10) Gwen Stefani
Hush up now. Gwen Stefani's willingness to legally bind herself to Gavin Rosdale doesn't diminish the sexiness at her core. There's actually a traceable rise to her allure. During No Doubt's formative days, she literally was just a girl, interchangeable with any adorable punk chick hanging out at some Anaheim skate park. Tragic Kingdom saw her morph into a pop-rock poster girl and that kick started her ascension; watch those videos for "Don't Speak" and "Spiderwebs" and the glimmer's there. But it wasn't until lead Rock Steady single "Hey Baby" dropped in 2001 that she became a supernatural force. No Doubt's pop-to-dub transformation finally gave the honey in her voice just the right amount of bitterness. — J.C. |
|
9) Nico
Few frontwomen were ever more steeped in chic eroticism than Nico: she was discovered as a teenager selling lingerie, she acted in Fellini films, she worked with Coco Chanel, and she was handpicked by Warhol to be one of his shiniest superstars. Though she played muse for Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop and the Rolling Stones, her collaborations with the Velvet Undergound cemented her place in history. She'd managed to kick her heroin habit just before she died in a motorcycle crash. Those baby-doll eyes and that velvet voice will always make you breathe a little heavier. — M.L. |
|
8) Chrissie Hynde
Let's keep it simple here: nobody, in all of history, has ever made jeans look that goddamn good. Period. Do not argue with us. We know who does and does not look good in jeans and Chrissie Hynde is the reigning deity of looking good in jeans. It is convenient that she also rocks hard. Hynde's Pretenders have been less a band and more a tricked-out roadster she's used to drive across the last three decades, adjusting sexiness and musical style as the era demands. She has never slowed, never stopped. Her voice is as smokey and sweet on "Brass in Pocket" as it is in "Break Up the Concrete". — J.C.
|
|
7) P.J. Harvey
Polly Jean scares the shit out of us. Most of the time. Dry? Terrifying. Rid of Me? We're hiding under the bed. Is This Desire? Man, that album made Nick Cave uncomfortable. Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea? Well, holy shit, P.J. That record makes us just want to ask you to the dance, come home after the dance, then have breakfast at that badass bed-and-breakfast up off Route 9. Miss Harvey was at her sexiest on her most straightforward rock album, laying down lines like, "I can't believe that the axis turns on suffering, when you taste so good." — J.C. |
|
6) Nina Hagen
German punk icon Nina Hagen probably gets the prize for "sexiest prose ever elicited from a Der Spiegel journalist," as the subject of this humdinger: "She thrusts herself into the music, aggressively, directly, furiously, roars in the most beautiful opera alto, then, through shrieks and squeals, precipitates into luminous soprano heights, she parodies, satirises, and howls on stage like a dervish." But even a verbal pileup like that can't fully capture the unhinged, genre-busting eroticism of Hagen on stage. A word of warning: she's probably incredible in bed, but we imagine all of her sexual encounters ending in post-coital decapitations, praying-mantis style. — P.S.
|
