September’s release cornucopia continues to overflow and I review nine new albums again this week, including: New Zealand’s The Beths, UK Britpop/alt-rock vets Suede and The House of Love, Vancouver post-punk collective Crack Cloud, L.A. DIY duo No Age, Engineers frontman Mark Peters, Chicago’s twangy, soulful Whitney (who are playing with beats and loops on LP#4), reggae great and Massive Attack collaborator Horace Andy, and baroque folk artist Marina Allen.

Andrew reviews eight album in Notable Releases this week, including Death Cab for Cutie, Young Jesus, Hippie Trim, No Devotion, The Mars Volta, and more.

Speaking of Suede, they just announced their first North American tour in 25 years (and they’ll be out with Manic Street Preachers).

Other Basement-adjacent news this week: there are new albums on the way from Weyes, Blood, The Intelligence, Billy Nomates, and Bonny Doon; and I saw Spiritualized in a cave.

Meanwhile, please allow me to direct you to the Indie Basement basement of the BrooklynVegan shop for a great selection of vinyl, books, and merch all hand-picked by this guy, including stuff by Stereolab, Broadcast, Purple Mountains, Gang of Four, Pavement, Wet Leg, Beach House, OSEES, A Tribe Called Quest, Cocteau Twins, The Beths, Aldous Harding, The Cure, Can, Neu!, Mazzy Star, Talking Heads, Pixies, Sparks, and more.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field (Carpark)
You can’t say “third time’s the charm” because all three of this NZ band’s albums have been great, but this is the best yet

The title of New Zealand band The Beths’ third album is a reference to matters of the heart — “Love is learned over time,” frontwoman Liz Stokes sings, “‘till you’re an expert in a dying field” — but it could also apply to the style of buzzing, expertly crafted, effortlessly hooky indie rock the band make. This sort of power pop, that’s both jangly and crunchy, used to be a staple of college radio and Modern Rock charts that all but died out in mid-’00s. I’m happy to report that The Beths are winning this particular battle, as they continue to play to bigger and bigger audiences, and Expert in a Dying Field is their most satisfying record yet.

Stokes and the rest of The Beths have always had a way with a hook, a harmony and a clever turn of phrase, melding yearning melancholy with sunny melodies, and mixing “drinks and messages” (as she sings on “Your Side”), but she’s really upped her game on these dozen earworms. “Silence is Golden,” “Head in Clouds,” “Knees Deep,” and the title track are all fantastic examples of how to write a great pop song. Stokes understands — and makes the most of — classic conventions, including loud-quiet-loud dynamics, an expertly deployed, not-too-long guitar solo after a perfect middle-eighth, and how to take a current idiom and make it fresh (“When You Know You Know”). Plus: how to use these conventions without sounding like you are, which is the hardest feat of all. This is an album that flies by quick but sticks with you. The Beths are not the only guitar pop band carrying this particular torch but they might be the best at the moment, and as long as they’re around this sound is in no danger of dying off.

Get Expert in a Dying Field on canary yellow vinyl.

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Suede – Autofiction (BMG)
Stylish Britpop survivors trade glam for goth on their third post-reformation album

Since their start some three decades ago, Suede have had a flair for seeing the world through glamourous glasses and finding romance in the mundane, seedy corners of the world. Twelve years since reforming and still sporting the same five-piece lineup that created their commercial peak, 1996’s Coming Up, Suede are still going strong and have had one of the more satisfying comebacks of any ’90s-era UK band. They are still officially “The London Suede” in North American but I don’t know a single person who calls them that.

Autofiction is their third album since getting back together and ninth overall, and finds Brett Anderson, Mat Osman, Simon Gilbert, Richard Oakes and Neil Codling working once again with producer Ed Buller, who has been behind the boards for most of their albums, including the ones most people love. It also has the band getting back to basics. “Autofiction is our punk record. No whistles and bells,” says Anderson. “Just the five of us in a room with all the glitches and fuck-ups revealed; the band themselves exposed in all their primal mess.”

While Richard Oakes’ arsenal of riffs and frontman Brett Anderson’s melodramatic outlook are still going strong, you do get that sense of “punk” on these generally loud and electric songs, though I might use a different descriptor: Autofiction is Suede’s goth record. Osman’s driving basslines, Oakes’ echoey, delay-drenched minor-key lead riffs, Simon Gilbert’s tom-heavy drumming, Codling’s lonely piano and icy synths, as well as Anderson’s impassioned wail on songs like “15 Again,” “Black Ice” and the none-more-goth “Shadow Self” would’ve fit right in at The Batcave in 1984 alongside The Cult, Sisters of Mercy and Siouxsie & The Banshees. Suede apply their eye makeup a little more subtly, though, and while the glammy Bowie-isms remain, this time they’re more in service of the Goblin King. In any case, Suede sound like they’re having a blast in the dark.

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Marina Allen – Centrifics (Fire)
Second album from this very talented baroque-leaning singer songwriter

Marina Allen’s debut, Candlepower, was one of 2021’s most understated and underrated albums, drawing from ’70s folk and singer-songwriter styles while showing off her own well-honed songwriting skills. I suggested it might make a nice placeholder for those waiting patiently for the new Weyes Blood, but since then Allen has established her own presence and also lapped W.B., having released another excellent album while Natalie Mering’s new one won’t be out till November. It’s not a competition, of course, and if you’re a fan of delicate folk with baroque leanings and an earth tone palette, there should be more than enough room for all these records. Centrifics finds Marina less of a wallflower, and this new boldness suits her. “I was fed up with hiding myself and a fierceness started to enter the songs, which I leaned into,” says Marina. She’s still singing in a gentle voice with pretty backing full of flutes and electric piano but it’s hard to imagine a song like “Getting Better” existing on her last record, with lines like “My heart’s a blooming flower uh huh  / Shame’s a clever killer uh huh / Oh you motherfucker I’ve got my anger / Does it make it better?” Marina will always be polite, but this time she’s not taking no for an answer.

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Crack Cloud – Tough Baby (Meat Machine)
Vancouver collective deliver another dazzling post-punk, post-modern, post-apocalyptic musical vision.

“Music is an excellent way to let your anger out, put it all on paper.” That’s Crack Cloud drummer/vocalist Zach Choy’s father, leaving a voicemail for his son which has now been used to open the Vancouver collective’s second album. Crack Cloud, who number somewhere around a dozen, have a lot of anger and like on their fantastic debut they’re channelling it in positive creative ways. This is a “no rules” kind of collective, and the group’s cinematic aesthetic has time for all Posts: punk, modern, apocalyptic. Mad Max Meets Meat Loaf? It’s not that far off, though you get a little closer if you throw in Repo Man, The Clash’s Sandinista or The Pogues’ Rum, Sodomy & The Lash. (They’re also maybe the more ambitious North American equivalent of Australia’s Tropical Fuck Storm.) Even more than Pain Olympics, Tough Baby feels like a concept album, a rock opera, a Broadway Musical in the waiting, a tale of survival against the greatest of odds where the fate of the world may hang in the ballance. There are swaying, rousing choral singalongs (the title track), manic dance numbers (“Virtuous Industry”), and anthemic showstoppers (“Please Yourself,” “Afterthought (Sukhi’s Prayer)”). Tough Baby is equal parts catchy choruses, thrilling twists and inventive production that gets better on repeat listens. And if you’ve seen the band’s amazing self-made music videos, a Major Motion Picture is not out of the question. Coming soon to a theater near you? Let’s hope.

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The House of Love – A State of Grace (Cherry Red)
First album in nearly a decade from this veteran UK indie/alt group is a mixed bag, with a few new classics alongside less inspired material

House of Love were staples of the ’80s UK indie scene — their Creation Records era singles “Christine” and “Shine On” were a major influence on shoegaze groups like Ride and Swervedriver, and their ’90s era on major label Fontana gave us alt-rock classics like “I Don’t Know Why I Love You” and “The Girl With the Loneliest Eyes.” The band always seemed to just miss leveling up, including breaking up in 1993 just before Britpop. (They coulda fit right in without much reinvention.) Guy Chadwick reformed the group a decade later, patching things up with wunderkind guitarist Terry Bickers and making two low-key excellent new albums, with 2005’s Days Run Away being particularly great (2013’s She Paints the Words in Red is not far behind). Unfortunately Bickers and the rest of that lineup didn’t have much interest in touring, especially outside of the UK, and Chadwick formed a new lineup with younger, more eager players who helped him make this first House of Love album in nearly a decade.

A State of Grace definitely has more oomph than any HoL album since the ’90s and there are a few tracks here that truly hearken back to their glory days. In particular: “Melody Rose” is a real burner with the group’s signature soar and roar, mixing jangly psychedelics with just a little bombast and Chadwick’s still powerful vocal prowess; “Hey Babe” is a classic bittersweet ballad with sublime melody, those distinctive Chadwick harmonies; and “Into the Laughter” shines on with some spectacular guitar heroics. But there are also songs like “Queen of Song” and “Light of the Morning” that dip too far into blues rock tropes, complete with by-the-numbers slide guitar and harmonica. It will be nice to finally have House of Love playing the US this fall after 30 years, and that wouldn’t happen with Bickers still in the group, but his presence would’ve made for a much stronger record.

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No Age – People Helping People (Drag City)
L.A. DIY vets bring the weirdo, leave out the rippers on what feels like a transitional album for Randy Randall and Dean Spunt

For a group so ensconced in the DIY scene, it’s a bit of a surprise to learn that this is L.A. duo No Age’s first entirely self-produced album. It was started before the pandemic in Randy Randall and Dean Spunt’s studio space of 10 years, but then finished in their new studio space in Randy’s garage. People Helping People sounds transitional too, almost entirely free of their signature weirdo rippers; instead we get a baker’s dozen of studio experiments that feel like a search for a new sound. Among their discoveries: cut-and-paste bloops and bleeps, midi experiments and ambient instrumentals. There are a few guitar-based songs, too, but with no fuzz boxes stomped, no neighbors disturbed. Interesting paths abound, but we’re gonna have to wait until the next album to see where they really lead

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Mark Peters – Red Sunset Dreams (Sonic Cathedral)
Frontman of UK shoegazers The Engineers gets help from Dot Allison and pedal steel great BJ Cole on his gorgeous second solo album

Mark Peters’ band Engineers have been together almost 20 years and while they haven’t broken up, they also haven’t made a proper album since 2014. Luckily frontman Mark Peters has continued down a similarly ethereal path with his solo career that began with 2018’s Innerlands. Four years later and he’s back with Red Sunset Dreams which was born in part from an arts initiative that Peters participated in where he mentored local musicians using locations in his hometown of Wigan as inspiration. One of those places was a local cinema, Canada Picture Palace, where they were showing classic westerns which proved to be inspirational to Peters. “There was a sense of freedom within those landscapes,” says Mark. “The movies’ themes of escape and lawlessness provided a brief respite from the grim monotony of people’s everyday lives, but there was also a connection with the heavens and a feeling of expansiveness out there in the desert. It’s no surprise that so many fictional characters found redemption in those settings.”

Peters works in some decidedly American sounds on Red Sunset Dreams, including a lot of banjo, but the album remains very much in his wheelhouse, using layers of guitars and synths to create sonic vistas as vibrant at the Painted Desert, with strong melodies, a rhythm section and song structures that keep things out of strictly ambient terrain. He gets a little help, too: former One Dove vocalist Dot Allison sings on tracks “Switch on the Sky” and “Sundowning” which bookend the album, and best of all, pedal steel icon BJ Cole (who played on Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” and Gerry Rafferty’s “Right Down the Line” among many other things) brings his nuanced magic to “Silver River” which needs no lyrics to captivate. How about a whole collaborative album, Mark?

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Horace Andy – Midnight Scorchers (On-U Sound)
A dubby Sound System version of reggae great and Massive Attack collaborator Horace Andy’s ‘Midnight Rockers’ album made with producer Adrian Sherwood that is just as good as the original

Back in April, reggae icon Horace Andy released Midnight Rockers which teamed him with producer and On-U Sound founder Adrian Sherwood. Much like he did with Lee “Scratch” Perry on the Rainford and Heavy Rain albums, Sherwood assembled a group of ace studio musicians to make a record worthy of Horace Andy’s legacy, and it featured a mix of new songs, new versions of Horace Andy classics, and a cover of Massive Attack’s “Safe From Harm,” all featuring Sherwood’s ever-forward-thinking production. Sherwood has now made a “Sound System” version of the album sessions, featuring dub and dancehall reworks of the songs, and DJs Lone Ranger and Daddy Freddy toasting over some of the tracks, some of which have gone under such radical transformations they’re basically new songs. Midnight Scorchers is a little more of a party — one that’s gone well past midnight — than Rockers was, and holds up as its own unique work.

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Whitney –  SPARK (Secretly Canadian)
The Chicago duo trade their slide guitars for synthesizers while the song remains the same

Perhaps feeling like they had gone as far as they could go with Whitney’s ’70s-influenced blue-eyed country soul, Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek enlisted the help of indie megaproducers Brad Cook and John Congleton — who between them have worked with just about everyone — to help them incorporate beats, synths and new elements into their sound. Technically, SPARK is a largely successful renovation. Their style, which already owes so much to classic R&B and soul, is perfect for a modern update using warm synth pads, pitch-shifted vocals, and other loop-based tech. They also find a sweet spot where, despite the glitches, hip hop beats and all-caps titles, tracks like “REAL LOVE,” “SELF” and “NOTHING REMAINS” still sound like Whitney. But in doing so, they also sound a little more generic, like some band you might see at 3 PM on the second stage at a festival near you, or hear on a “chill beats” Spotify playlist. The album is too good to write anything as trite as “SPARK is what this album lacks,” but it is also too middle ground to stand out. Their songs could survive even further into the electronic realm — someone slip them those last two Low albums.

 Grab Spark on white vinyl.

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The 20 Best Britpop Albums of 1995

20. Echobelly – On

Where Echobelly's debut album (1994's Everybody's Got One) was as shiny as Britpop got, the band scuffed things up just a little for its follow-up, and made On with American production team Sean Slade and Paul Q Kolderie (Buffalo Tom, Hole, Radiohead's The Bends). The guitars rip and roar a touch more, but songs like "Great Things," "King of the Kerb," and "Pantyhose and Roses" remain chipper, sugar-sweet and ridiculously catchy. Like on their debut, On's most distinctive feature remains singer Sonya Aurora Madan whose crystal clear voice really makes things soar.

19. Salad – Drink Me

London group Salad was led by Dutch musician and model Marijne van der Vlugt who was also a VJ for MTV Europe at the same time she was in the band. She was a striking presence in the band with a clear, powerful voice that cut through the often jagged guitars --- all of which set them apart from the rest of the Britpop pack. Certainly no other group was releasing anything quite as wonderfully odd as "Motorbike to Heaven" or "Drink the Elixir" at the time. Despite being on a major label (Island Records subsidiary Red), Salad were just a little too odd for mainstream popularity -- though Drink Me did briefly enter the UK Top 20 -- but it does, however, make the album ripe for rediscovery (they're also back in action).

18. Menswe@r – Nuisance

Every genre seems to have its blatantly commercial group that pays close attention to the competition, trying to beat them at their own game while proclaiming what they really want to be is famous. Menswe@r were that band for Britpop, a group that felt like they were conceived in the pages of the hype-heavy British music press or at a scene-y Camden pub like The Good Mixer. In fact, the band's Johnny Dean and Chris Gentry managed to get a quote about Menswe@r in an issue of Select when the band was just an idea in their head, and Melody Maker put them on the cover before they'd released a single. (MM did the same for Suede.) Musically, the group swiped ideas from all the other popular bands: Like Elastica, they ripped off Wire ("Daydreamer") and brought in a string section a la Oasis or Blur for swoony ballad "Being Brave." Pulp and Suede are also clearly points of reference from the hairstyles down. But as far as style-forward disposable pop goes, Nuisance is enjoyable fluff and, unlike some groups, Menswe@r don't attempt to hide what they're doing.

17. Various Artists – The Help Album

Some of the biggest artists in the UK and Ireland, including most of the Britpop Elite, contributed new songs to this high concept benefit album aiding the War Child charity. The concept was inspired by John Lennon's "Instant Karma" -- the idea that all art should be released to the world as soon as it's made. So 20 artists went into the studio on September 4, 1995 and the album was in the shops five days later. Some of the Britpop highlights: Radiohead's "Lucky," which would appear two years later on OK Computer; a new, terrific acoustic version of Oasis b-side "Fade Away" featuring Johnny Depp and Kate Moss; Suede covering Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding" (also famously covered by Robert Wyatt); Blur in playful instrumental mode on "Eine kleine Lift Musik"; The KLF's Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty as The One World Orchestra with a cover of The Magnificent Seven theme (their first music in four years); Salad and Specials frontman Terry Hall covering "Dream a Little Dream of Me"; and The Charlatans covering Sly & The Family Stone's "Time for Livin'." The biggest deal was a cover of The Beatles' "Come Together" by The Smokin' Mojo Filters (aka Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller), but the secret best song is Sinead O'Connor's cover of Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe."

16. Shack – Waterpistol

Shack were one of those bands who seemed poised for stardom but just couldn't catch a break or get out of their own way. Led by brothers Michael and John Head, who spent most of the '80s in orchestral indie band The Pale Fountains, Shack updated the '60s merseybeat sounds of their Liverpool hometown, which landed them sonically somewhere between The La's and The Stone Roses. Recording of their second album took place in 1991, but went over schedule as Michael Head struggled to finish songs; when the album was finished, the studio burned down along with the album's masters. The only finished copy of the record was in the possession of producer Chris Allison...who accidentally left the tape in a rental car. The DAT tape was eventually tracked down but by the time it was back in the hands of the group, their label had folded. Waterpistol finally saw release in 1995, by which time Shack had been broken up for a couple years already, with Michael Head falling into heroin addiction. Drama and back luck aside, Waterpistol is a fantastic record that felt very of the moment in 1995, full of shoulda-been-hits like "Dragonfly," "Mood of the Morning" and "Walter's Song." A lost classic that is well worth seeking out.

15. The Verve – A Northern Soul

The Verve started off as a deeply psychedelic band, known more for Nick McCabe's awesome, tripped out guitar pyrotechnics and frontman Richard Ashcroft's million-mile stare than catchy melodies. That all changed with The Verve's second album, which they made with Oasis producer Owen Morris. McCabe's playing was still very cosmic but was now in service of hooky rock songs that also made better use of Ashcroft's powerful pipes. (Drummer Pete Salisbury and bassist Simon Jones, meanwhile, were one of the best rhythm sections of the '90s.) Tracks like "This is Music" and "A New Decade" were still pretty far out, but it was singles "On Your Own" and "History" that proved The Verve could give the Gallaghers a run for their money in the sweeping ballad department.

14. Blur – The Great Escape

After the one-two punch of 1993's Modern Life is Rubbish and 1994's Parklife, there was a lot of pressure on Blur to one up themselves again. Of course, anything short of amazing was gonna be a letdown, and at the time this third serving of quirky British life felt like one Full English Breakfast too many. (Blur were full, too; the band looked to Magic America for 1997's self titled album which, woohoo, gave them their first U.S. hit.) But with the distance of 25 years, The Great Escape is actually a really good album, from singalong hits "Stereotypes" and "Charmless Man" (one of the great Blur singles), to the swaying "Best Days" and bouncing "Top Man." Blur and The Great Escape really excel at sweeping mood pieces and three of their best are here: "The Universal," "He Thought of Cars" and "Yuko and Hiro." Even the none-more-Blur "Country House" sounds pretty good now.

13. Paul Weller – Stanley Road

Never one to get too comfortable with his surroundings, Paul Weller has had a pathological need to reinvent himself over the years. He broke up The Jam at the height of their stardom to form the politically active, suave pop group The Style Council, which he then disbanded in 1989 just after turning 30. He changed things up again for his '90s solo career, making the kind of earthy, soulful rock you might expect from Traffic or Joe Cocker. At the same time a new crop of British groups (Supergrass, Blur, Pulp) looked to The Jam and The Style Council for inspiration. It all made it a perfect time for a Weller comeback. Having primed things with 1993's Wild Wood, Paul really delivered with the million-selling Stanley Road that featured a host of collaborators, including Steve Winwood, his old Style Council cohort Mick Talbot and big fan Noel Gallagher. Stanley Road's sound fit right in between Oasis and The Charlatans and on the album's lead single, "Changing Man," he even addressed his need to blow things up and start again -- "Numbed by the effect, aware of the muse, too in touch with myself, I light the fuse" -- all while cementing his Modfather status.

12. Sleeper – Smart

Louise Wener and Jon Stewart, who had been in a number of college bands together before moving to London, took out an ad in Melody Maker: "Bass player and drummer wanted. Influences The Pixies and The Partridge Family." Sleeper were born. Wener was a charismatic frontwoman and an even better lyricist, riviling Jarvis Cocker with witty, relatable tales of romantic angst, mid-20s ennui and sex in the suburbs. All that can be found on Sleeper's debut album, Smart, which kicks off with three fantastic singles: love-the-one-you're-with Top 20 UK hit "Inbetweener," the Pixies-ish "Swallow," and decidedly randy "Delicious." The nine songs that follow are nearly as good. The IT Girl, released in 1996, is even better but Sleeper  wouldn't last much longer, breaking up in 1998 after their third album; Wener then put her observational talents to good use as a novelist (her debut, 2002's Goodnight Steve McQueen, is terrific). Sleeper reformed in 2017 and released the very good The Modern Age in 2019.

11. Gene – Olympian

London group Gene were dogged by comparisons to The Smiths, due mostly to frontman Martin Rossitter's at times uncanny vocal resemblance to Morrissey, but also their purple-prosed lyrics and a propensity for sticking some of their best songs on b-sides. Those comparisons were fairly superficial, though, with guitarist Steve Mason drawing more from Small Faces' Steve Marriott or Paul Weller than Johnny Marr, and Rossitter offering a more positive, romantic, us-vs-the-world outlook than Moz. Gene also tended to swing for the fences with big riffs and bigger anthemic choruses, and their debut album, Olympian, finds them connecting with real power, whether it was swaggering rock like "Haunted by You," "Car That Sped" and "To the City," or more windswept numbers like "London, Can You Wait" and the title track. To See the Sights, released the next year, collects non-LP singles and b-sides from this era and is, to further that Smiths comparison, their Hatful of Hollow and a great companion to Olympian.

10. The Charlatans – The Charlatans

The Charlatans are survivors, having started as part of the Manchester music scene in the wake of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. But they have managed to change with the changing times, surviving a few major setbacks and tragedies, while maintaining their own identity and Hammond organ-led sound. As Madchester's high faded, guitars began figuring in a little more prominently into their sound. While 1994's Up to Our Hips stumbled, The Charlatans sorted themselves out by the time of their self-titled fourth album, which found them sounding more confident than ever, adopting a Stones-y Exile on Main Street vibe that put them right in heart of Britpop. The Charlatans was a #1 album for them, with terrific hit singles "Crashin' In," "Just When You're Thinkin Things Over" and "Just Lookin'." Another impressive pivot for one of the UK's most resilient bands of the last 30 years.

9. Teenage Fanclub – Grand Prix

Glasgow's Teenage Fanclub haven't altered their musical course much since forming in the late '80s, making a brand of jangly guitar pop that owes much to Big Star, Beach Boys and The Byrds. With a high level of quality that continues to this day, Teenage Fanclub have done it without ever really playing music industry games, just happy to crank out good record after good record. But in the mid-'90s, the Fannies' classic sound fit right in with the Britpop revival. It also coincided with the release of what is arguably their best album, Grand Prix, which to play off the album's Formula One cover art, has them firing on all cylinders. It helps to have three very good songwriters, and Grand Prix was their first record where guitarist Raymond McGinley's work rose to the level of his bandmates Norman Blake and Gerrard Love. Some of Teenage Fanclub's all-time best songs are here: Love's "Sparky's Dream" and "Don't Look Back," Blake's "Mellow Doubt" and "Neil Jung" and McGinley's "About You" and "Verisimilitude."

8. Boo Radleys – Wake Up!

The Boo Radleys began life as died-in-the-wool, noise-loving shoegazers but main songwriter Martin Carr always had a fondness for classic pop songwriting that fought its way through the noise of their early records. The band dabbled in straight-up guitar pop on 1993's Giant Steps, which is also around the time their label, Creation, signed a band named Oasis whose runaway success really changed everything for the label and the existing roster. Where bands like Ride and The Boo Radleys were once content to make "cool" indie records, there was now pressure to compete with the Gallaghers in the charts. Carr came from the same school of pop as The Kinks, The Beatles and The Zombies and proved to be a natural, with The Boo Radleys making the transition effortlessly on their fourth album, Wake Up! The ebullient, horn-filled first single "Wake Up Boo!" is a song, like Katrina & The Waves' "Walking on Sunshine," that was made to be played the minute the weather gets nice, and was a Top 10 hit for the band that stayed in the UK singles charts for most of the spring and summer. While that was the only hit on the album (which also went to #1) but "It's Lulu" and "Find the Answer Within" shoulda been smashes, too.

7. Black Grape – It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah

Happy Mondays crashed and burned during the making of their 1992 album Yes Please!, with frontman Shaun Ryder and other members of the band dealing with serious drug problems. Instead of disappearing off the face of the earth, Ryder and Mondays dancer/vibes man Bez rebounded surprisingly quickly, forming Black Grape in 1993, enlisting Ruthless Rap Assassins members Paul "Kermit" Leveridge and Ged Lynch as well as producer and songwriting partner Danny Saber. Past excesses thankfully hadn't dimmed Ryder's lyrical wit one bit, and the fresh start and new collaborators brought out the best in him. It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah, a title that referenced Ryder's new cleaned-up lifestyle, rivals Happy Mondays' Pills N' Thrills N' Bellyaches for sheer pleasure. The cover art, featuring a Pop Art illustration of Carlos the Jacklyn, referenced other things. Musically, Black Grape resembles Ryder's old band, but adapted to the mid-'90s with Kermit as a great vocal foil, and some of Britpop's anthemicism baked into singles "The Reverend Black Grape," "In the Name of the Father" (which takes swipes at the Catholic Church) and "Kelly's Heroes" (which sounds lot like Madonna's "Express Yourself"). Few artists manage a second act like this, let alone one so good.

6. Cast – All Change

The La's 1990 self-titled debut album is one of the direct precursors to Britpop and while frontman and songwriter Lee Mavers never made another album, sideman John Power proved more than up to the task of leading his own band, Cast. Enlisting Peter Wilkinson from Shack (another Liverpool band who had trouble with labels and frontmen), they formed a group who favored songs over bravado and drama. It was a formula that worked. Songs like "Alright," "Sandstorm," and "Finetime" sounded like classics from the get-go, with earworm choruses that stick in your head on first listen. John Leckie's production -- with layer upon layer of guitars and harmonies -- makes everything pop. The real appeal of All Change is just how effortless it all seems. These songs don't sound like they were written as much as they were always there just waiting to be heard.

5. Radiohead – The Bends

Nobody would call Radiohead Britpop now, and nobody really did in 1995 either, but The Bends definitely has more in common with Blur and Oasis than the proggy widescreen grandeur they would debut with OK Computer. These are pop songs played on guitars -- lots of guitars -- and tracks like "Fake Plastic Trees," "High and Dry," "Bones" and "The Bends" became the template for many new Britpop groups in the second half of the '90s. (See: Travis, Stereophonics, Longpigs, Coldplay.) John Leckie's production helps tracks like "Just" and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" achieve liftoff, and The Bends is also notable as the record where they met Nigel Godrich, who engineered the record and would go on to form a beautiful friendship with the band that lasts to this day. Before The Bends, Radiohead were that band who did "Creep," but with this it was clear they would never be stuck in the land of One Hit Wonders.

4. Elastica – Elastica

Led by Justine Frischmann -- who had been an early member of Suede and for much of the '90s was one half of Britpop's #1 Power Couple with Blur's Damon Albarn -- Elastica were a breath of fresh air when they released "Stutter," their 1993 debut single that mixed punk, new wave and heaps of attitude. If you weren't paying attention then, you certainly were by the time of their third single, "Connection," that borrowed (and later paid for) its riff from Wire's "Three Girl Rhumba." When the song kicks in at the 20 second mark, you've got one of 1994's most undeniable hooks. The band were not shy about paying homage to bands they loved: "Line Up" also borrowed heavily from Wire, and "Waking Up" tipped its hat to The Stranglers' "No More Heroes." The wait for their debut album seemed like forever, and when it was finally released in March of 1995 it became the fastest selling UK album since Oasis' Definitely Maybe the year before and held onto the title till Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not in 2006. More than half of Elastica's songs had already seen release on singles (including some b-sides) which made it a little disappointing for fans at the time, but it now just sounds like a start-to-finish classic.

3. Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

In the storied Blur Vs Oasis battle of 1995, when the band's respective singles "Country House" and "Roll With It" were released on the same day in the UK (August 14), Blur debuted at #1 with the Gallaghers coming in at #2. But Oasis won the war just a couple months later when their second album was released and made them worldwide superstars. (Blur's 1995 album, The Great Escape, was very good but just a little too British for mainstream international appeal.) Songwriter Noel Gallagher was at the top of his confident game; he was still swiping bits from his heroes but had also figured out Oasis' style by this point, mixing equal parts melody and swagger, with sing-a-long choruses that sound good even when the lyrics don't make a lot of sense (often). Beyond singles like "Wonderwall," "Don't Look Back in Anger" and "Champagne Supernova," Morning Glory's deep cuts, like "Cast No Shadow," are just as good. While their boasts of "bigger than the Beatles" were tiresome, for a while Oasis made a very good argument.

2. Supergrass – I Should Coco

Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes was only 19 when the band's debut album was released in May of 1995 (his bandmates weren't much older) and the record gets much of its charm from the trio's unbridled youthful energy that they managed to capture on tape. Its staying power, though, comes from the songs which are smart, insanely catchy and much more sophisticated than they first seem. I Should Coco incorporates a wide range of influences, including punk ("Caught by the Fuzz," "I'd Like to Know), glam ("Lose it," "Time"), '60s psych ("We're Not Supposed To"), and Britpop forebears the Kinks and Madness ("Alright," "Mansize Rooster"), but they jumble them together to make an infectious, distinctive sound. Supergrass were also ferociously talented musicians, with drummer Danny Goffey's playing keeping those energy levels high as the band tear though the album's 13 tracks in just 40 minutes, and that's including the six-minute spaced out, proggy "Sofa of My Lethargy". I Should Coco was a huge hit in the UK -- it was label Parlophone's biggest selling debut since The Beatles' Please Please Me -- and earns extra Britpop points for its title which incorporates Cockney Rhyming Slang.

1. Pulp – Different Class

Having led Pulp to general critical and public indifference since the early-'80s, Jarvis Cocker put the group on hold to study film at London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, where he had his mind expanded by raves and met Steve Mackey who would help usher in a new, more formidable lineup of the band. (He also met a girl from Greece with a thirst for knowledge who studied sculpture, memories of which would come in handy later.) With the '90s, Cocker's lyrical observations became sharper, his stage presence more assured, and Pulp's glammy disco snapped into sharp focus. 1994's His N' Hers was their best yet by a mile, but it did not prepare the world for the record Pulp would release the next year, a massive leap forward that had Cocker and Pulp working at the height of their powers and that perfectly aligned with Peak Britpop. His time at Saint Martin's College was inspiration for "Common People," a tale of upper class slumming that would quickly become Pulp's signature anthem. The album, Different Class, followed suit with 11 more brilliant tales of Misshapes, mistakes, and misfits, including: "Disco 2000," one of a few unrequited love songs here, this one set to a riff nicked from Laura Brannigan's "Gloria"; "Sorted for E's and Wizz" found Jarvis out of his head at a rave; and "Monday Morning" laid out the drudgery of mid-'20s endless post-college partying against ska backing. The hooks are plentiful and the quotable lines are endless, and while the record is exceedingly British it is somehow relatable to anyone who's ever felt out of place. "Blur Vs Oasis" may have been the hot topic in the British press in 1995, but Different Class rendered the debate instantly moot.