Most Overrated Artists/Albums?

[Offshore Toon]

Sergeant Pepper's tbh.

[Giggles]

Fucking Radiohead.

Muse.
Queens of the Stone Age.
The Strokes.

[Lewis]

I never realised how many people thought Prince was the bees knees until he croaked. Why?

[Offshore Toon]

I never realised how many people thought Prince was the bees knees until he croaked. Why?
I dunno. I swear nobody cared about The Rolling Stones or Fleetwood Mac until they had HUGE tours, but I probably just wasn't paying attention.

[Spammer]

Radiohead

Nirvana

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

+1 for Nirvana.

[John]

Prince released about three hundred albums so it's probably inevitable that everyone will love at least one of his songs.

[SvN]

Sgt Pepper is brilliant, but still probably slightly overrated. It's not even their best album, let alone the best of all time.

[-james-]

Bruce Springsteen has always passed me by.

More recently, Chance the Rapper. He seems to be ubiquitous now but I can't listen to him at all. I think it's his voice.

[Spammer]

Most mainstream hip-hop is fucking garbage if you ask me.

[Offshore Toon]

Radiohead (I do like some of there songs but there massively overrated).

Metallica

Prodigy

The Doors

Greenday
The Prodigy's early work is incredible. Even the fourth album, which I didn't think much of at the time, has stood very well against the test of time.

More recently, Chance the Rapper. He seems to be ubiquitous now but I can't listen to him at all. I think it's his voice.
I really didn't care for his last album but he seems to have blown up from it. The two albums/mixtapes before that were great, though.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgSDuvqHt-0

His voice is definitely unique, so I can see how it might be a sticking point like Danny Brown's (though not quite as extreme).

[Offshore Toon]

Most mainstream hip-hop is fucking garbage if you ask me.
There's a tranny rapper called Mykki Blanco that you might like.

[Shindig]

Prince released about three hundred albums so it's probably inevitable that everyone will love at least one of his songs.

Or the songs he wrote for other people. Prodigy are great. Fat of the Land and Invaders Must Die are fantastic.

Kanye West. Explain him to me. Has some great singles but the rest of his stuff is rough.

[Offshore Toon]

What do you mean by rough? As far as hip hop goes his discrography is rather varied so it depends what you're looking for as to whether you might like one of his songs/albums. Basically, he made amazing beats, then he selected/orchestrated amazing beats all while constantly moving in new directions and having a (imo very likeable) persona that demands attention.

[Lewis]

I'm convinced that most people rate 2Pac off the back of that double greatest hits album, since his actual albums are mostly crap.

[Shindig]

I think that's my problem with him. He can't stick in whatever one of his directions it is that I actually like. Power's great. Stronger's wank (building a song off the bulk of another song is the kind of shit Will Smith pulls), BLLLK SKNNN HEAD is great. I don't entirely rate Niggas in Paris because the beat seems like something Dizzy Rascal would be proud of.

Pick a direction, rap about killing cops and take lots of cocaine, please.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Bruce Springsteen has always passed me by.

I'm aboard with this one. Absolutely awful voice, no talent, terrible songs. What is it that people like, the lyrics?

Bob Dylan is probably the most overrated person/thing/concept ever, never mind singer.

[Offshore Toon]

I'm convinced that most people rate 2Pac off the back of that double greatest hits album, since his actual albums are mostly crap.
Quite a lot of his work hasn't dated too well, but he has so many good tracks. In terms of personality he had it all as well. If he hadn't died he'd have probably gone into acting and wouldn't be remembered in the same way, but people love a story in hip hop.

[Giggles]

Can't believe I forgot Dylan. Top of the list.

[Offshore Toon]

I think that's my problem with him. He can't stick in whatever one of his directions it is that I actually like. Power's great. Stronger's wank (building a song off the bulk of another song is the kind of shit Will Smith pulls), BLLLK SKNNN HEAD is great. I don't entirely rate Niggas in Paris because the beat seems like something Dizzy Rascal would be proud of.

Pick a direction, rap about killing cops and take lots of cocaine, please.
Stronger is a bit wank, but I wouldn't be giving Daft Punk too much credit there either. I'd rate Graduation as his worst album and its probably the most pop he's gone. You're older than me so you must have listened to College Dropout? Just start from the beginning and work your way through. 808s & Heartbreak isn't for everybody, but I love it. You'll probably be alright with Yeezus but that turns some people off because its a lot heavier than the rest of his work.

[Lewis]

I don't like Bob Dylan, but I 'get it'. Think of him as Elvis for remain voters.

[Pepe]

Whoever was the cunt that won the Noble prize. Fucking lol at that. Almost as bad as Obama winning it.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I don't like Bob Dylan, but I 'get it'. Think of him as Elvis for remain voters.

Elvis is fun though. Bob Dylan is just wanking on about nebulous concepts and crap metaphors in a terrible voice and a FUCKING mouth organ.

[Spoonsky]

I probably haven't listened enough, but I'm yet to understand how the Rolling Stones are comparable to the Beatles.

[Shindig]

It's a comparison purely on the time they hit the charts. Much like Oasis vs Blur 30 years later.

[Lewis]

You can see how they first got massive, but once they were massive other bands were doing that stuff better than them, so yeah I've always thought their status is slightly inflated.

[Raoul Duke]

Pink Floyd are a load of studenty guitar wanking and utter bollocks lyrics, fronted up by a nonce and a mentalist

[Offshore Toon]

Everybody was a nonce back in the good old days.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T13se_2A7c8

[Lewis]

People go too far either way with Pink Floyd. Their two good albums (that, and Wish You Were Here) are brilliant, but the rest is terrible.

[Alex]

Pink Floyd would be my number one nomination as well, I could just never get on board with it. Even when I was a teenager, and consuming as much classic rock as I could get my hands on, I knew they weren't for me. Raoul has summed my feelings up on the matter far better than I ever could have myself.

Also, the Sex Pistols. I know it was just one album, but I could never get into it. There just seemed to be something very contrived about it all. John Lydon always strikes me as a total try-hard with his whole snarling, scary face of the anti-establishment schtick. I resent the fact that his opinion is still occasionally presented to me by the music press as that of a "legend", and therefore something I should give a shit about.

I also think the Stone Roses are quite overrated. I don't dislike them at all, and won't deny they have a few great tunes, but that's really about it. They just didn't do enough to warrant the reputation they seem to have earned, for me. I'm sure it may well have been one of those "you really had be there at the time" sort of things though.

[Shindig]

People go too far either way with Pink Floyd. Their two good albums (that, and Wish You Were Here) are brilliant, but the rest is terrible.

Agreed. Syd was the worst thing about them. Once he shifted, they had a spell of greatness before Waters shat it up the actual Wall. Sex Pistols are weird. They're impactful but Nevermind the Bollocks is all over the place. And I was thinking about The Stone Roses. Their debut is great but there's probably two songs on it that don't deserve to be there. Their debut is all there is, too.

[-james-]

The Ramones are worse than The Sex Pistols. Does anyone actually listen to them?

[Lewis]

Tim Lovejoy.

[Spammer]

Agreed. Syd was the worst thing about them. Once he shifted, they had a spell of greatness before Waters shat it up the actual Wall. Sex Pistols are weird. They're impactful but Nevermind the Bollocks is all over the place. And I was thinking about The Stone Roses. Their debut is great but there's probably two songs on it that don't deserve to be there. Their debut is all there is, too.

I agree with that. From Dark Side onwards though I really like their stuff. Not sure how anyone can listen to Dark Side of the Moon and say they've got 'utter bollocks' lyrics, but whevs.


Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

Every year is getting shorter; never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say.

:cool:

[Jimmy Floyd]

Dark Side of the Moon is an absolute timeless masterpiece, the rest I can take or leave (even The Wall).

[Raoul Duke]

The Ramones are worse than The Sex Pistols. Does anyone actually listen to them?

I quite like them. Listened to them just the other day. Good scuzzy guitar pop

[Jimmy Floyd]

The Stones are as big as they are because all the hipsters and journos back in the 60s were based in London, and London needed its own Beatles. Plus they were pretty good, and their various members made for good copy.

I'd put Oasis on this list as well. Once you've heard one song, you've heard them all. Blur far superior.

[phonics]

Stones v Beatles is definitely not a London/Liverpool thing. It's just your traditional Pop v Rock argument as well as an age thing. My Dad being 6 years older than my Mum was way more interested in the Stones while my Mum is all about the Beatles which seems to be consistent across the rest of the family and they're all Birmingham.

[The Merse]

Rod Stewart / The Faces
Metallica

Also, this'll sound a bit odd given the names being mentioned here but... Rueben and Turbonegro. I like the former a lot, the latter are ok as a part band, but both inspire cult devotion in alt music land - references the former being omnipresent at the better class of festivals and the latter's 'Turbojugend' fan club seemingly everywhere in the hardcore circuit (despite not being a hardcore band) based on the number of denim jackets adorned with the back patches.

[Clunge]

Queen. Fucking shite.

'Cept for Killer Queen, which is an enormous tune.

Oh, and REM too.

[Offshore Toon]

Almost all punk bands are shit. That was the whole point, wasn't it? Any of the good ones soon abandoned the punk sound (like The Clash).

The Ramones are worse than The Sex Pistols. Does anyone actually listen to them?
Wearing a Ramones shirt is a great way to out yourself as a wrong'un. You either wear t-shirts of bands that you don't like or you have terrible taste.

[Giggles]

Dark Side of the Moon is an absolute timeless masterpiece, the rest I can take or leave (even The Wall).

Animals is probably their best.

[The Merse]

Not a massive fan of the Ramones catalogue but there are a couple of bangers in there. Pet Semmetary, Sheena and Blitzkreig Bop being cracking dance tunes.

I'll add Motörhead though. Literally just Bomber that is of any worth outside of the now completely ruined Ace of Spades.

The Libertines might be up for this as well, given the sparcity of anything exciting outside of their debut album, even including the output from their 'other' bands - Yeti are shite, DPT are shite, Babyshambles have only Albion of any worth.

[Shindig]

I feel like those 2000's bands slipped out of relevance as people moved on to the next one. Nobody's running up to me and going, "YEAH! THE STROKESS!11!!"

[Jimmy Floyd]

I discovered the Strokes pretty late and, again, think Is This It is a masterpiece and everything else is worthless.

[Adamski]

Is This It is fantastic, one of my favourite albums. I really liked Room on Fire as well and even a couple from First Impressions of Earth but haven't heard anything since.

[Offshore Toon]

The Ramones are pretty good I think.
Yet you think Pink Floyd are "fucking awful" and The Doors are overrated? You really are a mess in all walks of life.

[Offshore Toon]

Animals is probably their best.
Definitely underrated. Probably because few people have listened to it, though.

[Spammer]

The Strokes are just middle-of-the-road indie wank.

'Dogs' is a good 'un on the Animals album. I think it comes last out of their 'Big 4' albums, although it's still properly good.

[Lewis]

The Libertines might be up for this as well, given the sparcity of anything exciting outside of their debut album, even including the output from their 'other' bands - Yeti are shite, DPT are shite, Babyshambles have only Albion of any worth.

You alright mate? If somebody had said this a few years ago you would have been PMing them 'fight me irl' for weeks.

[The Merse]

You alright mate? If somebody had said this a few years ago you would have been PMing them 'fight me irl' for weeks.

I did wonder if anyone would bring my past defence of the Libs up, but err... Let's face it, Up The Bracket will stand the test of time and be defined as a classic, the second album has its moments but is over an produced product of inflated commercial ambition and he third is a lamentable puff piece delivered by a group of men who only remember who they once were - to be fair, devoid of a lot of the pretension but ultimately uninteresting without it.

I'll remember 2002-2004 fondly and leave the rest to those who've let their fingers fall off the pulse.

[John]

Merse on Music is always great fun. It's like someone ran a Pitchfork review through Shindig's contextless world.

Plenty of people I know worship Queens of the Stone Age, and I've never quite got it. Songs for the Deaf is a cracking album with some quality riffs, but everything I've heard from all their other albums has been bland rubbish.

[Spammer]

I did wonder if anyone would bring my past defence of the Libs up, but err... Let's face it, Up The Bracket will stand the test of time and be defined as a classic, the second album has its moments but is over an produced product of inflated commercial ambition and he third is a lamentable puff piece delivered by a group of men who only remember who they once were - to be fair, devoid of a lot of the pretension but ultimately uninteresting without it.

I'll remember 2002-2004 fondly and leave the rest to those who've let their fingers fall off the pulse.

I think you're forgetting that the first album is shit too :thbup:

[Offshore Toon]

The Libertines are hailed because they're the best out to have come out of years of indie shite. Admittedly, as you get older the lyrics start to fall apart and you realise how much they were charlatans, but I still love 'em for what they are. I also thought Dirty Pretty Things' first album was pretty good, but I haven't listened to it in a long time.

[Alex]

Down In Albion was alright, I can't remember much about the second one. From what I can remember of the time, Babyshambles seemed to have a load of really great material floating around the internet before they actually released a debut album and then nothing afterwards really seemed to measure up.

[Offshore Toon]

I remember Killamangiro and that's it.

[Adamski]

Albion was a Libertines song.

Fuck Forever was alright as well.

[mikem]

Bruce is the epitome of the classic American road act. They all were overly popular for a short time and faced a backlash. The cool critics / kids liked Dylan not Bruce, the Doors not the Dead, whoever it was and not Rush, or Nirvana not Pearl Jam. They may have a few decent records but all their fans will tell you their favorite version is the live one. They play 100 - 200 shows a year at places only Beyoncé or Taylor Swift can sellout even though they haven't toured behind a record in years. And eventually they endure long enough behind a great 2-3 hour long live act with no U2 / Coldplay big rock act gimmicks that they become quirkily respected in their weird earnest way. Or they are live music for people who see 2 live shows a year?

Do these groups exist in the U.K.?

[Reg]

Led Zeppelin
Queen

[Jimmy Floyd]

Queen singles are mostly great, but once you start delving into the albums and find tracks which involve Freddie singing into a bucket, or worse still tracks with Brian May on leads vocals, the edifice starts to crumble a little bit.

[Spammer]

Queen's disco funk album was the fucking balls.

Hot Space :cool:

[Lewis]

If you don't like that sort of music then fair enough, but it's not possible to overrate Led Zeppelin if you do.

[Giggles]

Led Zeppelin

Heathen.

[Shindig]

When it comes to Queens of the Stone Age, they were more interesting when Nick was in the band. And not as good as Kyuss.

[Shindig]

Bruce is the epitome of the classic American road act.

Do these groups exist in the U.K.?

Sadly not. Our lot are too concerned with 'cracking America'. Or maybe most British acts have an ambition to headline Glastonbury, Leeds or Reading and that's it.

[Reg]

If you don't like that sort of music then fair enough, but it's not possible to overrate Led Zeppelin if you do.
I love a lot of rock, and some heavy stuff, and I love some blues. But I've never really enjoyed them. Partly because I find the vocals off putting. They don't seem to have aged well at all. I prefer Robert Plant's other stuff from what I've heard of it.

[Shindig]

Oh, that might win. Although, who really talks about them besides themselves? And Robert Plant's voice is fucking terrible.

[Clunge]

When it comes to Queens of the Stone Age, they were more interesting when Nick was in the band. And not as good as Kyuss.
I think they've got even better without Nick, although I love both 'eras' of QOTSA.

Kyuss are fucking mega though. Sky Valley is a 10/10 album.

[Offshore Toon]

Robert Plant has the greatest voice in rock. Listen to Dazed And Confused by The Yardbirds, then Zeppelin's. Plant takes it to another level.

Some proper nonce stuff from Reg and Shindig here.

[Lewis]

Fact.

[Raoul Duke]

Merse on Music is always great fun. It's like someone ran a Pitchfork review through Shindig's contextless world.

Plenty of people I know worship Queens of the Stone Age, and I've never quite got it. Songs for the Deaf is a cracking album with some quality riffs, but everything I've heard from all their other albums has been bland rubbish.

QOTSA are great, but outside of SFTD the albums can be patchy. The latest album was great start-to-finish though, for me.


Bruce is the epitome of the classic American road act. They all were overly popular for a short time and faced a backlash. The cool critics / kids liked Dylan not Bruce, the Doors not the Dead, whoever it was and not Rush, or Nirvana not Pearl Jam. They may have a few decent records but all their fans will tell you their favorite version is the live one. They play 100 - 200 shows a year at places only Beyoncé or Taylor Swift can sellout even though they haven't toured behind a record in years. And eventually they endure long enough behind a great 2-3 hour long live act with no U2 / Coldplay big rock act gimmicks that they become quirkily respected in their weird earnest way. Or they are live music for people who see 2 live shows a year?

Do these groups exist in the U.K.?

Not really, because we don't really have that many venues so it's a bit harder to sustain. Probably the equivalent (albeit not success-wise) is maybe someone like The Fall or Belle & Sebastian: bands who can tour any time and likely fill a venue (of much-smaller-than-stadium-size).

[Offshore Toon]

Muse seems to have been getting by on their live act for a long, long time now.

[Spammer]

I genuinely thought they were proper good live.

[Offshore Toon]

I'd already assumed Leeds was wrong given his form in this thread.

[Giggles]

Peppers haven't been good since the Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour.

[Adamski]

I really liked Californication and By The Way in my youth, probably due to them coming out then.

[Spammer]

Mother's Milk is my favourite album by them. That first song :drool:

Johny Kicked a Hole in the Sky is a top choon as well.

[Giggles]

Mother's Milk is my favourite album by them. That first song :drool:

Johny Kicked a Hole in the Sky is a top choon as well.

Mother's Milk was class :drool:

[Offshore Toon]

Chilli Peppers were great and they should have dropped the name to preserve their legacy.

[Reg]

Chili Peppers have been great every time I've seen them live. They miss John Frusciante, but The Getaway was a lot better than I'm With You.

[Spammer]

I saw them with Frusciante :cool:

Also, Flea is a Sheffield United fan. Trufax.

[nsd]

I've not listened to RHCP since Stadium Arcadium came out (2005?), that had a few good songs but like most double albums, it could've been compressed into one better single-disc. I still enjoy By The Way from time to time. Their topics get a little stale too, there's only so many times you can listen to drugs and California.

Muse I'm not a huge fan of, but I've seen them live twice and they were phenomenal both times. No other act I've seen has achieved the sheer force of sound that they have.

[Reg]

I saw them with Frusciante :cool:

Also, Flea is a Sheffield United fan. Trufax.
Me too but I wish I did a few more times, and when I was older. It was on the Stadium Acardium tour at Madjeski Stadium.


I've not listened to RHCP since Stadium Arcadium came out (2005?), that had a few good songs but like most double albums, it could've been compressed into one better single-disc. I still enjoy By The Way from time to time. Their topics get a little stale too, there's only so many times you can listen to drugs and California.
I think it might have gone down as a modern classic if they'd picked about 14 songs. I'm glad they released them all though, as you can make your own playlists. Especially with the Chilis as the track sequencing is never too important now. It probably only was on Blood Sugar with the big contrasts like I Could Have Lied coming right after Suck My Kiss.

[Spammer]

Yeah Sonic Youth are shit.

[igor_balis]

I actually really like the 2nd Babyshambles album. Some lovely songs on there. Libertines and all that lot were deffo emporor's new clothes though, even though I was a big fan when I was 14.

I really don't like the XX or any of those painfully cool, minimalist sorta-electronicky indie bands that were really in about 5 years ago either, though I'm willing to write it off as my own shit taste rather than them being overrated.

I think the Arctic Monkeys are dead overrated. First album is pretty fun, but everything since has done nowt for me. I went on a mediocre night out with my mate, his older cousin and all of her mates. The three of us ended up until about 4am when I just wanted to be asleep by about 12, and the last hour or so was the two of them playing the latest AM album on her shit record player, drunkenly waxing lyrical about how "you know, this album, it is just...the anthem of being like, in your 20s, you know? they are the band of a generation" etc. Not for me.

[Reg]

The Arctic Monkeys' first album is very good, and was particularly great at the time. For years after that I didn't like any of the other stuff I'd heard. But then AM was really cool, the way they went more bassy and got into RnB melodies was a welcome surprise.

[igor_balis]

It just sounded like the XX to me, but again it's probably my own undiscerning tastes.

[Lewis]

Suck It and See is one of the most boring albums ever made, but the others are all sound.

[Giggles]

I saw them with Frusciante :cool:

Also, Flea is a Sheffield United fan. Trufax.

I'm near sure I did too, was 1992 and I think he didn't go til after that. Who was after him, Navarro?

[igor_balis]

I'm probably just a classist pretentious cunt. If they had a softly spoken singer from Glasgow and slipped in a few literary references I'd probz say they were the best band ever.

[Reg]

I'm near sure I did too, was 1992 and I think he didn't go til after that. Who was after him, Navarro?
Yeah, then John again, now Josh Klinghoffer (who is loads better live than he was). Klinghoffer's other work is worth checking out - the Ataxia albums and all the Frusciante albums he's on, as well as Dot Hacker and Bicycle Thief.

By the way I think 92 could have been John but also one of the temporary guitarists they went with for a bit. He quit on the Blood Sugar tour so around then.

[Alex]

Suck It and See is one of the most boring albums ever made, but the others are all sound.

I really liked Suck It and See. I think Black Treacle is one of their best songs, and it contains a top ten Alex Turner moment for the excessively Yorkshire manner in which he pronounces the word "alright". It's the second and third albums that I tend to go back to the least, although I think they generally have a very good catalogue.

One thing I always wonder with the Arctic Monkeys, is whether or not they've reached an age yet where they really wish they'd come up with a better name. They must have. Because it really is awful, isn't it? I suppose it's alright when you're teenager in a band with you're mates and you think it's funny because it's "random", or whatever. But when you've hit thirty and have become one of the biggest bands in the world it's just a bit embarrassing.

[-james-]

I like all of them, though I'm not sure I'll ever listen to Favourite Worst Nightmare again.

[Raoul Duke]

AM is fucking great

[Adamski]

First Arctic Monkeys is right up there for me as one of my top albums but would agree with Igor that everything afterwards has been a bit meh up until AM which I liked but didn't love.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Arctic Monkeys are one of those where no matter what they do and how many decent or better albums they release, certainly in the public imagination and arguably in quality (and certainly in pure energy) they're never going to top the first two tracks on Album 1, so it's almost pointless.

[Clunge]

The xx are abysmal.