Underrated / Overrated

UNDERRATED

Craig Taborn’s ‘Avenging Angel’: A prodigiously gifted and eclectic artist who has dabbled with electronics and a variety of styles over his career, this jazz pianist’s first solo recording on the ECM label sounds unlike any other of its kind. Often hushed and spacious where many musicians will opt for a maximalist approach, “Avenging Angel” specializes in building a contemplative atmosphere all its own. It doesn’t swing, but it doesn’t have to.

Andrew Garfield in ‘Red Riding Trilogy’: Before he was fitted for the Technicolor tights of Spider-Man” or was getting squeezed out of millions in “The Social Network,” Garfield appeared in the first chapter of this darker-than-dark import. As a hungry young reporter chasing down a missing child in northern England, Garfield gets tangled in a conspiracy and a bleak romance with Rebecca Hall. Things get only worse, but at least Garfield’s career is looking up.

OVERRATED

The ‘dad rock’ dismissal: It’s unclear when it started, but once a band passes 30 or maybe their music lands on NPR, this is the surest way many music fans have discovered to separate them from all the “real” rock out there. In addition to being weirdly ageist and a little cruel (don’t dads get to like music too?), it’s often just inaccurate. For instance, have you heard that new Wilco record?

‘Robot Chicken’: Part of the Cartoon Network’s regular stable of rapid-fire gags served with a helping of gross-out humor, this regular collection of stop motion-animated morsels needs to mix up its formula. While there are moments of anarchic absurdity, building a series out of repeatedly putting beloved or cute characters such as “Calvin & Hobbes” into dark contexts so they can meet real-world ends isn’t subversive. It just starts feeling kind of mean.

— Chris Barton