Underrated music

[Gelfling Girl]

Melt with you? Never saw the movie it was from, don't know if I heard their version... that song is overrated though, considering I see it in every food commercial now.

Yeah, it's a good song...until you hear it everywhere you go.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

I second that. I love their Phineas and Ferb theme song and all that. Though, I'm not too sure about their rerecording of "I Ran" for the English dub of Saint Seiya (but that's DIC's fault).

They sound almost robotic in that song. I'm not a fan of the song period, so theircover is just...meh...to me

Any opinions on their cover of "I'll Melt with You" for Sky High? I'm not really all that fond of the movie (mainly because I'm not interested in superheroes) although I loved the song. (80's one-hit-wonders, for the win!)

I liked sky high, but only for mr fire guy who I cant remember his name As for the song, its good, but the song itself is really overplayed

 

[Face Ache]

Elbow.

live @ Abbey Road

 

[Kiki]

Kate Bush: She is /awesome/. I've been a fangirl of hers since I was twelve. x33 The Kick Inside is one of my favorite albums, and some of the songs touche a number of pretty taboo subjects. Not everyone likes her voice, but I think she's rockin' awesome, and an surprisingly large amount of people in the music industry today (mostly indie songstresses) actually cite her as a big inspiration.

America: Apparently they were, in fact, pretty big in their heyday, but these-days everyone just thinks of "Horse With No Name", but they've got lots of other songs, better than their most well-known hit, and their lyrics are pretty well done at times. Not everyone's into folky soft-rock, mind you. But I luff them. 8D

Emerson, Lake & Palmer: I wouldn't recommend these guys to everyone, because even though they do have a fairly big following they're certainly not everyone's cup of tea. Tortured moogs, anyone? But seriously, all three guys are extremely talented. Even though egos did seem to get a little in the way at times (hey, they're in the music industry- what do you expect?), I kinda wish more bands these-days were as ambitious as these guys and just did what they wanted, regardless of what's fashionable.

Cream: I'm almost certain that everyone knows "Sunshine of your Love", but they've done a lot of other great songs.

King Crimson: Pretty much the same reason as to why I find ELP underrated. These guys do have many fans out there, but people don't really acknowledge how influential this band was.

Atomic Rooster: I think they came out around the same time as Led Zeppelin- and they're just as heavy. I really wish these guys were more well-known, they produced some really rockin' stuff.

 

[Sesame Seeds]

it varies from country to country, but where I am from, Lionel Richie's music is not as popular as the the music of Luther Vandross and other 80s crooners and while they are quite good, Lionel Richie is surely a force to be reckoned with. He is very, very talented and he does not have to over-sing to prove that he can sing.

 

[dwmckim]

I like a lot of groups that are fairly successful everywhere besides the US, so while many of them could fall in the "underrated" category here, the label doesn't apply as well in the rest of the world.

But i would single out Dave Stewart (often credited as "David A. Stewart" to avoid confusion with another musician), best known as Annie Lennox's partner in Eurythmics. I dearly love Annie but there's a certain magic when the two work together that the solo material doesn't match. Aside from E'mics, he's done all manner of solo projects which haven't been as high profile as Annie's but certainly not lacking in quality. He's released about five solo albums but also has done numerous film scores, produced and written for others and had smaller bands/projects (including Platinum Weird with current American Idol judge Kara DiGuardi and Vegas with Terry Hall which remains in my top five fave albums of all time). A couple of years ago he released a double album (and a similar natured tour) where he performed songs he had co-written with others throughout the years with a full orchestra ("The Dave Stewart Songbook Vol. 1"). Really good representative sampling (and far from being all-inclusive) with bigger hits/big name artists to some of the more obscure. On top of this, he's also dabbled in several other artistic ventures from photography, video/film directing, record label owner (his most notable discoveries being LondonBeat and Curve), stage musicals, and comic books.

I'd also include Cyndi Lauper. She had such a strong image when she debuted that after a few years, she got pigeonholed as a somewhat fluffy novelty act (not helped by her involvement with pro wrestling) and was among several artists who lost airplay in the late 80's when radio stations got very specific with their formats - being in a place that was too weird for mainstream and too big for alternative stations. But she's a true talent and artist in both her singing and songwriting who often amazes! I went to a concert where she opened for Tina Turner primarily to see her and discovered lots of other people went to the same concert more for Cyndi.

 

[brkndwnbus]

Whether the music is underrated or not, I don't know, but I'll name some of my favorite bands that I recommend are worth a listen, ranging from alt-country, to folk, to jam band/classic rockesque, to bluesy and everything in between.

Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses
Spoon
Band of Horses
Neko Case
Ryan Adams (and/or Ryan Adams and the Cardinals)
Whiskeytown
Bon Iver
My Morning Jacket
The National
Rilo Kiley
M. Ward
She & Him
The Decembersists

 

[Nick22]

I'd also include Cyndi Lauper. She had such a strong image when she debuted that after a few years, she got pigeonholed as a somewhat fluffy novelty act (not helped by her involvement with pro wrestling) and was among several artists who lost airplay in the late 80's when radio stations got very specific with their formats - being in a place that was too weird for mainstream and too big for alternative stations. But she's a true talent and artist in both her singing and songwriting who often amazes! I went to a concert where she opened for Tina Turner primarily to see her and discovered lots of other people went to the same concert more for Cyndi.

i second that! i LOVE cyndi lauper! LOVE her! and everyone makes fun of me too. hahahaha

i think that the goo goo dolls are pretty underrated too. i think some of their stuff is great! maybe i just like em so much cause they're from buffalo and i know someone who knows them

 

[Son of Enik]

My pick is folk-rock group America. Those guys were such great writers...listen carefully to the lyrics to "Ventura Highway", "Tin Man" and their other songs, not to mention their great vocal harmonies. Sadly, their last hit song, "You Can Do Magic" is a great song but it does not approach their classics form the 70's.
I have always felt that they were extremely underrated, but in 1998 they played Jesse Ventura's inauguration when he became governor of Minnesota. Always knew "The Body" had good tatse in music!

 

[Drtooth]

Here's a weird one... considering I'm a devote of cartoon theme songs and music...

Haim Saban and Shuki Levy.

The names may sound familiar... Saban DID have his own production company (and the Americanized version of Sentai shows known as Power Rangers should ring a bell), and he once had a bid to buy the Muppets after EmTV collapsed.

But a LARGE amount of 1980's cartoon music (especially DIC) was due to them. The snappy theme song to Inspector Gadget, Dennis the Menace, and Heathcliff? All them. The wonderful arrangements of Super Mario game music for the Super Mario Super Show? All them. While the music is VERY dated and very 80's (large overuse of synthetic sounds) now, it still has a certain feel to it that I just really dig. And it really sounded dramatic when it needed to. Who can forget that dramatic sneaking around about to get caught music that always played when Penny was trailing MAD agents.

Sigh... I wish there were soundtracks of these things available to this day. There WAS an Inspector Gadget soundtrack in France (with the special French rerecording of the Inspector Gadget theme song that actually had REAL lyrics) and several background music selections (unfortunately, mostly arrangements of the theme song). but I tell you... I'd LOVE to have some of the Super Mario video game music arrangements from that show.