Over/underrated: a music podcast with Fran and Babs
Barbara Mendes-Jorge and Fran James
Do you believe the hype? Fran and Babs talk about bands and artists potentially given undue credit & musicians who should be more famous, by curating five or te...
S8E10 - New York Rock: KISS (Overrated) & Teen Girl Scientist Monthly (Underrated) - with Matt Latham
Joined for the second time by podcaster Matt Latham - whose output includes the Pick A Disc podcast - we are back in the biggest of apples to discuss two quite different bands...
KISS have nailed the marketing of their band probably better than any other group - but what do we think about their music, especially as most people in Europe only know a few of their hits?
And Matt picked Brooklyn-based Teen Girl Scientist Monthly as underrated, outlining how his well-trained algorithm led them his way and how he's forged a lovely relationship with the band...
We previously talked to Matt about Manchester bands The Courteeners and (We Are) Performance, so we recommend checking out that episode too.
Listen to Matt's podcast Pick A Disc in most places you find podcasts. Matt also hosts three other podcasts. Babs has previously guested on Pick A Disc, where she picked the album Future Perfect by Autolux and was a guest host on a Matt Picks episode discussing Get RiD! by Robots in Disguise.
You can find the playlist for this episode on Spotify - it includes all the songs from our playlist, plus bonus songs from other artists we've discussed during the episode.
Download, review, subscribe and get in touch - especially if you have any suggestions for future themes or musicians to discuss.
Follow us on social media: it's @overunderratedmusicpod on Instagram, and @oumusicpod.bsky.social on Bluesky. You can also email us at [email protected].
Thanks to Mark Abbott for our logo.
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1:34:30
S8E9 - Special Episode: Fran and Babs' Best of 2024, Part II
As has become tradition, we have each picked our ten favourite tunes of the year!
Like in 2023 & 2022, we have picked songs according to pre-determined categories - however as we spoke quite a lot during this episode, we've divided it into two parts - you can already listen to Part I here.
In Part II, we discuss the best rock song, favourite collaboration, best song from outside of Europe, best solo song and favourite sync track.
In this episode, Fran mishears a crucial lyric in a Denzel Curry song and Babs gets obsessed with a certain Luca Guadagnino film soundtrack...
Listen to our Best of 2023, Best of 2022, Best of 2021 and Best of 2020 episodes to see our faves from previous years.
You can find the playlist for this episode on Spotify - it includes all songs from our playlists, plus bonus ones from other artists we've discussed during the episode.
Download, review, subscribe and get in touch - especially if you have any suggestions for future themes or musicians to discuss.
Follow us on social media: it's @overunderratedmusicpod on Instagram & Threads, and we're giving Bluesky another go @oumusicpod.bsky.social - we're also still on Twitter/X @OUmusicpod, for now. You can also email us at [email protected].
Thanks to Mark Abbott for our logo.
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50:57
S8E8 - Special Episode: Fran and Babs' Best of 2024, Part I
As has become tradition, we have each picked our ten favourite tunes of the year!
Like in 2023 & 2022, we have picked songs according to pre-determined categories - however as we spoke quite a lot during this episode, we've divided it into two parts (the next one will be out on New Year's Day)...
In Part I, we discuss the best song by a group, favourite track in a genre we don't normally like, favourite song not in English, and best song to listen to live.
In this episode, we learn more than expected about the country of Niger, and Babs is surprised that a 'trap-pop' song by a popular singer is on her list...
Listen to our Best of 2023, Best of 2022, Best of 2021 and Best of 2020 episodes to see our faves from previous years.
You can find the playlist for this episode on Spotify - it includes all songs from our playlists, plus bonus ones from other artists we've discussed during the episode.
Download, review, subscribe and get in touch - especially if you have any suggestions for future themes or musicians to discuss.
Follow us on social media: it's @overunderratedmusicpod on Instagram & Threads, and we're giving Bluesky another go @oumusicpod.bsky.social - we're also still on Twitter/X @OUmusicpod, for now. You can also email us at [email protected].
Thanks to Mark Abbott for our logo.
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51:49
S8E7 - British Pop: Dua Lipa (Overrated) & Sugababes (Underrated) - with Sam Lake
Joined by comedian and podcaster Sam Lake, we're talking about one of the most successful British contemporary popstars (and where Sam listens to her songs while he's at the gym), and one of the girl bands we're most fond of (as well as which snack Sam associates with each of their songs).
Dua Lipa is a mega pop star - she has the two most streamed albums by a female artist of all time on Spotify and was the youngest female artist to accomplish one billion views on YouTube with her video for New Rules'. Are we hallucinating or is the hype justified?
Sam chose Sugababes as an underrated pick - as a band, they've had quite a journey, many different line-ups, but their comeback has been an undeniable success. Are they now finally taking a deserved place in the pantheon of British pop icons?
We highly recommend checking out Sam's podcast 'I've Had a Rosé, Let's Talk About Feelings' and his stand-up special 'Cake', which you can watch on YouTube.
Babs also recommends watching Dua Lipa peforming live with St Vincent at the 2019 Grammys.
You can find the playlist for this episode on Spotify - it includes all the songs from our playlist, plus bonus songs from other artists we've discussed during the episode.
Download, review, subscribe and get in touch - especially if you have any suggestions for future themes or musicians to discuss.
Follow us on social media: it's @overunderratedmusicpod on Instagram & Threads, and we're giving Bluesky another go @oumusicpod.bsky.social - we're also still on Twitter/X @OUmusicpod, for now. You can also email us at [email protected].
Thanks to Mark Abbott for our logo.
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1:35:16
S8E6 - Hip-hop Part II: Eminem (Overrated) & cupcakKe (Underrated)
It's been a while since we did a hip-hop episode and today we've picked two quite different acts to discuss in this episode!
Eminem is one of the world's most successful rappers, who definitely helped popularise hip-hop among white audiences - however, he has always courted controversy with his deliberately caustic lyrics...Fran has toured his discography to make a ten-track playlist and we both discuss whether his notoriety is merited....
Babs chose Chicago rapper cupcakKe as an underrated pick because despite having healthy streaming figures, Babs wonders how well-known she is outside of the younger, online, LGBT+ community - and she is keen to hear whether Fran finds cupcakKe's frank lyrics very funny too...
The song cupcakKe featured on that Babs temporarily forgot about is thankfully still on YouTube - it's called Pu$$y Market and you should check it out immediately.
You can find the playlist for this episode on Spotify - it includes all the songs from our playlist, plus bonus songs from other artists we've discussed during the episode.
Download, review, subscribe and get in touch - especially if you have any suggestions for future themes or musicians to discuss.
Follow us on social media: it's @OUmusicpod on Twitter/X and @overunderratedmusicpod on Instagram & Threads. You can also email us at [email protected].
Thanks to Mark Abbott for our logo.
About Over/underrated: a music podcast with Fran and Babs
Do you believe the hype? Fran and Babs talk about bands and artists potentially given undue credit & musicians who should be more famous, by curating five or ten-track playlists to argue their case
Listen to Over/underrated: a music podcast with Fran and Babs, The Essential Workout Mixes and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
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