Giles

I recently saw Razorlight at the 9:30 Club and was throughly disappointed. While I thought the album was very good, "live" I found them to be extremely repetitive and ultimately quite dull. It was the first show in ages where I just left after 40 minutes, the last one I walked on was Reef and before that Teenage Fanclub - their "Thirteen" album is not my personal fave from them.

Interestingly the Washington Post just reviewed last Friday night's The Music/Kasabian show - and after having read the not so glowing review from the former, I am kind of glad I didn't fork out my money to see this show. While the Post raved about Kasabian and stated that they should have been the headliner, the article noted that nearly a quarter of the audience left after five songs from the Music.

Which leads me to my question for those who try and follow the British music rags - which band(s) have you thought were overrated either in album or in concert form?

Hiro11

coldplay To me they haven't bested "Yellow". "A Rush of Blood..." is extremely overrated.

Teenage Fanclub's "Bandwagonesque" and "A Catholic Education" are both terrific, can't say they're overrated.

dick_grayson

parachutes is an incredible album (in my opinion).

Hiro11

I agree, it's pretty damn good and a lot better than "A Rush...".

Giles

I agree with about "Rush of Blood" only three songs really stand out for me
- In My Place
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
- The Scientist

"Parachutes" though is in my opinion alot better.

as for Teenage Fanclub, I was introduced to the band by "Thirteen" which was both crictically panned by critics and fans, so it wasn't the best way to get introduced to the band by this album.

dick_grayson

I am anticipating Radiohead to be on this list. I think they're genius and deserve all the credit they receive (probably more) but I've seen a lot of times people call them overrated. I usually ignore their opinions, however, when I read that.

eisenreich

Travis. After the amazing album, "The Man Who," the rest have been so-so..

Hollowgen

the who

Hiro11

Any band that made both "The Bends" and "OK Computer" (both of which are completely worthy of the hype, IMO) are not overrated.

MJG87

The Beatles...yeah I said it

benedict

[BANNED]

Ahem.

The Black

Coldplay.

Jesus can that guy write a song that's not formed by finding words that rhyme and sound interesting? The songs have no meaning whatsoever! And their music is a lame ripoff of Radiohead.


Others that spring to mind:
Babyshambles (Libertines first album was great, but cooooome on!?)
The Others (Complete crap)

So many other bands.

B.A.

Travis's last album, 12 Memories, was very, very mediocre after putting out two pretty good albums (The Man Who; The Invisible Band).

Coldplay is worthy of every ounce of hype they get and more, imo.

I avoided Radiohead for years because I thought they were over-hyped, but then I succumbed and actually bought The Bends and OK Computer after enjoying Hail To The Thief. Amazing records. But I still haven't sat down and listened to Kid A or Amnesiac...

Giles

I actually like "The Invisible Band" over "The Man Who"

as for Kid A and Amnesiac, one listen and that was it... these two albums never achieved the brilliance of "The Bends" or "OK Computer" when Radiohead could actually write a memorable tune.

cdollaz

Oasis

Giles

Robbie Williams



who?

his attempt at US fame was very short lived.

Jason

The Darkness
Oasis

redhenry

Coldplay - boring and tuneless
Radiohead - introverted and morbid
Oasis - shite tunes and di.ckheads to boot

"Flame on!"

chess

must... resist... flaming...

Suffice it to say that the only things even remotely interesting in music right now are coming out of Britain.

Radiohead hasn't done anything good in the past few years, but their first 3 albums are fucking insanely good

Coldplay has one really good album (parachutes) and one amazing album (rush) under their belt.

Keane?
Aqualung?
Athlete?
Blur?
James?
Travis?
Muse?

I'll second Oasis so as not to threadcrap a crap thread.

What U.S. band has done anything even remotely interesting in the past 5 years? Seriously, I can't think of anything. The White Stripes are pretty good, but face it, the last truly brilliant stuff from the U.S. came out in the mid 90's. I'm listening to Siamese Dream right now, and I can only think of a couple U.S. albums after it that really did it for me...and it came out in 1993 for fuck's sake!

Daytripper

Couldn't have said it better myself. Two instant classics. Followed by......two albums by them I never ever listen to. I'm all for bands experimenting and trying something new, but this was too much for me. I truly dislike "Kid A" and "Amnesiac". But felt they rebounded beautifully with "Hail To The Thief". Welcome back Radiohead! Regarding Coldplay, I personally love everything they've done. I hear their new album goes a little electronic. From NME.com:

Chris Martin told NME.COM: "Writing is what we’ve been doing all day, every day. It’s been quite turbulent. We’ve been through a lot of songs and a lot of sounds, a lot of studios. It took us a long time to realise the four of us should go into a rehearsal room again and play together rather than rely on technological assistance."

NME.COM heard six tracks – ‘Square One’, ‘Talk’, ‘‘Till Kingdom Come’, ‘X&Y’, ‘What If’ and ‘The Hardest Part’. The material shows a huge progression from the classic Coldplay sound, mixing their trademark anthems with ’70s electronica. David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Brian Eno are all influences, while ‘Talk’ features the riff from Kraftwerk’s ‘Computer Love’.

Hollowgen

if you get your music from mtv and what wins grammys, then maybe i can see where you're coming from. if you're really into finding where the good music is at, try a local record store for some independent label music. or listen to your local non-clear channel radio. seriously, there's been a ton of great music. white stripes included.

Dan

Coldplay are unbelievably bad to my ears. Even the first time I heard Yellow, before I knew anything about who they were or what the rest of their music was like, I was bored before the end of the song. He loves a girl and the stars are yellow. Got it. Overrated.

On the topic of Radiohead, I've never been a big fan. They're good. Definitely. I don't have a problem with their music, per se, (although Hail to the Thief was rather dull), but more with the sect of Radiohead fans that say "if you don't like Radiohead, you know shit about music". That's like the reviewer of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow who said "if you don't like this movie, you don't like movies!".

And, because Scotland is "close enough", I'm going to mention Franz Ferdinand as well. They are amazingly horrible. I "get" the whole rockin' dance club genre, and I can accept mediocre lyrics/musicianship as a result, but come on...

This fire is out of control
I'm going to burn this city
Burn this city
If this fire is out of control
Then i
I'm out of control
And i burn

Mikael79

Speaking of Scotland, Teenage Fanclub and Travis also hail from there, so aren't technically British bands.

maxinquaye

i think every band praised in this thread is overrated...

...except for radiohead.

(i also think that, right now, much more interesting music is coming out of America than Britain. but i guess that's for a different thread.)

Hiro11

This is almost too stupid to warrent a response, but what the hell.

Have you listened to any:
Interpol
Shins
!!!
Spoon
...and you will know us by the trail of dead
Fountains of Wayne
Les Savy Fave
Death Cab for Cutie (or Postal Service)
Kings of Leon
Drive by Truckers
Madvillain
Modest Mouse
Dismemberment Plan
French Kicks
Walkmen
Flaming Lips
Mercury Rev
Polyphonic Spree
etc.
Lately? Didn't think so. If you have, then WTF are you talking about?