Most overrated bands ever?

[sleepy jack]

Originally Posted by Janszoon

Who the hell ever said all his stuff was unanimously loved by critics? No matter how much praise they get, nobody is unanimously loved like that. All I'm saying is that generally speaking his music is very well regarded and has been for quite some time. In my personal opinion he is more well regarded than his music warrants which makes him overrated.

I'm trying to prove the man got recognition for his music. The Oscar nomination is one example. The fact that he makes a lot of "best of the 90s" lists is another.

See but you're basing that assumption off of something objective (how well received he is) meaning it isn't strictly a subjective opinion. Then we could get into the artistic merit and craft of the songs to argue you this further - unless you want to get incredibly solipsistic/philosophical about this conversations about an artist being overrated do have an objective foundation.

As far his him being rated higher than he's deserved - how so? He's well received but he's never released an album that's been regarded as 10/10 or a masterpiece (only his own masterpiece though - we're not talking Aeroplane levels of praise.) I certainly don't think he's so critically praised he deserves to be placed along side the Manic Street Preachers and the Arcade Fire and then to go on and that he's nothing more than a typical nothing special singer/songwriter as was originally suggested.

In my experience - and I regularly read magazines like Under the Radar - hes largely ignored outside the indie circle. He was dropped from DreamWorks and owed them a bunch of money after they dropped him. To argue his Oscar nomination was indicative of some sort of mainstream success is factually wrong.

Now as far as praise inside the indie circle, again there's praise around certain albums and there's respect towards him but it isn't overblown. New Moon was received very well but it retrospect (since it's basically been forgotten) it was more praised because of Elliott Smith as a man, not so much the content of the album. It's really only Either/Or that is put on any sort of pedestal on a regular basis - sometimes self-titled, sometimes XO but at least half of his body of work is being ignored at any given time and he never beats out the other indie classics of the 90s. I can't think of any examples of him receiving a sickening amount of recognition (as in the case of the Manic Street Preachers and Arcade Fire) and I'd be interested to hear these other examples you implied you had.