Artists that are never getting a positive criticial reappraisal

[Butchers Blind]

EMF. Around everywhere in the early 90's even did a record with Vic Reeves. Shit though, like a teenage Jesus Jones... who were shit too.

[smudge1971]

There's no way Transvision Vamp or The Mission are getting a MOJO cover.

[Pink Gregory]

There's no way Transvision Vamp or The Mission are getting a MOJO cover.

Mojo doesn't tend to give covers to anyone later than the White Stripes either way.  Says the nerd with the subscription.

[NoSleep]

Both Transvision Vamp and the Mission existed before White Stripes so that wouldn't exclude either on that count.

[willbo]

I've been thinking about getting into one of those serious music magazines like Mojo. Though I was never really sure what makes them distinctive to something like Q. Folk and older rock n roll stuff I guess.

[NoSleep]

Bypass the mythmaking and go directly to the music. Almost all music "writers" aren't particularly good mediums of that branch of the arts. If you really need to read about music you have the internet.

[Pink Gregory]

Agreed, though some articles can be good it's very much a magazine for people that like information - who recorded what with whom etc. 

Features on particular historic scenes or celebrations of particular labels are more interesting because there'a more to cover.

Little to no writing *about* music in a creative or cultural context.

The free CDs usually tend to be quite good though.

[phantom_power]

The Strokes

Their last album appeared on a lot of end of year "best of" lists after years in the critical wilderness

[TheMonk]

Mister Mister

[mobias]

There's so many bands that were historically so utterly mediocre and thats why they were never critically lauded in their day and are not likely to be now. The Mission being a perfect example.

You need to look for bands and artists who do have some genuinely great albums but are rarely talked about or featured much in magazines and aren't spoken too fondly of by critics.
The best example I can think of is Mike Oldfield. His first four albums are just fantastic and his third album Ommadawn is a work of utter musical genius, especially when you read about what was going on in his life when he wrote it.
I know that there are some critics that love his work and see its merit but you rarely hear anyone name checking him and you never see those albums, except perhaps Tubular Bells, which I think most fans think is the weakest
of those early works, appear in lists of great albums of the 70's. Thats certainly a good example of how little his his early work is understood by some critics.

His problem is his body of work as a whole has been defined by what came after his quasi new age rebirthing thing he did in the late 70's and a lot of what came after was mostly mediocre and in recent years absolute dross. 

Its interesting looking at the work of Nick Drake. Those three albums have quite rightly been elevated to the status of god like genius but he wasn't critically acclaimed in his day and was almost
unheard of by the mainstream public until relatively recent years. I didn't know anything about him until Robert Smith started name checking him a big influence back in the 90's. Robert Smith was certainly the
first artist I was aware of talking about him. Now everyone cites him as an influence     

[smudge1971]

"There's so many bands that were historically so utterly mediocre and that's why they were never critically lauded in their day and are not likely to be now. The Mission being a perfect example.

You need to look for bands and artists who do have some genuinely great albums but are rarely talked about or featured much in magazines and aren't spoken too fondly of by critics."

Thanks for the education. I must have dreamt all those front covers they both had in NME, Select, The Face etc.

[NoSleep]

Its interesting looking at the work of Nick Drake. Those three albums have quite rightly been elevated to the status of god like genius but he wasn't critically acclaimed in his day and was almost
unheard of by the mainstream public until relatively recent years. I didn't know anything about him until Robert Smith started name checking him a big influence back in the 90's. Robert Smith was certainly the
first artist I was aware of talking about him. Now everyone cites him as an influence     

Nick Drake is a prime example of why the usual received opinion about artists' worth is dross. By the usual standards Nick Drake was some how shit for years and then suddenly became classic, then retrospectively this was backed up by increased sales (the least reliable measure of an artist).

His rise was due to a top 100 that the Guardian compiled in 1999, where all the usual entrants were barred on a couple of accounts so that individual tastes and quirks of the contributors came through. He made it to number 1 and the Graun's readership went to HMV the next day.

https://www.muzieklijstjes.nl/GuardianAlternative.htm

[purlieu]

There's so many bands that were historically so utterly mediocre and thats why they were never critically lauded in their day and are not likely to be now. The Mission being a perfect example.

You need to look for bands and artists who do have some genuinely great albums but are rarely talked about or featured much in magazines and aren't spoken too fondly of by critics.
The best example I can think of is Mike Oldfield. His first four albums are just fantastic and his third album Ommadawn is a work of utter musical genius, especially when you read about what was going on in his life when he wrote it.
I know that there are some critics that love his work and see its merit but you rarely hear anyone name checking him and you never see those albums, except perhaps Tubular Bells, which I think most fans think is the weakest
of those early works, appear in lists of great albums of the 70's. Thats certainly a good example of how little his his early work is understood by some critics.

His problem is his body of work as a whole has been defined by what came after his quasi new age rebirthing thing he did in the late 70's and a lot of what came after was mostly mediocre and in recent years absolute dross. 

I was really surprised to read a Mike Oldfield interview in Drowned in Sound a few years back (probably around the time he was promoting Return to Ommadawn). I've found he's a generally well respected musician these days (of the "his '80s period was pretty naff though!" variety) - RtO charted well and got lots of really good reviews so there's definitely some love for his longform instrumental stuff - but agreed that he doesn't seem to have travelled with Tangerine Dream and various new age musicians in the general reappraisal of pre-'dance' instrumental music that's come around in the last ten years. Last time I checked, AllMusic had Tubular Bells down as a 5 star album, then every single record afterwards is a bog standard 2.5-3 star score, as if there's no quality difference between Ommadawn, Earth Moving or Light + Shade.

[Phil_A]

Nick Drake is a prime example of why the usual received opinion about artists' worth is dross. By the usual standards Nick Drake was some how shit for years and then suddenly became classic, then retrospectively this was backed up by increased sales (the least reliable measure of an artist).

His rise was due to a top 100 that the Guardian compiled in 1999, where all the usual entrants were barred on a couple of accounts so that individual tastes and quirks of the contributors came through. He made it to number 1 and the Graun's readership went to HMV the next day.

https://www.muzieklijstjes.nl/GuardianAlternative.htm

Drake had been getting the retrospective treatment as early as 1979, with multiple compilations released throughout the eighties, then an "Introduction To Nick Drake" in 1994.

So he was hardly unknown at the time of that Guardian poll, although maybe there was more of a push towards recognition in the late nineties, with Patrick Humphries' biography published in 1998 and BBC2 documentary in 1999.

Musicians had been name-checking him for years before that, though. Stephen Duffy's band The Lilac Time were named after a line in "River Man", and they formed in 1986.

[NoSleep]

Sure... that's why he was number 1. But Nick Drake CDs appeared in promotions at major outlets from then on and people I least expected were talking about him.

[mobias]

but agreed that he doesn't seem to have travelled with Tangerine Dream and various new age musicians in the general reappraisal of pre-'dance' instrumental music that's come around in the last ten years.

I definitely get the impression Jean michel Jarre has also got a bit of a reappraisal in recent years too. That might be down to him reinventing himself as a kind of godfather figure to the EDM crowd.

[JaDanketies]

I think Eurodance, Cascada, Scooter, Basshunter et al has plenty of longevity. The 00s dance era was great and tbh I think overall it surpasses early 90s commercial dance and 2010s commercial dance, despite the reams of bangers released in both periods. When the next generation are taking recreational stimulants, make sure to put on your Scooter playlist so the legend lives on.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

I've just remembered hearing scandalous rumours at the time that they made use of backing tracks on stage, particularly for the vocals; indeed that there was a noise gate on Mills's mic that cut in the recorded vocal whenever he chose to just mime

Millsi Vanillsi

[purlieu]

I definitely get the impression Jean michel Jarre has also got a bit of a reappraisal in recent years too. That might be down to him reinventing himself as a kind of godfather figure to the EDM crowd.

Indeed. The Electronica collaboration albums really sealed the deal there.

[willbo]

I bought Return To Ommadawn on a whim because I loved the cover, and ended up really enjoying it, I probably played it through a good few times that winter. I always mean to investigate his music more. I liked it's feel of folk, epic rock and movie soundtrack. I did think one of the main melodies sounded a lot like the love theme from Star Wars episode 2. I wondered whether it was a subconscious borrow.

It kind of reminded me of Wishbone Ash's Argus, another epic folky prog rock album. I have the original Ommadawn cd now, and there were 2 separate music teachers at school who got us to play along to Tubular Bells a few times.

[purlieu]

Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn, Incantations and Amarok are all in that vein and all excellent.

I do think it's a shame he moved into pop-rock in the '80s, largely because he wasn't actually very good at writing pop songs. Platinum and QE2 are transitional records that feel like small-scale takes on his first four, and I think that could possibly have worked for him in the long-run, but despite all the supposed self-confidence he gained as a result of his rebirth therapy, he seemed to lose his way musically in the '80s, constantly trying to live up to Virgin's expectations for him to write another 'Moonlight Shadow'. After his pop era he fell into the trap of trying to keep up with new technology as a way of staying relevant. The Songs of Distant Earth, Voyager and Guitars would probably be far better received if they didn't have so many new agey keyboards on them, as there's definitely a lot of his melodic folky instrumental rock in their DNA. Then he moved into aping Eurotrance and reached a point where I have no idea who was even listening to his music. His 2008 'classical' album Music of the Spheres is basically Tubular Bells rewritten as a bland family movie soundtrack.

Return to Ommadawn really came as a pleasant surprise for a lot of fans. He was supposed to be working on a fourth Tubular Bells (sigh), but the website went offline and he's been silent online for a few years now. I'm hoping we get at least one more album from him in the future, if RtO is anything to go by.

[mobias]

I'm hoping we get at least one more album from him in the future, if RtO is anything to go by.

Sadly though I doubt it. By the sounds of things years of heavy drug abuse and that extreme style of fingerpicking he uses for playing the guitar have left him quite arthritic. His technique is nowhere near what it used to be.
I think thats partly why his albums became ever more synth based in the later part of his career. Guitar playing was physically uncomfortable for him.

[Pink Gregory]

Remember when they used to advertise new albums on TV?  Who remembers the sensational new album by The Script?!

[mobias]

Remember when they used to advertise new albums on TV?  Who remembers the sensational new album by The Script?!

I remember buying albums off the back of reviews on Ceefax.

[AnOrdinaryBoy]

I remember buying albums off the back of reviews on Ceefax.

Planet Sound, I assume? I bought many a record off of the back of John Earls reviews, such as Alligator by The National before they broke through, as it was around that time I was taking an active interest in music outside of the Top 40.

[AnOrdinaryBoy]

Apart from the cancelled people, everyone will have a positive critical appraisal, eventually, to some degree. I know of someone who likes The Ordinary Boys.

They were OK for the time..... I was into them and joined a load of forums at the time with AnOrdinarBoy as my username, including this one back in 2005. Once I clocked on how shite they are I switched to saying it was a Morrissey reference, but now he's a massive racist. I'll just have to put it down to youthful ignorance.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Both Transvision Vamp and the Mission existed before White Stripes so that wouldn't exclude either on that count.

NoSleep, I always read your posts in the humourless, arrogant voice of Derren Zikks, the Rolling Stone rock critic played by Chris Morris in The Day Today.

You're often factually correct, but so was '80s phenomenon Simple Simon. And he thought Zappa was shit, so much so that they once came to serious blows.

[NoSleep]

NoSleep, I always read your posts in the humourless, arrogant voice of Derren Zikks, the Rolling Stone rock critic played by Chris Morris in The Day Today.

That's your problem.

You're often factually correct, but so was '80s phenomenon Simple Simon. And he thought Zappa was shit, so much so that they once came to serious blows.

You seem to have conflated being "factually correct" with having an opinion.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Remember when they used to advertise new albums on TV?  Who remembers the sensational new album by The Script?!

I was watching some Big Breakfasts from around the turn of the millennium on Youtube, half the adverts were for CDs.

[Absorb the anus burn]

The Farm.