The ones that missed the train: 3 extremely underrated Britpop bands

It is easy to name some influential Britpop bands. Where would be today with groups such as Oasis, Blur, and Pulp? I love all those bands, too, but there are others I like just as well.

Also, for the official record, on the list that follows I do not have the Manic Street Preachers. I see them show up on some best-of Britpop lists. The Manics are in no way Britpop and I am sure it makes James Dean Bradfield and friends a little ill to be termed so.

But who are some fine Britpop groups you may have missed? Who should you be listening to still? I have three suggestions below.

Three criminally overlooked Britpop bands

Divine Comedy

If you like your "rock" with a heavy dose of chamber music influence, you are going to love Neil Hannon and whoever he decided to team up with. The "band" - the music was all really just Hannon along with whoever he asked to play on records - put out 12 albums. Each sounded somewhat similar but that's OK when it comes to the Divine Comedy because the music sounds so different from anything else anyway.

Hannon and Co.'s biggest hit was "Something for the Weekend" and it's a fine track, but if you want something that will blow your tube socks off, check out "Sunrise." The final track off the album Fin de Siecle is about the Troubles in Ireland but with a hopeful feel. Hannon's vocals are just ridiculous good, though.

Ocean Color Scene

The band took a bit of time to find its groove but that had an early champion in Noel Gallagher of Oasis (like you didn't know who that was!). Eventually, they decided to go with a rock and groove feel like something you might hear in the film The Commitments. Nothing wrong with that.

Their biggest hit was 1996's "The Day We Caught the Train." I normally don't think the most well-known track from a band is their best. In this case, however, the song is amazing. The band put out 10 studio albums, though the last two are rubbish.

Boo Radleys

For some reason, the Boo Radleys bring up negative feelings in a lot of people. Maybe their sound at times was a little too derivative in some views, but I thought they used what inspired them and made it gold (their melodies are mostly priceless). And my favorite album of theirs is C'mon Kids which is much heavier than most of their others.

Wake Up! and Kingsize sandwich C'mon Kids and are very good on their own merit, however. Wake Up! seems almost Beatle-esque at times and you'll find about eight tracks you love on the record. The band stopped recording for a bit after 1998 but has produced two newer albums that came out in the last two years.

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