It’s the second week of July and we have hit the dog days of summer. It’s hot! The weather is too but I’m talking about this week’s new releases, which include the long-awaited second album from Wet Leg; the wonderful debut album from Irish trio Poor Creature; the final, posthumous album from The Pop Group‘s Mark Stewart; the second solo album from The Raincoats‘ Gina Birch; Welsh artist Gwenno‘s first English language album; the first Allo Darlin’ album in 11 years, and a new Robert Pollard side project. This week’s Indie Basement Classic is the underrated debut from mid-’00s post-punk revivalists Clor.

Over in Notable Releases, Andrew reviews the first Clipse album in 15+ years and more.

There was no regular Indie Basement last week, but there was the Best of June roundup and the Best Albums of 2025 So Far mid-year list.

Head below for this week’s reviews…

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: Wet Leg – moisturizer (Domino)
The Isle of Wight duo and Chaise Longue loungers dodge the Sophomore Slump!

I’m happy to report that 2022/2023’s buzziest band are just as good on their second album. I reviewed Wet Leg’s moisturizer elsewhere on the site, but here’s an excerpt:

The thematic pivot helps avoid the sophomore slump — a very real danger for Wet Leg, whose debut single, “Chaise Longue,” caused a tidal wave of hype in 2021 that flooded into 2022, reminiscent of the mid-’00s days of Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party. It’s a lot to live up to. But Teasdale, co-founder Hester Chambers, and the rest of the band took time to decompress from their whirlwind rise and nonstop tour before starting work on the second album. This time, the whole band — Teasdale and Chambers plus bassist Ellis Durand, guitarist Josh Mobaraki, and drummer Henry Holmes — contributed to the songwriting, and they’ve said these songs were written to be fun to play live.

They’re certainly fun to listen to. Working again with producer Dan Carey, Wet Leg have crafted 12 extremely catchy songs, cleverly produced and arranged for maximum hook-delivery potential. First single “catch these fists” is absolutely crammed with hooks big and small — from the “ahh ahh man down, LEVEL UP” breakdown pre-chorus to the little guitar filigrees and handclaps that flutter between lines in the verses and choruses.

Read the whole review here and pick up moisturizer on clear vinyl.

moisturizer by Wet Leg

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: Poor Creature – All Smiles Tonight (River Lea Records)
Traditional vocal Irish folk meets downtempo electronics on the stunning debut album from this Dublin trio featuring members of Lankum and Landless

Anyone who has seen Lankum live knows they’re a force to be reckoned with, taking the drone of traditional Irish folk into darker territory with electronic elements. Members Cormac MacDiarmada and John Dermody—along with Ruth Clinton of the almost a cappella group Landless—are pushing that even further with their new group, Poor Creature, who have just released a stunner of a debut.

Irish folk and harmonies are at the core of All Smiles Tonight, but the arrangements and production pull from a variety of downtempo styles, including trip-hop, Four Tet–style euphoria, and the foreboding atmospherics of The Bug. This could’ve been a recipe for disaster—a cheeseball Pure Moods–type record—but the skill and taste of everyone involved really elevate it. Working with regular Lankum producer John Murphy, this is stirring stuff, taking familiar Irish folk sounds and sending them into outer space.

Dermody’s drumming is a huge part of it: his “Tomorrow Never Knows”–esque pattern on album standout “The Whole Town Knows” makes the song, which really kicks in halfway through its seven-minute runtime and grows into a towering, droning, crashing behemoth. Vintage synths, straight out of early OMD albums, take “Bury Me Not” into futuristic territory; “Adieu Lovely Erin” could be a Massive Attack song; and “An Draighneán Donn” builds like a tidal wave that never crashes—just ratcheted tension and a smash-cut to black.

It should go without saying that Clinton and MacDiarmada’s voices could cut through the thickest LA smog and play no small part in helping this album achieve interstellar liftoff. All Smiles Tonight is a record you didn’t know you needed… until the first time you hear it.

All Smiles Tonight by Poor Creature

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Gina Birch – Trouble (Third Man)
Gina Birch turns 70 this year, but she sounds as youthful, rambunctious, and ready to challenge the status quo as when The Raincoats released their debut album in 1979

It took Raincoats co-founder Gina Birch 45 years to make her first solo album, but only two to make her second. It’s clear she’s caught the music and performing bug again—Trouble is playful, angry, and a more cohesive album than I Play My Bass Loud. “The record title refers to all the mini revolutions that have occurred in my life,” Birch says. “Not following the usual paths, falling down holes, making the same mistakes over and over—trouble of being a young woman at a time our options were generally secretary, mother, or sex worker. Trouble I’ve caused and trouble I’m in.”

She’s once again worked with Killing Joke’s Youth as producer and this time incorporated her live band (Jenny Green and Marie Merlet) into the mix. Trouble leans into dub and electronics, a natural evolution of the Raincoats’ style, and benefits from its sonic focus. She’s also experimenting more with modern production, which suits her: pitch-shifted autotune adds to the slippery, sinister vibe of “Keep to the Left,” “Train Platform,” and “Sleep.”

The darker direction of much of the record works like gangbusters, but she also makes time for fun. “Causing Trouble Again” is a banger that doubles as a tribute to the many women who’ve inspired Birch, from Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, and Yoko Ono to Kathleen Hanna and Stormy Daniels. “We’re rising up / Creating, taking up places in your spaces,” she sings in the chorus. “And we ain’t going to stop.” Gonna hold you to that, Gina.

Trouble by Gina Birch

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Mark Stewart – The Fateful Symmetry (Mute)
Posthumous final album from The Pop Group frontman is a fitting end to an envelope-pushing career

It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that the posthumous final album by Pop Group founder Mark Stewart is out the same day as Gina Birch’s second solo album. They came up together in the original UK post-punk scene, shared similar influences, and Gina even appears on Mark’s record. Both albums feature production by Killing Joke’s Youth, who has become the go-to producer for veteran artists looking to maintain their sound and integrity through a sympathetic collaborator (Peter Murphy, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Cast, to name a few recent ones). The Fateful Symmetry and Trouble feel like two sides of a Maxell XLII-90 cassette.

The album, which was all but complete before Stewart’s death in 2023, opens with “Memory of You,” a sleek electro number featuring Hollie Cook on backing vocals. Stewart had one of the great voices in post-punk—an eerie mix of bellowing baritone, whispers, and plaintive, paranoid yelps—and it’s in fine form here, a real tour de force. Singing “Living my life in slow motion now that you’re not around” takes on unintended but powerful meaning.

Gina Birch provides backing vocals on “Neon Girl,” which could’ve slotted on to any of Stewart’s albums from the ’80s or ’90s. Youth produced that track, but the bulk of the album was made with Massive Attack collaborator Andy Jenks, while Stash Magnetic’s Nick Riggio worked on the towering “Crypto Religion,” and longtime associate Adrian Sherwood handled the dubby cover of The Korgis’ “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime.”

Stewart knew what he wanted, and his clear vision keeps things cohesive across the various producers and sessions. It’s sad he’s not around to see The Fateful Symmetry’s release—or to make more records—but this serves as a fitting and powerful final statement, perfectly in line with everything he’d done before while still pushing things forward.

The Fateful Symmetry by Mark Stewart

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Gwenno – Utopia (Heavenly)
After albums in Welsh and Cornish, Gwenno embraces the English language for a concept album about her formative years trying to make it as a dancer in Las Vegas

Gwenno Saunders got her big break as a member of mid-’00s cheeky girl group The Pipettes, but when she went solo, she instantly revealed herself to be a much more interesting artist than most might’ve expected—releasing three albums of mossy, synthy prog-pop, including one sung in Welsh and two in Cornish (most recently 2022’s wonderful, Mercury Prize–nominated Tresor). For her fourth album, Gwenno is mostly singing in English for the first time since The Pipettes, on a record inspired by her teenage years in the late ’90s when she was trying to make it as a dancer—performing in a Vegas production of Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance and spending weekends getting “completely spangled” at a techno club called Utopia.

While the initial inspiration for Utopia came from America, each of the album’s 10 songs explores a different stage of her life in the ’00s—from dancing all night at that club, to being cast as an Irish dancer in a Bollywood film, to her unsuccessful pre-Pipettes attempt at Welsh-language techno, the early days of The Pipettes in Brighton, and the beginnings of her solo career. Working again with producer Rhys Edwards, this album is a little less synth-forward than her previous three, but even with lyrics I can understand, the music still feels like it’s coming from a friendly alien world.

Gwenno manages to bewitch in any language, from the Smiths-y “Dancing on Volcanoes,” to “The Devil,” which cribs a bit from George Benson’s “On Broadway,” to “War,” where she adapts Edrica Huws’ WWII-era poem into trippy techno-dub. There’s “Y Gath,” which features backing vocals from Cate Le Bon, and Utopia’s soaring, cinematic title track.

Gwenno remains mostly unknown in North America, but Utopia is a perfect entry point into her unique world and would likely appeal to fans of Weyes Blood or Beach House. She says this is “a record about failures” and “accepting that things don’t work out as you planned and celebrating them.” In that sense, Utopia is another alluring success.

Utopia by Gwenno

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Allo Darlin’ – Bright Nights (Slumberland)
First album in 11 years from this UK/AU indiepop band

Nine years since breaking up—and 11 since their last album—underappreciated UK/AU indiepop greats Allo Darlin’ are back together and have just dropped their fourth album. Elizabeth Morris hasn’t lost her way with a melody or a lyric that instantly transports you to a time and place—even one you’ve never been to—like “Tricky Questions,” which travels to Florence, Italy, where she moved when the band was put on hold.

“It’s an album from the heart, dealing with themes of love, birth, and death, which are things we reflect on more than we did when we made our first album,” Morris says. “I would hope that the album sounds timeless and joyous, at other times reflective and emotional.”

The album could benefit from a few more zippy tracks like “Tricky Questions” and “My Love Will Bring You Home,” but getting a new Allo Darlin’ album after more than a decade is gift enough.

Bright Nights by Allo Darlin’

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Rip Van Winkle – Blasphemy (Splendid Research)
Debut album from Robert Pollard’s latest GBV side project is one for the heads

Guided by Voices have been on a hot streak lately (though maybe that’s coming to an end), delivering some of the most satisfying, hook-filled albums of their long history. But for those who enjoy the weirder side of Bob Pollard, here’s the debut album from his latest side project, Rip Van Winkle. The band features Pollard backed by drummer Jason Short, bassist Joe Patterson, and guitarist Ben Penry—all members of Joseph Airport, who’ve released music on GBV’s Rockathon Records.

Blasphemy is described by the label as “a performance by Rip Van Winkle: concept, script and lyrics by Robert Pollard,” so we’re definitely in concept album—if not quite rock opera—territory. There are big riff rockers, shambolic garage rave-ups, a few patented Pollard pop songs, and “Union,” which features sped-up Chipmunks-style vocals, plus a handful of between-track skits. This one’s for the heads.

Guided by Voices also have a live album out today, Goodbye El Dorado, featuring “recordings from 2024 GBV shows showcasing the band’s proggiest material of the recent era.”

Blasphemy by Rip Van Winkle

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: Clor – Welcome Music Lovers (Regal, 2005)
Underrated only album from these mid-’00s post-punk revival weirdos deserves to be heard by more people

The mid-’00s post-punk revival was an exciting time to live through. Even though a lot of it seems silly now, it was fun and weird, and it felt like there was a new band every day that blogs or the NME were hyping. Of course, for every Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Hot Chip, and Arctic Monkeys, there were 20 other bands who got their 15 minutes before imploding or quietly fading away as we moved on to the Next Big Thing.

I have a soft spot for a lot of those also-rans and one of my favorites was London band Clor, who were together for about two and a half years and released one criminally forgotten album that turns 20 this week. The band was formed by Barry Dobbin and Luke Smith, who ran a club night in London and wanted to include some of their own music in their DJ sets. Dobbin, who led the group, was a genuine eccentric—he couldn’t draw a straight line with a ruler but somehow managed to make some wonderfully angular, oddball pop.

Welcome Music Lovers landed somewhere between Devo and Gang of Four, with more than a little electroclash and math rock thrown in. It was also so sharp and spiky it should’ve come with a box of Band-Aids. “Love & Pain” was Clor’s debut single and the best thing they ever did, sounding like a thousand ping-pong balls bouncing off the floor, walls, and ceiling in the most pleasing way. It’s absolutely crammed with hooks, and the video even tried—unsuccessfully—to launch a dance craze. The second-best song is “Dangerzone,” a simmering synth number that builds to a rapid boil. The rest of the album, including singles “Outlines” and “Good Stuff,” wasn’t far behind.

Clor didn’t last long past Welcome Music Lovers’ release, but the album holds up remarkably well and deserves rediscovery. Maybe someone can relaunch that dance craze on TikTok.

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

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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.