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Fun Stuff => BAND => Topic started by: Will on 21 Nov 2006, 06:38
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Just wondering what you guys think about guest vocals on bands' albums? Are there any that you think made that particular song perfect? Or the other way around; the song was completely ruined by the guest appearance?
I posted this because on the way home tonight I was listening to White Pony by the Deftones, and was reminded how fucking perfect the song "Passenger" is, because of the guest appearance from Maynard. Out of that whole group of "mainstream alternative" bands, I've always thought Chino and Maynard were the best vocalists, and to hear them together on a song was mindblowing.
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The guest appearance of Ludacris will invariably improve a song.
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Yes Johnny, always and forever.
I find the guest vocals by Laura Veirs on "Yankee Bayonet" by the Decemberists really makes the song. I also feel that "Baby Grand" is one of the best tracks that Billy Joel ever recorded, and it would have been kind of lackluster without Ray Charles.
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I was really glad that Converge had Jonah Jenkins from No Living Witness guest on their new album, partly because he is amazing, and partly because Jake Bannon utterly fails when it comes to having to sing clean vocals.
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Eddie Vedder did guest vocals on Bad Religion's Recipe For Hate. I don't know if he does a good job or not since I haven't listened to much off that album.
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Besides my pithy remarks, the following applies.
- Kanye West knows how to maximize a guest appearance.
- Jurassic 5's song with Dave Matthews Band, "Work It Out," is the best song on the latest J5 album, Feedback.
- The songs on Mark Lanegan Band's Bubblegum featuring P.J. Harvey are great.
- Whoever sings "Modern Nature" with Sondre Lerche has a great voice for it.
- Ditto with The Postal Service's "Nothing Better."
- The best song on Alexisonfire's Crisis, "You Burn First," is sung by some dude outside the band.
I had another one of these but fuck if I can remember.
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Emmylou Harris has the ability to make mediocrity (Ryan Adams) sound good,
and heartbreaking (Gram Parsons, Bright Eyes etc) sound like the most vital, brilliant, wrenchingly beautiful song in the world.
She owns.
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I feel warmed in my cockles that you said that, Tommy, thank you..
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Hypothesis: This can be incredible
Experiment: David Bowie + Queen on Under Pressure
Experiment: Aerosmith + run DMC, this has extra points by making aerosmith not be a gargantuan pile of shit
Conclusion: Solid gold
Hypothesis: This can be terrible
Sonic Youth + Chuck D from Public Enemy on Kool Thing. Okay, this one is special, it's Sonic Youth and Chuck D, what went wrong guys?
Conclusiion: Shit
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I agree with all you guys, plus I would add PJ Harvey & Thom Yorke, and Joanna Newsom & Bill Callaghan (&Van Dyke Parks...)
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The guest appearance of Ludacris will invariably improve a song.
1000 times yes.
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Lil' Jon guys. LIL' JON.
I always enjoy it when there's a bunch of guys from other bands doing gang vocals on a hardcore album.
Steven Wilson alternating lines with Mikael on Opeth's "Bleak" is pure eargasm
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Jens Lenkman doing the chorus on "Inside" by New Buffalo on her Self-titled EP is pretty much my winner in this catagory.
Although runner up goes to the entire Human Equation album, but I am not sure if that really counts as "Guest vocals" or not.
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Considering that everyone in Ayreon except for Arjen himself (and the drummer I suppose) is a guest, I'd say no.
The Human Equation is one of my favorite albums evar though.
Have I mentioned how much I hate Maynard's voice though? Because I do. A lot.
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I really like Maynards voice in the context of Tool and APC but in everything he has ever done guest vocals for his vocal style is far too out of place to be good, for me.
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When Bruce Dickinson guested on the "One you Love to Hate" on Rob Halford's solo album "Resurection" I was blown away. It's like a Metal duet with balls, awesome.
Matti Karki from (Dismember) shares vocals with Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates) on "Ever Opening Flower" it's fairly cool as well.
There's Blind Gaurdian's "Valhalla" which has Kai Hansen's vocals in the chorus, I always thought was pretty cool as well. He also does a some of the guitar solo's on that album (Follow the Blind).
Which brings me onto guest guitar solo's that gets me more excited then guest vocals normally. Michael Amott (Arch Enemy) does a fairly awesome amount of shredding on a The Haunted track "Bloodletting".
The most famous though has got to be Euronymous's solo right at the end of the Burzum track "War". That solo is sloppy as hell as is definately not the most technical solo you can play but it is so cool, pretty much makes the song...
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I always enjoy it when there's Lil' Jon doing gang vocals on a hardcore album.
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shane mcgowan on good rats by dropkick murphys was pretty cool
also, dolly parton did a cool duet with nora jones called creepin' in on the feels like home record.
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ANTHRAX + PUBLIC ENEMY = \m/
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At one point, Current 93 was pretty much just Dave Tibet, featuring Rose McDowell, Douglas Pearce and Tony Wakeford, at which point they were absolutely the best band in the universe.
Other good things, Cradle of Filth featuring Martin Walkyier covering the Sabbat song 'For Those Who Died' was brilliant. Shane Macgowan on Cruachan's 'Ride on': fucking A. Also, PLEASE DON'T TOUCH.
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Anything involving Meatloaf.
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Here's my list of great guest vocals:
Rap music is great for this one; I'd point out the singles from Dr. Dre's 2001 album, namely 'Still D.R.E.', 'What's The Difference?', 'Forgot About Dre' and 'The Next Episode,' which all have guests on them, mainly Snoop Dogg and Eminem.
Roy Harper on Pink Floyd's 'Have A Cigar'
A shitload of people including Shane McGowan on Nick Cave's cover of 'Death Is Not The End'
Thom Yorke on PJ Harvey's 'This Mess We're In'
Joan Baez on any of the songs she did with Bob Dylan
Emmylou Harris during her contributions to Bob Dylan's Desire album
Redefined on Good Question's 'Lifeplan (remix)' as well as that same groups Holly Snooke on both the original 'Lifeplan' and 'Sitting Quiet'
Rolf Harris on Kate Bush's 'A Sky Of Honey' suite
Ana Matronic on New Order's 'Jetstream'
Patti Smith on R.E.M.'s 'E-Bow The Letter'
Kylie Minogue on Robbie Williams' 'Kids'
Whoever that chick is with The Communards on 'Don't Leave Me This Way'
Whoever that other bloke is on The Pogues' 'The Irish Rover'
And, possibly the best guest vocal of all time:
Kylie Minogue on Nick Cave's 'Where The Wild Roses Grow'
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I think that Maynard did very well on that Deftones song..I cannot remember what it was called.
Also, the songs that Mikael Akerfeldt did the screaming vocals on the Sounds of Decay EP and Brave Murder Day by Katatonia were outstanding.
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So I come waltzing into this thread ready to expound the virtues of Emmylou Harris as a backing singer, noting how she is (and has been for thirty or so years) the very best in the world at accompanying other singers, providing examples of where she has exponentially improved other people's songs through her mere prescence, and noting how, even as she nears 60 years of age, she is also quite beautiful.
Then you guys go and do all of that stuff already. Well fuck you guys.
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ANTHRAX + PUBLIC ENEMY = \m/
is it wrong that I actually like this collaboration?
YEEEEEEAAAAHHH BOIIIII
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Here's my list of great guest vocals:
And, possibly the best guest vocal of all time:
Kylie Minogue on Nick Cave's 'Where The Wild Roses Grow'
Please tell me this is Internet sarcasm. If it's not, it may just break my fragile little mind.
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Actually, no...that song is incredible, and Kylie Minogue did it brilliantly.
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ANTHRAX + PUBLIC ENEMY = \m/
is it wrong that I actually like this collaboration?
Dude. No.
What?
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ANTHRAX + PUBLIC ENEMY = \m/
is it wrong that I actually like this collaboration?
YEEEEEEAAAAHHH BOIIIII
definitely not. that mix of musicians just worked perfectly
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Other good things, Cradle of Filth featuring Martin Walkyier covering the Sabbat song 'For Those Who Died' was brilliant. Shane Macgowan on Cruachan's 'Ride on': fucking A.
Amen.
Also: Ronnie James Dio on 'The Chase' by Queensryche.
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Delerium: every song
(The 'band' Delerium is just two guys making synth music; they get a different guest vocalist, almost invariably female, for every song. Who are all amazing.)
Anathema: Lee's guest vocals on A Natural Disaster and one of the new songs (she's listed as part of the band on the site so maybe it's a permanent arrangement now.)
Eric Oehler (Null Device) singing 'The Road To Hell' by Epsilon Minus.
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ALICE IN CHAINS => SAP => RIGHT TURN
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YEEEEEEAAAAHHH BOIIIII
Fuck yes.
Also, Mark Lanegan doing guest vocals on a Twilight Singers concert. Amazing.
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Here's my list of great guest vocals:
And, possibly the best guest vocal of all time:
Kylie Minogue on Nick Cave's 'Where The Wild Roses Grow'
Please tell me this is Internet sarcasm. If it's not, it may just break my fragile little mind.
Why the fuck would that be sarcasm? Nick Cave is probably my favourite musical artist outside of Dylan, and Kylie Minogue is one of the greatest pop stars of all time. Put the two together, you get one unlikely and brilliant collaboration.
And Mis, fuck you for seeing the Singers live, man.
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I like 'Where The Wild Roses Grow' ...
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My head is exploding. I was always pretty sure that "Where The Wild Roses Grow" was a horrible song. Now I don't know what to think...
Oh wait, yeah I do. It's fuckin ridiculous and just plain bad.
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It seems like some people dislike that song just because it has Kylie Minogue on it. This is a shame, because I think it's as good as anything Nick Cave has done. The whole Murder Ballads album is really great actually.
I really like that Kylie plays a very passive role in the song. She plays the pure and beautiful object of affection and victim to Nick Cave's dark and brooding (surprise surprise) killer, and her voice is very naive and gentle accordingly. Nick Cave said in an interview that he was interested in Kylie's voice as an instrument, and I think she proves her versatility in this respect.
And just a thought: if you're going to trash it, you should maybe think about using some reasoning. As much as we all just love baseless insults and abuse, I'm sure some people might actually be interested in your opinion if you presented it in an intelligent way. As it is, people might mistake you for some kind of huge jerk, which I am sure you are not.
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It just seems melodramatic, pretentious and rather silly to me. Yeah, it might have something to do with the fact that it's Kylie freaking Minogue on there that amps up the silliness of it to me, but maybe not.
Basically, beyond any of the above rationalisations, my visceral reaction to the song is that it's just not any good. My main criteria for liking music is my gut feelings about it, and I try not to over-analyse these things.
I generally have a love-hate relationship with Nick Cave anyway. A lot of his songs can make me weep but a lot of his songs can make me poke my tongue out.
In conclusion, I actually haven't heard anybody say they liked this song before this thread, and I was genuinely surprised wen someone said they did.
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Someday I will make an album with guest vocalists. Those vocalists will be Emmylou Harris, Ludacris, Jay-Z, Jim Jones and Andrew W.K. I envision sales that rhyme with "bipple-platinum."
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Also: Ronnie James Dio on 'The Chase' by Queensryche.
To be honest I'm not such a fan, when I heard Dio was going to be playing Doctor X I was pretty excited, he has a good voice but it doesn't fit the song or the character he's playing. Pamella Moore kinda blows him away (and Geof Tate for that matter) when it comes to the vocals on OMC2.
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Someday I will make an album with guest vocalists. Those vocalists will be Emmylou Harris, Ludacris, Jay-Z, Jim Jones and Andrew W.K. I envision sales that rhyme with "bipple-platinum."
I'd buy it.
As for Murder Ballads, I'm glad that it broke Nick. I think there are plenty of great songs on that record. But I think it's nowhere near his best record. I think its immediate predecessor and his 2004 release are both way better.
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How about David Bowie on Province by TV on the Radio? The way the vocals intertwined was pretty brilliant.
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I really love that Kylie collaboration too - but then, I'm a shameless pop lover too.
But it's pretty special.
Also, whenever Maria Taylor or Orenda Fink (Azure Ray) add their vocals to anything, it normally becomes impossibly beautiful...
In particular on Bright Eyes - Nothing Gets Crossed Out. A truly weep-worthy song.
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'From Her to Eternity' is unbeatable in my mind.
I've yet to reach that one. Because I started with Abattoir I decied to work backwards. I've got Henry's Dream next...basically, that'll be the last one I get.
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I think some great guest vocals are J. Mascis's guest vocals on the Mew song "Why Are You Feeling Grave?"
Good stuff. :-D
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juliana hatfield did some nice guest vocals on come on feel the lemonheads.
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In a way that makes you lucky.
If you think what you've heard so far is good wait until you get to his earlier albums. His first five in particular are awe-inspiring. Then you get to start on The Birthday Party! Now there's a great band.
But I have Firstborn Is Dead and I don't like it much. Outside of 'Tupelo,' obviously.
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I believe one song where a guest appearance makes the song is when Steve Wilson of Porcupine Tree takes over on the song "ShutDOWN" on O.S.I.'s first album.? After hearing Kevin Moore's voice for the whole album up to that point, Steve Wilson just comes out of nowhere and wakes you up.
An example of where I hate guest vocals is when they're done simply to market a smaller band on a larger band's song, or to vice versaly use Star Power to shine light on a smaller band's song.? For instance, and humorously enough, they both involve Amy Lee of Evanescence... when Paul McCoy (I think that was his name) of 12 Stones appeared and just yelled incoherently a little bit on their Bring Me to Life song, and when Amy Lee appeared on Seether's "Broken."? Boy, that was just awful.? Another example, and it makes me sad to reference this, is when Doug (dUg) Pinnick of King's X appeared on Dream Theater's Falling into Infinity album.? As great as both bands are and as interesting as Pinnick's backup vox were, it was just total Elektra interference and meddling.? I would've gotten away with a good album, too, if it wasn't for you meddlin' record label executives and your damnable dog!