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Picking holes in popular(ish) bands


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Sitting here watching some TITP highlights, Elbow were always rated as one of the underrated bands; so celebrated by the music circles but undervalued by the public. Is Guy Garvey's poor vocal ability one of the main reasons? I never really thought about it before, but during TITP his vocals really were the weak link in even their most popular song of "One day like this".

How many other bands have missed out due to a weakness or two in the band makeup?

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Elbow when they broke onto the pop scene were one of those bands who had shed loads of awards and were music industry favourites, despite having achieved very little in public sales. That's my point. Perhaps their artistic delivery and ability to write a song, have been hampered by their ability to actually perform it.

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Elbow when they broke onto the pop scene were one of those bands who had shed loads of awards and were music industry favourites, despite having achieved very little in public sales. That's my point. Perhaps their artistic delivery and ability to write a song, have been hampered by their ability to actually perform it.

Their music isn't the sort that gets the massive sales though. They did quite well with Seldom Seen Kid, but that was on the back of some extreme hype and good marketing. Ultimately, I reckon they've actually overachieved for the sort of thing they do.

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Sometimes the weaknesses are what gives a band its unique nature. Take Whitesnake for example; they always were just David Coverdale's backing band, but started off with a bunch of journeymen rock/blues players from England with dodgy taches and beerguts, not great individually but with a cracking feel overall:

Whitesnake1978OriginalLineUp.jpg

1978

By the early 80s, hard rock had become image conscious, especially in the States where most of the potential sales were, so despite being big in Europe, Coverdale disbanded the old band and put together a bunch of virtuoso guys that would look better on MTV.

2376134_orig.jpg

1989

It worked as far as cracking America went, but made the band a bit shite by losing what it was that made them unique in the first place, just turning them into another identikit hair metal band.

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I preferred Alex Turner when he didn't know he was cool. You could say as a live act, Liam Gallagher hampered Oasis in the later years, but i suppose folk went to see him so it wouldn't have been better without, his voice was dreadful though.

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I want to like Elbow more than I do - that BBC concert with the choir and orchestra soon after they won the Mercury Music Prize was fantastic, with the highlight being the track Mirror Ball.

I don't think it's the vocals that let them down, but the harmonies on the first single from their latest album were way too thick.

I really like their aesthetic, and they seem like nice lads, who are very talented - I wish I liked their music more than I do.

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I preferred Alex Turner when he didn't know he was cool. You could say as a live act, Liam Gallagher hampered Oasis in the later years, but i suppose folk went to see him so it wouldn't have been better without, his voice was dreadful though.

Aye, I much preferred plooky Yorkshire teenager Turner to the rockabilly transatlantic guy he seems to fancy himself as now.
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