Many of the critic's "darlings" I never could understand. Take Bonnie Raitt for example. She's always getting awards for this and that but if I want to hear some real blues, I go elsewhere. I find her flavor of "blues" rather bland.
Some of my all-time favorite bands are 'Til Tuesday, Flash And The Pan and The Cars but they have always been ignored by the "smart set" who purport to be "cooler than thou".
This comment and your name tell me you must be from Boston - I remember hearing Flash and The Pan on WCOZ back in the late 70’s (”Hey St. Peter” got more airplay, but “Walking in the Rain”, later covered by Grace Jones, was much better).
Other great Boston bands -
The Lyres
Tribe
The Neighborhoods
Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
The Upper Crust (nee The Titanics)
Combustible Edison
Seks Bomba
And, from Springfield,
Pajama Slave Dancers
There used to be great live music in Boston and Cambridge back in the eighties and nineties...