The human voice is an instrument unlike any other. It carries messages, it carries emotions, and it is able to speak to us in ways no guitar or piano ever could. When we talk about the human connection we have to music, it is largely through the voice, because that is where we are able to understand one another. Of course you can have a song without a voice, but seldom has an instrumental ever been able to move me the way a vocalist is able to.
We all hear those voices differently, though. Singers who are beloved to the masses might not even be tolerable to me (in some cases I know they aren't), and my favorites might sound that way to everyone else. I won't get too deep into the philosophical quandary over whether we can ever know we are hearing the same voices the same way as someone else, since the answer to that question is as much opinion as what we're discussing.
For the purposes of this list, I'm judging a singer to be among my favorites both for how their voice moves me, but also their music. While there are singers in possession of voices I love whose music I don't enjoy, I would rather focus on those who both have that voice, and use it in a way that affects me.
With that being said, here are the voices I can't get out of my head.
1. Dilana: When we speak of something being able to pierce our hearts, Dilana's voice is the first thing that comes to mind. Maybe pierce isn't the right word, and the reality is closer to the waves of sound wrapping themselves around my heart, massaging it to beat as it should. There is an electricity I feel, running through my synapses and bridging gaps my emotions saw as too great to jump across. A great voice creates a tingle of overwhelmed senses that presses pause and resets my systems, much like hot water crashing against my skin on a cold winter's day. No one has ever gotten me to stop in my tracks the way she has, realizing the burned-in rings when I close my eyes are ghostly echoes of a halo.
2. Meat Loaf: I wonder if I was drawn to Meat's voice because my own is lacking the size, power, and bravado I could get listening to him. Or maybe it's because Meat was an actor at heart, and he simply knew how to emote and sell a song better than so many others. Whatever the reason, Meat was the first voice I needed to hear more from than what was on the radio, and his was the first one I would imagine bouncing around my head as I whispered along with the record. He had several iterations of his voice over the years, but there was always a Meat-ness to it. I miss that.
3. Lzzy Hale: How many years do we call a generation? I ask, because if the timeline is narrow enough from our age, Lzzy is the voice of our generation. She can do anything and everything with her voice, and they all hit with the power of a stage lined with Marshall stacks. There's this slightly dark, slightly breathy tone that melts me every time I hear it. She's the hot breath on our neck, floating like ghostly clouds in the air as we fight the cold, looking like a heavenly body that dissolves before our eyes.
4. Ronnie James Dio: Few singers have been able to wring as much drama out of their voice as Dio did. Fewer sound like they could overpower a metal band without even needing a microphone, but that's who Dio was. He could croon the softest ballad like "Rainbow Eyes", then turn around and rip your face off with "Buried Alive", all without breaking a sweat. He loved to sing of fantasy worlds, and his voice was certainly magic.
5. Jakob Dylan: I'm sure many will level the same criticism against Jakob as his father, but I don't hear it that way at all. There's a quality to Jakob's voice I love, where even as he sounds like his voice can struggle to form the tones of a melody, it's like the soft focus of an old camera that you know wasn't as good as a crisp hi-res image, but captures a scene with a charm perfection can't quite match.
6. Emerson Hart: If I could explain what I hear in my own head as I am singing to myself, it would be close to Emerson's voice. Now, is that because Tonic has long been my favorite band, and I have simply absorbed his voice into my thinking to that degree? That could very well be the case.
7. Jim Adkins: What is unique about Jim, and Jimmy Eat World's music in general, is how he can sound both forlorn and optimistic at the same time, his voice bristling with youthful energy powering lights that cut through the melancholy fog. He is able to convey both sweetness and a bitter aftertaste at the same time, and that complex flavor is fascinating.
8. John Popper: More than just a singer, his various squeaks, noises, and affectations add so much color and personality to Blues Traveler. Like Meat Loaf, he always sounds like an actor who is making deliberate choices for the character of the song, because merely reading the lines is never as interesting. But we know it's a choice, because he sang "Once You Wake Up", and it's an absolutely stunning vocal.
9. Joakim Nilsson: Graveyard swings from soft blues to thundering rock, sometimes within the same song. Joakim is able to handle it all with aplomb, with clarity to his saddest tones, and the kind of harsh grit to his belting that made people think distorted guitar amps were one of the happiest accidents we ever encountered.
10. Kelly Clarkson: These days, when I think about pop music, my starting point is always Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" album. That's how much it has embedded itself in me. Kelly's voice is the perfect blend of power, expression, and that little bit of breath that I admit I'm a sucker for, if you haven't noticed yet. Behind those hazel eyes is a voice that resonates in both her head and mine.
11. Jorn Lande: He might have the perfect rock/metal voice. Jorn is the modern Ronnie James Dio, a comparison which he has taken to heart more than he should. Only he could have made the absurdity of the "Dracula: Swing Of Death" album work, and his snarl is like the sharpest of cheeses, melted down into a luxurious fondue. If only I liked more of the records he's been on...
12. Anette Olzon: I didn't realize how much I had grown to love Anette until recently. Her voice is unlike anything else on this list, and quite unique among her contemporaries as well. Her tone is high and sharp, a piercing siren that fills the air with a call we can hear from anywhere. Her voice draws me in when I can't explain why, as if it is pulling the barbs taut against my skin, reeling me in without me having even realized I have been caught.
13. VK Lynne: The spidery songstress weaves her web, catching those of us who aren't paying attention to exactly what the glimmering rainbow in front of our eyes happens to be. Whether cooing a song for the late hours of the early morning, or wailing blue(s) murder, her voice is the distilled sweetness of burned-off whiskey; caramel rich with a depth and complexity you'll need time to savor.
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