Of course, that leaves vast swathes of our favourite records that were somehow passed over, unfairly dismissed or left to languish unjustly in the critical mid-table. How underrated can an album reasonably be? Well, no one here is going to argue that Robbie Williams’ Swing When You’re Winning should’ve won the Mercury or that The Darkness’s Permission to Land is the cheese rock Abbey Road. But below are our picks for those lesser-lauded albums which deserve a more prominent place in the upper echelons of the critical catalogue.
After its 1997 release this album was in about one in five households, and its lead single "Only When I Sleep" reached the top 10 globally. However, it never received the artistic acclaim it deserved, as critics dismissed its Celtic-rock influences and “goofy” production. Songs like “Only When I Sleep” are replete with lush harmonies and plenty of nods to the siblings’ Irish heritage.
“I Never Loved You Anyway”, opening on a jubilant flurry of the violin, is wonderful in its catharsis, not least on the big kiss-off chorus. The Corrs have always been cool, and don’t let the haters tell you otherwise. ROC Almost 25 years after her death, it’s high time that our collective memory of Kirsty MacColl graduated from bawdy festive Pogues sidekick to one of British pop’s most sublime and individual voices.
Key to that transition is the dusting down of her high-point Kite, previewed weekly on the French and Saunders TV show back when .