Bands who are not actually as good as your love for them might suggest

[Dr Syntax Head]

Interpol

I struggle with my love for this band sometimes. I mean. They really get to me. I can put on any song from any album and I'm close to tears at how good they are but after a couple of hours I see the formula and the magic is tainted. Do you know what I mean?

Oasis
Manics

Same thing among others

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Doves. I expect liking them in the first place probably puts me in bit of a minority - but I do, so fuck off. That said, I can't deny that they're the epitome of the dour northern indie bloke band. I can imagine Jimi Goodwin's vocals in particular being a barrier to people enjoying their music.

[holyzombiejesus]

Bill Ryder-Jones last 2 albums have been played so much in my house but sometimes I get this nagging doubt that it sounds like Badly Drawn Boy (who I loathe) singing over a load of Gorkys and Pavement b-sides.

Talking of Gorkys, there's Euros Childs. Live, he's probably one of my very favourite artists. On record and solo, I'm not sure I'd actually like any of his recent stuff (say, post Summer Special) that much if it wasn't by him.

[Brundle-Fly]

Doves. I expect liking them in the first place probably puts me in bit of a minority - but I do, so fuck off. That said, I can't deny that they're the epitome of the dour northern indie bloke band. I can imagine Jimi Goodwin's vocals in particular being a barrier to people enjoying their music.

That first album is a belter though.

I used to like Athlete  Their debut Vehicles & Animals (2003) was packed full of catchy tunes but after a few listens, you begin to recognise their little bag of tricks. Although, they abandoned this bag of tricks for the next album, Tourist (2005) and was all the worse for it because they went a bit bland Coldplayesque to my ears. Naturally, this album was far more successful, so A&R man, I ain't.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Much like Doves I do really love Elbow (except for that abortion of a song, you know the one) but dour northern indie it is. Nothing more.

[thraxx]

Bill Ryder-Jones last 2 albums have been played so much in my house but sometimes I get this nagging doubt that it sounds like Badly Drawn Boy (who I loathe) singing over a load of Gorkys and Pavement b-sides.

Talking of Gorkys, there's Euros Childs. Live, he's probably one of my very favourite artists. On record and solo, I'm not sure I'd actually like any of his recent stuff (say, post Summer Special) that much if it wasn't by him.

I came on here to post zactly the same thing about Gorky's and Euros, but as you've done so I can save myself the bother of posting about it.

[bgmnts]

Manic Street Preachers probably.

[sevendaughters]

loads of late 80s and early 90s noise-rock C-tier bands like Big'n, Colossomite, Shorty, not Cheer-Accident though, never them.

[Clownbaby]

Interpol

I struggle with my love for this band sometimes. I mean. They really get to me. I can put on any song from any album and I'm close to tears at how good they are but after a couple of hours I see the formula and the magic is tainted. Do you know what I mean?

Oasis
Manics

Same thing among others

This is exactly how I feel about Interpol. They frustrate me a bit actually. If I'm not in exactly the right mood, an Interpol song that I usually like will just sound watery and a bit nothing. I have to be in the right mood for them.

As for another completely unrelated artist who I really enjoy despite their obvious faults, Azealia Banks. She's a fuckin mad woman apparently and her singing is incredibly ropey when she's not rapping but there's a kind of raw charisma there that I don't hear in a lot of artists that are in a similar vein. I can hear a rough diamond but she's probably never going to get more famous or better producers because of her unnecessarily prickly personality.

[Norton Canes]

I was going to suggest my student-era electro-industrial favourites - Pop Will Eat Itself, Front 242, Nitzer Ebb - but, fuck it, I loved them because they were good, not in spite of a lack of quality. At their best they were great then and their best is just as great now.

[Twed]

The Sundays, at least in terms of musicianship. It all sounded good and fine, but was very standard. Fortunately they were masters of melody and lyrical content and had an angelic voice fronting it all.

[wosl]

Curve - they're essentially a one song (or a one-and-a-half song, if we're being generous) band.  It's a good song and it never fails to get the juices flowing when I return to it after a lay-off, but the rush quickly subsides once you begin to plough through a succession of soundalike/tonealikes.  Toni Halliday's vox (in particular that 'sultry' croak thing she does) can quite quickly get on your nerves, over and above the formulaic racket they kick-up.  Also: Laibach (question mark).  My fondness for their shtick tends to make me cut the hollow, under-shaded, martial drudge of their music too much slack.  I tend to think of them as more of an art project, whose DVDs and other visuals - posters, cover designs, NSK collabs - count as least as much as their musical output (i.e. they can be seen and thought about, and not heard, quite a bit of the time).

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Similarly, OM have two basic songs. There's the bass noodling one, or the bass noodling one with distortion.

It's possible they were aware of this, since they called their first album Variations on a Theme.

[wosl]

My fondness for their shtick tends to make me cut the hollow, under-shaded, martial drudge of their music too much slack.  I tend to think of them as more of an art project, whose DVDs and other visuals - posters, cover designs, NSK collabs - count as least as much as their musical output (i.e. they can be seen and thought about, and not heard, quite a bit of the time).

With revisions, this applies to the post-'Mix Kraftwerk, too.

[Jittlebags]

loads of late 80s and early 90s noise-rock C-tier bands like Big'n, Colossomite, Shorty, not Cheer-Accident though, never them.

Thought that said Colostomies there for a sec.

I'd add New Order. They always sound more crap than what I remember.

[king_tubby]

Similarly, OM have two basic songs. There's the bass noodling one, or the bass noodling one with distortion.

It's possible they were aware of this, since they called their first album Variations on a Theme.

Ah, now, since they got Robert Lowe involved they have the a lot more going on.

[jobotic]

The answer for many of you is Of Montreal.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Couldn't you say this sort of thing about basically any band ever ?

[greenman]

Arguably Primal Scream I spose, at least in terms of getting enjoyment out of most of their releases besides Screamadelica, Vanishing Point and XTRMNTR

[SteveDave]

Bill Ryder-Jones last 2 albums have been played so much in my house but sometimes I get this nagging doubt that it sounds like Badly Drawn Boy (who I loathe) singing over a load of Gorkys and Pavement b-sides.

Bill Ryder-Jones sounds nothing like BDB though! And I listened to three BDB LPs last week as a punishment for being awful.

[imitationleather]

Couldn't you say this sort of thing about basically any band ever ?

If you are telling me that The Fall did not release thirty-two studio albums of solid gold I'll fight you in whichever car park is equidistant between us.

[Endicott]

Couldn't you say this sort of thing about basically any band ever ?

It's a very silly thread. Those participating must be musicians.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

If you are telling me that The Fall did not release thirty-two studio albums of solid gold I'll fight you in whichever car park is equidistant between us.

The Fall have been my favourite band since I was 13 years old, but a listen to, say " 50 Year Old Man " ( Imperial Wax Solvent , Castle Records, 2008 ) betrays a certain kind of formulaism, does it not ?