Axl on The 20 Best Singers of All Time by LA Weekly (March 2016)

[jarmo]

Read the list at http://www.laweekly.com/music/the-20-best-singers-of-all-time-6686064

Or see below.



























SPOILER WARNING:

3. Axl Rose
Axl Rose was the last rock & roll singer and in a perfect world, he’d enjoy more critical acclaim than a certain divorce-rock godfather from Aberdeen. “A small-town white boy just trying to make ends meet,” Rose possesses perhaps the most instantly recognizable voice in all of rock. His nearly-six-octave range is among the world’s largest, which is braggable, but more important is how he uses it. He goes from a mean growl to a soaring screech to a soulful croon on a single album side. His little asides in songs (my favorite is “that’s right!” but there’s also “all right, that sucked!”) add that extra something that only a master can. - Nicholas Pell

/jarmo

[HBK]

Great

 

[Spirit]

That's a pretty good testament to Axl considering they are looking at singers from all genres of music.

Usually he figures on the best rock vocalist lists.

[sofine11]

No one sings like Axl.  Sings with a sneer, and attitude I've never seen before or since. Just brutal. Love him.

[D-GenerationX]

No one sings like Axl.  Sings with a sneer, and attitude I've never seen before or since. Just brutal. Love him.

Yeah, just no one like him.  A truly unique talent.

[Thorned Rose]

Cool. Axl #3? Sounds good. I mean its tough with these lists to get it universally right, but I'd have him over Aretha. Freddie Merc at #1 makes sense.

Axl is a top 5 vocalists no matter how you slice it up. #3 works for me I guess. In those 20 singers I'd put him #2 though.

The list loses some credibility when Steve Perry from Journey isn't even on the list.

He is very clearly one of the best vocalists of all time.

[A X L]

No one sings like Axl.  Sings with a sneer, and attitude I've never seen before or since. Just brutal. Love him.

One of a kind. Nobody comes close in my opinion. I would love to see Axl come back with Slash, Duff, Richard, Frank and Dizzy, with his hunger again and voice 100% and show the world Guns N' Roses are back on top. They need to bring new songs.....I agree with Dx, with Slash and Duff there, they, as well as the label, will give Axl the confidence to release new music(music that Axl has had in vault.....Atlas Shrugged, the General, Seven...ect.

[sandman]

That's a pretty good testament to Axl considering they are looking at singers from all genres of music.

Usually he figures on the best rock vocalist lists.

exactly! all genres, and you can tell they put a lot of thought into this list.

they correctly point out his range, and the fact that he uses it so well.

this is a really impressive list, so to be ranked #3 is quite a showing. 

[Kasanova King]

Very cool.  I know back during their peak in popularity, people would talk about how very talented a singer he was.  It's good to see a mainstream article appreciate it nowadays as well.   

[HBK]

Good Ranking

 

[SkeletorSerpent]

Despite all of his notoriety for no-shows, temper tantrums, control issues, vulgarity, bigotry, and arrogance, Axl Rose was always a critically acclaimed singer. Very few denied his talent.
Remember, Gnr were the biggest band in the world from 88 - 93. No one else could touch them. They were the quintessential rock n roll band.

I've always said that if Axl plays his cards right he could reverse the mainstream media's hatred of him and re-establish his legacy as one of the all time great singers. Mainstream critics have been slowly writing more and more positive things about Axl. They are realizing he has always been in a different stratosphere than other 80s rockers. He is a soul singer. He has more in common with Sister Rosetta Tharp than Bruce Dickinson. More in common with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Bessie Smith, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker than Tom Keifer, Brian Johnson, or Rob Halford.
Listen to Appetite- it is a rhythm and blues rock n roll record on steroids-- it has a loose, bluesy groove to it unlike anything else in the 80s. There is jive and swagger in Axl's voice that harkens back to blues rock.

Axl is slowly starting to be vindicated in mainstream media. I think he is one of the last great outlaws-- I think the critics can find in Axl a little bit of Hank Williams, George Jones, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, David Allan Coe, and Waylon Jennings.
Now Axl needs to put out a new record really showcasing his voice. He doesn't need to belt out songs at the top of his range to "prove" he still has "his voice." We all know he does. He needs to highlight his real singing talent-- the depth, honesty, emotion, timber, texture, soulfulness, and grit of his singing voice.

Being a great singer isn't about flawlessness or technicality, there are tons of those. It is about the ability to be a unique vocal instrument that communicates a full spectrum of human emotion. Axl communicates romance, love, hatred, rage, fury, alienation, disillusionment, hopelessness, paranoia, fear, melancholy, and beauty.
His vocals are volatile like his personality. He can be so smooth and melodic, yet always on the verge of exploding into complete and utter rage and chaos. It was like he was vocally holding back his screechy terror behind his smooth-as-honey, six octave baritone. At any moment, he might explode into a howling screech or slow it down into a silky croon. Yet, he had his cool, laid back raspy voice, too. There was a bluesy, gravelly texture to his voice-- similar to Rod Stewart and Joe Cocker or Bob Seger.
At the end of the day, no rock or metal singer has the grit, emotion, energy, range, and versatility as Axl Rose.

[SharkOfLargo]

Nice to see some well deserved praise.