Happy days-it's time for a chart update. We have a new leader of the pack!
The ones in bold are from the britpop era. The others are pre or post-britpop.
The Outstanding
Denim-Back in Denim
The La's- The La's
The Auteurs-New Wave
The Very good/great Pulp-A different class Elastica-Elastica Various- Trainspotting Soundtrack Blur- Parklife Supergrass-I should Coco
Catatonia- International Velvet
Gomez- Bring it on
Super Furry Animals-Fuzzy Logic Cornershop- When I was born for the Seventh Time The lightning Seeds- Jollification
Supergrass-Life on other planets
The Decent/ Good Denim-Denim on Ice Shed Seven- A maximum High
Travis-Good Geeling
Ocean Colour Scene-Marchin Already Sleeper- The it girl
Stereophonics- Word gets around
Gene- Drawn to the deep end Cast-All Change Kula Shaker-K Blur-The Great Escape
The Verve-Urban Hymns
Oasis-Definitely Maybe
The Average The Bluetones- Expecting to fly
The albums I don't think fit into a britpop list at this point
The Boo Radley's- Giant Steps (Very good/ Great)
Primal Scream -Vanishing Point (Very good/ Great)
With 27 albums on my chart I think this could be a half-way point (a final chart of at least 40 looks doable-probably 50)
Here is what I think I have planned to add in the next few weeks
[b]Core
Suede-Suede; Dog Man Star
Pulp-This is hardcore; His 'n' Hers
Spacehog-Resident Alien
The Longpigs-The Sun is often out
Saint Etienne- Foxbase Alpha
Mansun-Attack of the grey lantern
Shack-Waterpistol
The Charlatans- Us and Us Only; Tellin' Stories
Black Grape-Stupid, Stupid, Stupid;
Teenage Fanclub-Grand Prix (probably wont be eligible)
Ash-1977 (might not be eligible)
Manic Street Preachers (probably just about eligible)
Oasis-What's the story, morning glory
Blur-Blur
Catatonia-Way beyond blue
Edwyn Collins-Georgeous George
Supergrass-in it for the money
The Divine Comedy- Casanova
Ocean Colour Scene- Mosely Shoals
Possible others
Lush-Lovelife
The Auteurs-I'm a Cowboy
The Inspiral Carpets
James- Laid
Oasis- the Masterplan
Embrace
Strangelove-Love and other demons
Gene-Olympian
Echobelly-On (or the debut?)
Sleeper-Smart
Black Grape- Its Great When You're Straight, Yeah
Dodgy
House of Love
Oh that looks like it would take me to around the 50 mark. Luckily, I have heard quite a few of these before or already own them so shouldn't take too long to re-acclimatise. As long as my stamina doesn't start to fail 😎 Have I missed anything significant?
😁😁😁 [/b]
🤣🤣 Oh Man, that is some album. Nothing else quite like it. It's so funny and over the top.
Thanks LittleM. Great Recs and you are touching on some deeply philosophical britpop questions. Can a band from outside of Britain make a britpop album?
Actually by calling them "gatecrashers" you make britpop seem more like a party than a genre, which is totally correct-much better then the Wikipedia definition 😄😄
So the question we should ask regarding inclusion is-was this band/ album part of the britpop party? That's why I definitely include less rock orientated albums like Black Grape and Cornershop.
I'm not sure about Ash yet. I have that album and really liked it when it came out. But when I first heard Ash it was on a TAPE that I got free with KERRANG!!! magazine. That was not a very britpop introduction!
Oh, I'm just realising that the Auteurs were the kids who thought they were too cool for the britpop party and stayed in the kitchen drinking wine and poking fun at everyone else 🤣
Oh no-Denim were the wierd kids that didn't get invited to the party 😲🙁
Conundrum of the day: Can a band from outside of Britain make a britpop album?
I've been thinking about this for a while. Now, following LittleM's comment, I'm thinking: YES!
If britpop was a party, the question is "Was this band/album at the party?"
So maybe the Cardigans and Wannadies can be included if they were more successful and toured more in the UK than elsewhere and hung out with the britpop bands?
Most people consider Placebo as britpop despite being a multinational band. What about Garbage?
How about the Fun, Loving Criminals? A New York band who sound completely like a New York band-but they were partying in the UK at the height of britpop?
🤡🤡🤡
Actually, it would be good to disrupt the parochialism of my list by including some international bands.
Thanks LittleM. Great Recs and you are touching on some deeply philosophical britpop questions. Can a band from outside of Britain make a britpop album?
Actually by calling them "gatecrashers" you make britpop seem more like a party than a genre, which is totally correct-much better then the Wikipedia definition 😄😄
So the question we should ask regarding inclusion is-was this band/ album part of the britpop party? That's why I definitely include less rock orientated albums like Black Grape and Cornershop.
I'm not sure about Ash yet. I have that album and really liked it when it came out. But when I first heard Ash it was on a TAPE that I got free with KERRANG!!! magazine. That was not a very britpop introduction!
Oh, I'm just realising that the Auteurs were the kids who thought they were too cool for the britpop party and stayed in the kitchen drinking wine and poking fun at everyone else 🤣
Oh no-Denim were the wierd kids that didn't get invited to the party 😲 :(
Were the Auteurs like the hipsters who think they're too cool and too serious to enjoy music that's actually fun? I don't know. They didn't quite strike me like that. Probably because I enjoyed their album too much. Bands like Pearl Jam and Radiohead strike me as being the people who stay in the kitchen at parties because they're too serious to have fun. Or so they'd like people to think. The Auteurs aren't a drag like those so-called serious and "meaningful" bands. The ones who seem to think the uglier and more unpleasant your music, the better it is. That's the kind of band I hate. I guess there's some britpop bands like that, but generally they weren't.
Conundrum of the day: Can a band from outside of Britain make a britpop album?
I've been thinking about this for a while. Now, following LittleM's comment, I'm thinking: YES!
If britpop was a party, the question is "Was this band/album at the party?"
So maybe the Cardigans and Wannadies can be included if they were more successful and toured more in the UK than elsewhere and hung out with the britpop bands?
Most people consider Placebo as britpop despite being a multinational band. What about Garbage?
How about the Fun, Loving Criminals? A New York band who sound completely like a New York band-but they were partying in the UK at the height of britpop?
🤡🤡🤡
Actually, it would be good to disrupt the parochialism of my list by including some international bands.
Here's a couple bands that I thought we're britpop bands simply because I didn't know better. They were at that same time period but they were really just alternative bands from America and Canada. But I didn't know that at first. But I like these albums. What do you think, do you think they sound like they could have come to the britpop party?
Oh, I'm just realising that the Auteurs were the kids who thought they were too cool for the britpop party and stayed in the kitchen drinking wine and poking fun at everyone else 🤣
Oh no-Denim were the wierd kids that didn't get invited to the party 😲 :(
Were the Auteurs like the hipsters who think they're too cool and too serious to enjoy music that's actually fun? I don't know. They didn't quite strike me like that. Probably because I enjoyed their album too much. Bands like Pearl Jam and Radiohead strike me as being the people who stay in the kitchen at parties because they're too serious to have fun. Or so they'd like people to think. The Auteurs aren't a drag like those so-called serious and "meaningful" bands. The ones who seem to think the uglier and more unpleasant your music, the better it is. That's the kind of band I hate. I guess there's some britpop bands like that, but generally they weren't.
Interesting question. I think that with the Auteurs and Black Box Recorder (Luke Haines' later band) Haines saw them as being 'art' kinds of band. Though he has always made commercial pop/rock kind of songs, but with ironically darker and satirical lyrics.
I don't think they were too cool to have fun-but have this contradiction going on between light and accessible songs and kind of aloof and more intellectual lyrics. Stories from their touring were of heavy drinking and regular games of scrabble!
I don't think 'deep and meaningful' is the Auteurs thing though. More kind of cold and cynical. I read that Haines likes Bowie, T-Rex, The Fall, The Doors and Black Sabbath. Black Box Recorder have a song about how great Andrew Ridgely of Wham is. Haines is pretty scathing towards other britpop bands though, whilst claiming to have kick-started the scene. He tends to have this aloof and misanthropic persona but I think its a bit tongue in cheek.
Its particularly obvious in his biography "Bad Vibes". He dislikes Pulp (except for Common People), Suede (for being just like his band but not as good), the cellist in his own band (!) and one other britpop band he refuses to name because he hates them so much-and then eventually does name in the final pages! I'd tell you who it is but it would spoil it in case you ever read the book. At the same time he describes everything he made as a masterpiece. He's not being totally ironic but its all kind of done in a funny, self-aware way.
Here's a couple bands that I thought we're britpop bands simply because I didn't know better. They were at that same time period but they were really just alternative bands from America and Canada. But I didn't know that at first. But I like these albums. What do you think, do you think they sound like they could have come to the britpop party?
I really like Fountains of Wayne. Actually I first saw them on TFI Friday-the show on which all the britpop bands played. I think britpop and power pop are pretty close cousins-particularly when you consider bands like the La's and Cast. I don't really know Sloan or Local H though.
I do like those 90s power pop bands- and they fit in well with the britpop party. For example a lot of people think of Teenage Fanclub as being britpop, but they hated this! They called an album "Songs from Northern Britain" as an ironic way of saying they are from Scotland and have nothing to do with the britpop scene in London.
I think I will try and include some of the power pop bands mentioned so far but only if they really seemed to crash the britpop scene in some way. The Cardigans may be the best candidate: they call their debut album "Emerdale" after a British soap opera!
The sun is often out by the Longpigs
I've always liked this album. It's a bit sadly forgotten and the Longpigs deserve to be more than just a footnote to guitarist Richard Hawley's acclaimed solo career. This debut has a more earnest and slightly bruised quality than most britpop. Though the sound is still very guitar pop orientated, they are perhaps a little closer in spirit to the post-Nirvana alternative rock scene across the pond than their other britpop peers. This is a consistently strong album, though with not many incendiary moments. That said, The rousing anthem "She Said" and lovely ballad "On and On" earn them a place in britpop's history books forevermore.
His 'n' Hers by Pulp
I used to really like this one. It's gone slightly down in my estimation recently but I still think its good. It's probably Pulp's most urgent sounding album and it laid the foundations for "A Different Class" by fusing synth pop and glam rock into catchy songs. It's a very heated and hormonal sorting sounding album. Jarvis Cocker sings songs about adolescent crime but mainly sings about sex. His skill is in the originality, awkwardness, seediness and vulnerability he brings to this.
My main problem with the album now is that I find the songs sometimes feel a little overheated. The big choruses at times feel a bit melodramatic and occasionally the lyrics seem a little unfocused (particularly in comparison to similar bands like Denim and the Auteurs). When it hits the mark though, it's pretty fantastic: Babies holds up as possibly the pinnacle of Pulp's career and one of the very best britpop songs of all.
Check out the cool video for Babies. Another 'how to' in britpop style and dancing. It really highlights how some of the early britpop bands were influenced by 70s style and how heavily ironic they were.
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bobbyb5
