Unique Voices Gone

Unique Voices Gone

By: Erreh Svaia
Rock N Roll Animal

A couple of weeks ago, Dolores O'Riordan singer for The Cranberries died under still unknown circumstances, I wasn't a fan of her band, I don't own any of their records, but I do think Dolores was an awesome singer with a voice all of her own, after hearing Zombie on the radio, days ago, my wife said that she thought O'Riordan wasn't such a big singer as almost everyone were declaring after her death, I doesn't consider a singer "a great singer" because of an "athletic" voice, I don't expect vocal "operatics" or "pyrotechnics", for me a great singer is the one who has a characteristic voice that I can immediately identified on the radio, a voice that is like a fingerprint, something that no one else has, think of Bob Dylan, think of Mick Jagger, think of Tom Waits, not tout favorite ones? I'm sure of it, but surely they have unique voices.

Sure, I don't like the Cranberries, but Dolores was not only the Cranberries (in fact the Cranberries were HER band), and probably when she wasn't so much in control of the project she sounded better to me, think about the collaborations she did with Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart, where O'Riordan sounded not so much out of her natural element, but she sounded truly adjusted to the adventurous nature of Wobble's ambitious music, so yes, I liked O'Riordan when she took those kinds of risk, not because she is a natural gifted or highly technical singer ,but because she had a voice of her own, a very peculiar and particular one.

And talking about truly unique voices, yesterday I read about the passing of The Fall's Mark E. Smith, an awesome character and leader of a unique and unstoppable band, The Fall was Mark's band, but he certainly took unusual risks, sometimes he let his band run wild and even fun all over him, he wasn't so much of a singer but more a tamer who fought against his mighty beast of a band frequently getting tun over by it, but he loved that risk, he was proud of letting his beast of a band run wild and free and created a sonic show in which he fought against it, and what an enormous explosions of creativity this fight was able create! He was more a performer than a singer, he even considered himself an MC, a ringleader in a highly volatile circus, a man who pushed repetition to the max and a man who made sometimes uncomfortable tension an art form.

You won't hear many singers like Mark, he was unique, his band was unique, they were part of those strange cases like Motorhead,The Ramones or AC/DC who rarely changed their sound, but somehow managing to always deliver pleasing music, The Fall's recent records were the best they have recorded in years, one can safely affirm that they were getting better year after year, so I guess yes, Mark retired from this life as an undisputed winner, not to many performers can claim such thing, Mark was definitely always different, always the same.