Joni Mitchell – underrated. She’s only known to the general public for “Both Sides Now” – OK, but not one of her best and maybe as the songwriter of “Big Yellow Taxi” (though her version – rarely played – is better than any other). Albums like Ladies of the Canyon, Blue* and Court and Spark are superb and she’s much superior to someone like Judy Collins or Joan Baez, who are much better known these days.
Couldnt agree more with RealityChuck, Joni should be lauded for her musical contributions, she also was a standout (to me, at least) in “The Last Waltz”…
How about Los Lobos?
I would say overrated. They got La Bamba of course; I’ve heard they were pretty tight - other than that I got nothin’.
Steeleye Span.
Steeleye Span
Way underrated. Great musicians, interesting arrangements and Maddy Prior had one of the all time great folk voices – up there with Sandy Denny, Annie Haslam and Jacqui McShee. Below the Salt and Parcel of Rogues were damn near perfect albums, too.
Patty Griffin
Overrated IMHO.
To me they encapsulate so much of what’s bad about prog rock (pretentiousness, heavy-handedness and just plain not knowing when to end a song) and so little of what can be great about it (intricate, demanding ensemble playing and musical innovation).
The end of 1cS giving Tool more chances to change his mind about them came with “Schism,” the lead track off of Lateralus, where they seemed to drone away on the same boneheaded riff for ten minutes.
ETA: rather than throw another name into the bucket, let me just consider this tying off one of the ends.
Tool-overrated. A distinctive, ominous sound, usually recognizable as Tool, but once that wears through they’re just another competent hard rock band. With some creepy-ass videos!
Steve Earle
Underrated (read: unknown) by the general public, neither over- nor underrated by alt-country fans. Great songwriting, great musicianship.
Throbbing Gristle.
…Jeez, was it something I said?..
Just in case people want to start this up again:
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Sorry, Throbbing Gristle is tough because I’ve only heard a couple songs and thought they were awful, yet I never hear anyone talk about how great they are, so I’d have to say barely overrated? I dunno Nick Cave much at all so I will let someone else handle it.
Have to go with underrated. Despite being overly wanked by every critic who wanted to appear hip they are actually a great band who have produced some interesting stuff (though some of it is self-absorbed drek they do at least try to expand past their own fan base).
Elvis Presley (odd choice but curious).
I don’t have a comment on whether Elvis is over or underrated.
But he is not an odd choice…Maybe chalk it up to my age…but I have no idea who the hell half these people are. I enjoy this game, and I like it so much more when I know the people
Well odd choice because he was called the King (not a self-appointed title either) so that assumes overrated from the get go. Which is why I’m curious as to the response.
I’m actually looking up some of the artists listed whose work I am not familiar with so this has been a fun thread on several levels.
Elvis was overrated at his peak but is underrated now. He had a great voice and could sing any style well. He recorded alot of crap because his handlers found out that anything he did sold. When he got a good song he made it great. People look down on him now because of who his fans are, but he was a great singer.
Pearl Jam
There’s a dangling Rufus Wainright left over from post #8 that I’d like to address - hugely overrated. Just because you admit to being a poseur doesn’t make you any more profound. I’ve never understood what any of the fuss is about. He was beaten to his take on ‘Halelujah’ by Jeff Buckley by about three years, and I think that was his best work.
What about XTC?
Over-rated. The epitome of youthful angsty “rage” being formatted & packaged for mass consumption. Every song they did was essentially the same.
“EEEEEEEEveeen floooooooOoOOOOOww…”
“JEEEEEEEreemmEEEEeEeeeOoOowwww…”
“In My REAARRRview MIRRRRRorrroOoOoo…”
Frank Sinatra
Going to go with overrated on Sinatra. Suprisingly limited vocal range and he was teen sensation who got more than a little lucky. I found him to be more style than substance.
That said, I think he was underrated as an actor.
BION, XTC, for all their fanboys and admirers in the music community, are still a tad underrated, still shut out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and dismissed by a few music critics (like Robert Cristgau, who once wrote them off as “pop formalists”). Yet their early albums remain classics of the oft-disrespected genre of pop-punk (too accessible for some punk fans, but too punk for many radio formats), their middle period remains as sterling an example of a band’s branching out artistically as any since, oh, the Beatles, and even their late period (say, from Nonsuch through their strike against Virgin, through the Apple Venus two-fer) still sports some real gems.
For all their musical evolution and lineup changes, though, XTC’s sound has been marked by several consistent qualities since 1977: the hyperliteralism of Andy Partridge’s lyrics (although Colin Moulding’s are very good, Andy’s in a class by himself), ace musicianship and a quirky, experimental sensibility. Some of the more notable and avant-garde moments of their career would have to be Andy’s early dub remix/mashup LP of their early songs (AP was about 20 years ahead of his time in doing this); Andy’s experiments with long-form, often danceable pop (“Battery Brides,” “Jason and the Argonauts,”); the acoustic tracks on English Settlement; and the whole band going incognito as a long-lost 60’s psychedelic band called The Dukes of Stratosphear (and pulling off that genre in a universally-lauded album of spot-the-influence songcraft).
Sorry, didn’t mean to kill the thread by not suggesting one.
What say you about the Pixies?
I think they’re rated right where they should be by most people: a massively influential band who laid the groundwork for Nirvana, Weezer and a huge double handful of other bands who stuck it rich in the 90s. Most people, even people who weren’t Pixies fans at the time, seem to recognize this, and certainly other bands are lining up to give them their props.
Queen.
This got addressed in post #43. Patty Griffin got skipped so lets put her back out there.