Radiohead
Strengths: With Bends, OK Computer, and Kid A (I have still to hear Amnesiac), they have done what the best and most well known rock bands of all time like The Beatles have done; move rock music forward, and maintain experimental tendencies while having a pop sensibility that makes them just as listenable (generally) as The Monkees.
Weaknesses: Overexposure for one. They were refrenced on a Disney Channel episode recently. And also they have the tendency to go nowhere with some songs and have too few hooks on the last two albums.
Pavement
Strengths: First three albums are perfect, melodies are amazing- another band that changed the sound of rock; one time a friend said about them "They sound like generic 90's rock...but awesome!" a perfect example of how imitated they were.
Weaknesses: Malkmus can reach too far sometimes, look at the song, I think it's 'Sagnaw' or something, from that EP they did after Wowee Zowee; it's supposed to be this odd unusual Native American sounding Pavement song...but it just sucks. Also, Terror Twilight tries to be pretty rather than engaging, and thus fails as an album.
Deerhunter
Strengths: Great melodies, every album has a different sound to it, they do a near perfect mix of punk, shoegaze, 60's pop, and krautrock.
Weaknesses: Parts of Cryptograms can drag a little, and some of their less poppy songs can get boring at times.
The Olivia Tremor Control
Strengths: One of my favorite bands of all time, OTC is what the Beatles would sound like 30 years later if they had done acid 1000's of more times....and if they didn't just get stuck in that 70's rut that just about every 60's band did. Black Foliage may be the best album of the 90's.
Weaknesses: Their ambient stuff is sometimes just a tape recorder left out a window for 10 minutes, or a bunch of sound effects...for 15 minutes, which I personally feel, ****s up the flow of their albums.
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