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Kurt Elling
Last week, we asked about your female favorite, so it's only natural that this week we give the men a shot. Opera star, singer/songwriter, jazz singer, death growl screamer—who is your favorite male vocalist?
Kurt Cobain was the voice of his generation—figuratively and literally. Cobain was his generation's Dylan and Lennon. His lyrics embodied the angst, boredom, and self-loathing of Generation X, just as Dylan gave voice to counter-culture and the civil rights movement in the '60s, and yet Cobain had the best voice of any white rocker since, well, John Lennon. Listen to Unplugged in New York to experience Cobain's chilling snarl and wails that are often masked by his Beatle-esque talent for pop melodies on Nirvana's "plugged" releases, alas distorted to the nth degree. The now legendary performance of Leadbelly's "In the Pines" (re-titled "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?") on that disc serves as a useful primer for those unfamiliar with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain's vocal prowess.