny Marr's radar because he was the founder of the New York Dolls fanclub), it is remarkable how organic their sound immediately was. Marr's jangly, multi-layered guitar and the Moz' unmistakable croon, (which started out with traces of a far more flamboyant yelp), plus his sardonic and humorous lyrics found a massive audience in their home country while still today in the States, usually only us cool kids are hip to them.
I had a feeling before numbering this list that The Boss was going to end up my highest solo artist and sure enough, here he is. New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen has been showered with so much praise since nearly the beginning of his career that I cannot add much more worthwhile acclaim of my own. Though I grew up with him in the MTV era along with many of you, I did not actually dig into his catalog until my early twenties after hearing about how great he was throughout my life. Which as it turns out, yeah, everybody is right about that. I can list all of his incredible albums, but you should know them by now. From The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle through Tunnel of Love, Springsteen consistently matured as a writer, bringing his working class characters along for the ride with him and further exploring the love and longing of human interactions. When he put the E Street Band back together in 2001, his later body of work became mighty again and has continued to shine. Few if any songwriters are both as direct and deep as Springsteen has always been, and the man can still get more out of just a couple of chords and a guitar if he needs to than anybody else.
I cannot claim to be a Rolling Stones expert the way that I can with the rest of my top five, but I have well-familiarized myself with their magical golden era around the late 1960s and early 70s when they were truly firing on all cylinders. Still often compared to The Beatles because they both became the biggest British Invasion bands within months of each other, that has never been an accurate correlation since the Stones were always very much their own beast. They were humbly no more than a blues cover band on their first couple of records, but due to the encouraging of their then manager Andrew Oldman, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards started getting in on that sweet song-publishing money, quickly becoming a songwriting duo that was not to be messed with. I enjoy the Stones' early years as much as the next person, but Beggar's Banquet saw a refinement of their entire craft where all of a sudden, they truly arrived. Blues, rock and roll, and country music became a singular entity under their abilities, and the elastic, coarse way that they interact with each other as musicians has always made everything splendidly come together. Try as countless people have, no one sounds like the Stones, and all of them now pushing eighty, they are most likely going to drop dead on stage proving it.
I have gone a few years now not bringing up Kiss on this blog and welp, lets change that shall we? Having discussed my love for this band ad nauseum, if anyone was unaware, yes I am as big of a Kiss fan as you are likely to meet. The horny superhero image aside, what is truly great about them is how varied their discography is. Multiple eras that underwent lineup changes and musical shifts a plenty, Kiss were never dull for a solitary second, and even their weakest records still have plenty of redeemable qualities. Their original lineup has become so cherished by Kiss fans that a good handful of them nearly come to blows with other fans who like the non-make up years or the current, half-original members version just fine. I personally find much to love about all of them yet if I had to pick, I mostly fancy their early to mid 90's run right before the reunion which saw their best studio album Revenge, their best live album Unplugged, and the then shelved and excellent "Kiss does grunge" record Carnival of Souls. That wound up being the last point in Kiss' career where they were still moving forward before they would spend the last twenty plus basically throwing back to their 1970s heyday, though understandably so.
I "discovered" Queen when I was in 5th grade and my younger brother decided they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. This was after Freddie Mercury died, Wayne's World came out, "Bohemian Rhapsody" once again topped the charts, and the Freddie tribute concert aired on Easter Sunday. There has not been a day gone by since where I have not thought about how unbelievable this band was. Each member of Queen was a superb songwriter, none of them without a monster hit or a couple dozen under their belts. Vocally, Freddie, Roger Taylor, and Brian May all harmonized better than anyone, plus May's custom guitar tone was as unique and recognizable as Taylor's drumming. John Deacon was the quiet ace up Queen's sleeve, penning "Another One Bites the Dust", "You're My Best Friend", "Spread Your Wings", and "I Want to Break Free" to name just the most popular ones. Freddie of course besides ultimately being the band's most proficient song craftsman, had the world's finest singing voice, easily soaring through any song at any volume way up until he was literally dying from AIDS and still laying down blistering, gorgeous vocals on his final recordings.
John Henry Bonham was the one drummer who actually changed my life by making me want to hit things with sticks, ideally a drum set. Because of this, Led Zeppelin became the most important band for my wanting to be a musician, and my obsession with them has simply become a part of life. There are a lot of groups on this list that you can say this about, but every member of Led Zeppelin truly was equally on par with each other. Robert Plant in his prime, (meaning his Zeppelin-fronting years), had a ferociously mighty voice, full of unheard of vibrato and ceaseless range. John Paul Jones was a seasoned session musician and multi-instrumentalist who could easily rank as the best bass player in rock history. John Bonham of course has rightfully long been renowned as many people's all time favorite drummer, (mine included), and his almost insultingly dominant groove remains unmatched even by the most skilled skinsmen out there. Then Jimmy Page had a loose, uncontrollably lead style where the notes often seemed to be exploding from his fingers against his will, filtering blues and folk music through his antenna which created half of hard rock's best ever songwriting partnership.
Now is the time where I am really going to start sounding like a broken record. All of these bands and all these solo artist have led to the absolute apex of popular recorded music, the single greatest band of any time, The Beatles. A year or so before Led Zeppelin made me want to actually play music, The Beatles made me really want to love music. Since then, I have never been able to convince myself that anyone has ever been superior. Though I have heard every song that they ever recorded countless times, any listen to any of them just reassures how utterly perfect they were. The Beatles were not only endlessly innovative as a studio band, but they broke new ground and set the template for the self-contained, writing their own material rock group where each member had their unique, essential voice. John Lennon and Paul McCarenty in particular, (whether together or on their own), wrote the best pop music, period. Working with each other and George Harrison and Ringo Star, (as well as producer George Martin vigorously assisting them), their songs and ideas vividly came to life, and The Beatles never stop progressing throughout the eight years that they recorded together. In only that amount of time, they changed the world and influenced practically everybody. Still for me, nothing can touch Rubber Soul, Revolver, (The White Album), or Abbey Road, the four absolute best records in any genre ever.
