Seriously? Is REM's Man on the Moon a ballad? I liked that though I continue to regard REM - like U2 - with suspicion. I loved Queensryche's Silent Lucidity for all its Beatles and Floyd connotations, but that was late eighties. Admittedly (and scarcely Nirvana influenced) I also liked Meatloaf's Objects in the Rear View Mirror, one of Steinman's masterpieces. Oh, and I'm a sucker for Neil Young's Harvest Moon. And now that I've embarassed myself sufficiently, I can also say that even Glenn Frey's most muzaky early nineties stuff strikes a major chord with me like Part of me, part of you. Struggling for credibility, I loved Iggy's ballads on American Cesar and the follow up with that song "My little Nazi girlfriend". Yes, I'm a whimp, I like Herr Pop better on ballads than on the harder stuff where his voice is much more one-dimensional.
Uwe