Kula Shaker: "K"

Released: 1996

As Britpop owed so much to The Beatles, it was only a matter of time before a band came along that took on the Indian influences of mid-period Beatles. That band was Kula Shaker.

Lead by Crispian Mills, part of the famous acting family (John Mills, Hayley Mills), Kula Shaker were another band (like Menswe@r) that became something of a joke as Britpop faded away.

Even though Kula Shaker had more overt Indian influences than any other Britpop band, the rest of their music sounds more like Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin than The Beatles. The non-Indian songs here are full of driving riffs and Jon Lord-style organs and keyboards.

As for the album itself, it can pretty much be broken down into three parts; a third of the songs are good, a third are average and a third are terrible. The four singles ('Tattva', 'Grateful When You're Dead', 'Govinda' and 'Hey Dude') are the best songs, and the rest can be divided as mentioned. As such, it's not completely terrible, but not a must-own album.

As for Kula Shaker's fall from favour, it owes something in part to comments Crispian Mills made about Nazism, praising some elements of Hitler and Nazi uniforms(!). I think also the fact that he was perceived as being posh was also a factor; even though Britpop was seemingly filled with people from (upper-)middle-class backgrounds, Mills did seem to get more criticism and arouse more suspicion than most for this. Interestingly, unlike other Britpop alumni who hid their private school backgrounds or played down how well off their families were, and often tried to pretend they were from tough working class backgrounds when they weren't, Mills never did this yet he seemed to take flak for his background when others didn't.

Rating: 2.5/5

Menswe@r: "Nuisance"

Released: 1995

After Melody Maker named Suede "the best new band in Britain" before they'd even released a single, they tried something similar with Menswe@r, putting them too on the cover before they put anything out. With slightly less success.

Menswe@r arrived on a wave of hype, something that soon waived, before turning to ridicule, eventually leaving them as one of the Britpop bands critics pointed out as being something of a joke and one of the reasons why Britpop was a load of shit.

The music itself is fairly straight forward indie rock, with a slightly harder edge on one or two songs, and the obligatory string-laden ballad ('Being Brave') designed for commercial radio play.

The band's first three singles, 'I'll Manage Somehow', 'Daydreamer' and 'Stardust' are actually pretty good and are by some way the best songs on the album. The rest of the songs on the album vary from average to terrible, not helped by some muddy production and quite poor singing.

While their reputation as something of a joke is not really deserved (there were far worse bands and albums at the time), it's hard to understand how they got so hyped in the first place. Their page on Wikipedia suggests that the band was formed on the back of a fabricated story about the as-yet unformed band, though I don't know how true that is.

Overall, this is a fairly run-of-the-mill album, not terrible, but not particularly memorable. The band would go on to record a second album ("Hay Tiempo") that was only released in Japan and was never released in the UK.

Rating: 2/5

Britpop Now

One of the more memorable TV moments of Britpop was the TV show "Britpop Now", broadcast on 16 August 1995, which also happened to be my 17th birthday. I'd just come back from working in France and I remember watching the show then drinking French beer and champagne that I'd brought back with me for the rest of the night. Nice.

The show featured live performances from 12 Britpop acts, some of whom were already big names and some who were seen as up-and-coming bands, though some of the bigger Britpop bands did not appear, like Oasis or Suede for example. I don't know why Oasis didn't appear, though it probably had something to do with their big egos. And the fact it was presented by Damon Albarn. Suede had already distanced themselves from Britpop, which would explain their absence. I really don't know why Ash weren't on (they were pretty big) and it's interesting that The Verve were not here; although their big success would come in 1997 with 'Bittersweet Symphony', they had released two good (and critically acclaimed) albums before this show was made and were surely more deserving of a place on the show ahead of some who made it.

Anyway, the line up on the show (and YouTube links) was:

1. Blur: 'Country House'

2. Elastica: 'Line Up'

3. The Boo Radleys: 'It's Lulu'

4. P J Harvey: 'Meet Ze Monsta'

5. Menswe@r: 'Daydreamer'

6. Echobelly: 'Great Things'

7. Gene: 'London, Can You Wait?'

8. Supergrass: 'Alright'

9. Sleeper: 'Inbetweener'

10. Marion: 'I Stopped Dancing'

11. Powder: 'Afrodisiac'

12. Pulp: 'Common People'

Oasis, Suede, Ash (and perhaps The Verve) aside, this was a pretty good representation of Britpop at the time, though there are one or two some strange choices, especially Powder, who only ever released three singles (thanks, Wikipedia), and were never really liked or hyped by anyone. Marion, too, had only released three singles by the time this show was made, none of which sold particularly well, though to be fair, they weren't that bad. The appearance of The Boo Radleys is also rather odd, not only did they not play the one song ('Wake Up Boo!') that anyone other than their fans would know, but the band were also rather outspoken on their dislike of Britpop.

How is the show? It actually holds up pretty good, aside from Damon Albarn's presentation. The Boo Radleys song is by quite some distance the worst, and 'Afrodisiac' is wrongly spelt by the BBC as 'Afrodiziak', but this is a decent selection of songs. Geographically, though, it does say quite a bit about Britpop and one of its failings. Nine of the twelve artists were southerners (odd member aside), with The Boo Radleys and Marion from the north-west and Pulp from Sheffield, suggesting that Britpop was perhaps more of a southern/London scene than a fully British one. But that's a different discussion for a different time.

Pulp

Pulp were one of (if not) the most beloved and successful Britpop bands, and avoided the backlash that hit most other bands when the Britpop era ended, I think largely down to people's love of singer Jarvis Cocker, perhaps the wittiest and most charismatic of any of the Britpop stars.

One common criticism of Britpop was that it was a very middle class scene/movement, and had an air of slumming or class tourism about it, but that was something that didn't really apply to Pulp and something Jarvis Cocker mocked in 'Common People', perhaps another reason why they stayed popular after many other Britpop bands fell from favour.

Pulp had already released four albums before the four listed below, three studio albums and one compilation album. The studio albums, "It", "Freaks" and "Separations", weren't very good, but the compilation album "Intro" (1993), consisting of three singles released by Gift Records was actually pretty decent and a good lead in to "His 'n' Hers".

His 'n' Hers (1994)

I've already written about how much I love this album before, which you can read here. If you can't be bothered to read that, I'll summarise by saying that this is perhaps my favourite ever album and everyone should own it. That is all.

Rating: 5/5

Different Class (1995)

Following the release of lead single 'Common People', Pulp suddenly found themselves to be a mainstream success, over ten years after the release of their first album. The album itself is musically more eclectic and ambitious than "His 'n' Hers", featuring more textured guitar layers and lots of orchestration and a series of killer hit singles including 'Mis-Shapes' and 'Disco 2000'. Personally, I think "His 'n' Hers" is slightly better, though that's not to say that this album isn't also an essential, because it definitely is.

Rating: 5/5

This Is Hardcore (1998)

If any album summed up the end of Britpop, this is it. Dark, brooding, and a little bit all over the place, "This Is Hardcore" is more reflective than previous Pulp albums and has an end of the party feel to it, but with some hints at optimism. Whereas previous albums were musically consistent and flowed well, this album suffers a little from trying to pack many different sounds in, from uptempo electro pop ('Party Hard') to gentle acoustic songs ('A Little Soul'). Consequently, it's a little bit stop-start. It's by no means bad but doesn't quite have the magic of the two preceeding albums.

Rating: 3.5/5

We Love Life (2001)

Pulp's final album is something of a strange affair. Lyrically, I think it harks back more to "His 'n' Hers", with smaller, more focused tales filled with rich details finding some (dark) beauty in the mundane, though it is a lot less sex-obsessed than "His 'n' Hers" was. Musically, it's probably more like a restrained "Different Class", with more acoustic guitars and orchestration. Ultimately, this isn't as good as either of those albums; it lacks a killer song or two to hold the album together, especially in the middle of the album where it does noticeably sag. There are some songs here though, 'Weeds' is thematically like an updated 'Mis-Shapes' and the excellent 'Bad Cover Version', which also has a rather brilliant video featuring lots of celebrity lookalikes which you can see here.

Rating: 3/5

Suede

Suede had a rather chequered history with Britpop. They probably have a bigger claim than anyone else to have "invented" Britpop, before rejecting it, embracing it again, then moving away from it again in a haze of drug addiction and recrimination before splitting up on something of a downer.

Suede (1993)

Hailed as the best new band in Britain before they'd even released a single, Suede's debut album didn't disappoint. Like a pervy, drug-fuelled Morrissey making dark, sleazy glam rock, "Suede" is bleak, sexy, glamorous and depressing by equal measure. Kicking off Britpop with an almighty bang, this album is a classic of 90s rock, not just of Britpop itself and is exciting and enthralling today as it was when released.

Rating: 5/5

Dog Man Star (1994)

Suede's second album is perhaps even better than their classic debut, despite the tensions in the band during its recording; guitarist Bernard Butler was kicked out of the band during recording and had to record guitar parts later on away from the band. Musically more ambitious than "Suede", "Dog Man Star" replaces the glam guitars with swirling, epic soundscapes and dark ballads. The sound here is much at odds with the then emerging Britpop scene, partly inspired by the band's own debut album, probably the reason why it was less successful than their first album, despite being a musical step forward.

Rating: 5/5

Coming Up (1996)

Following the departure of Bernard Butler, Suede changed their sound once again by bringing in a new guitarist and a keyboard player and embraced a much bigger, poppier sound. The album is excellent for two-thirds of the way and features a string of classic Britpop singles (such as 'Trash' and 'Beautiful Ones') but is let down by some poor filler songs. The album would be Suede's best selling.

Rating: 3.5/5

Head Music (1999)

Continuing the more electronic sounds from "Coming Up", Suede's fourth album is something of a disappointment. The first half of the album (containing brilliant lead single 'Electricity') is actually pretty good, but the second half of the album slumps badly, save for the songs 'Head Music' and 'Elephant Man'. Brett Anderson was addicted to crack during the making of this album, creating tension with the rest of the band, perhaps the reason behind the inconsistent nature of the songs.

Rating: 2.5/5

A New Morning (2002)

Clean of drugs, Brett Anderson embraced a more straightforward sound on Suede's (as-yet) final album, with mixed results. I thought this album was truly terrible the first time I heard it, and though I've warmed to it more over the years, it's still a strange listen hearing Suede sound so positive. Perhaps this was the album Brett Anderson needed to make before moving onto something better and more challenging, but I guess we'll never know as the band broke up before making another album.

Rating: 2.5/5

Blur vs Oasis

Part of the reason for Britpop's appeal to the mainstream media, in particular the tabloids, was the rivalry between Blur and Oasis, and everything that represented. Obviously, it gave good headlines to the newspapers, although sometimes things went too far, like when Noel said he wished Damon Albarn would die of Aids. Having such a rivalry at the heart of the Britpop scene certainly brought attention to the bands and their music and in turn boosted their sales. I thought at the time that a lot of it was done for publicity and nothing that has happened in the intervening years has made me think otherwise.

One of the most interesting things about the rivalry was that it represented a class war of sorts. Oasis were the tough, working class northerners, whereas Blur were the clever, middle class southerners. Oasis's ability to appeal to working class people definitely expanded the popularity of "indie" music and Britpop; without them Britpop wouldn't have been anywhere near as big. This disparity between the two bands and their appeal was noticeable to me a little bit at school, though not massively. Many people who liked Oasis were not people you would normally associate with listening to indie music and I found that a lot of people at my school on the Blur side were middle class girls. I would add though that a lot of kids listening to Britpop music at the time seemed to like both bands and weren't that bothered by the rivalry as you would perceive it from the media. The class war also had a somewhat negative effect on Blur, or at least on the perception of Blur. There was a period post-"Parklife" when Blur were viewed by many as middle class "fakers", profiting from and patronising working class culture. This was something that Oasis definitely played upon, declaring themselves as "real" working class, and decrying Blur's attempts at understanding anything of "their" world.

Listening back to the music of Blur and Oasis, as I have over the past couple of weeks, it is interesting to hear how the bands evolved over time. Funnily, both bands changed almost according to cliche: Oasis got more and more retro as they went along, almost defiantly staying "true" to their rock 'n' roll roots, whereas Blur were creatively restless, changing their sound and approach with almost every album. That's not to say that Blur's music was necessarily any better, just because they had a more expansive sound doesn't mean they had better songs.

Overall, I would call the rivalry between them a draw, it it's possible to quantify in such a way, even if the general consensus of opinion at the time was that Oasis won, though I think that has changed a bit in recent years, certainly amongst music writers who now seem to side with Damon Albarn. I would say that Oasis's "Definitely Maybe" was the best album either of the bands made, but I think that Oasis also had a bigger creative slump (on their last few albums) than Blur ever had. Ultimately, both bands made a couple of very good albums and a bunch of mediocre-to-terrible albums. Perhaps the best way to enjoy their music now would be to get the two-disc best-ofs that both bands have released since their demises, "Midlife" by Blur, and "Time Flies" by Oasis.

Blur

Obviously, you can't have Oasis without Blur, so let's see how their albums hold up.

Leisure (1991)

Blur's first album is a bit of a mish mash of Madchester and shoegaze, and is not very good. The Madchester-type songs are all awful barring single 'There's No Other Way', and the shoegaze songs aren't much better, though they do account for the other two good songs on the album, 'She's So High' and 'Sing'. This is fairly mediocre, sounding like a band without an identity, trying to shoehorn themselves into the two most relevant British music scenes of the time. And failing.

Rating: 1.5/5

Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993)

Blur's second album is seen by many as the beginning of Britpop. Influenced heavily by British rock acts of the past, especially The Kinks and The Who, this is a fuzzy, melodic pop-rock album, which, unlike their debut, sounds focused and like a band who know what they want. It also features some of Blur's best songs such as 'For Tomorrow' and 'Chemical World', that still sound fresh and exciting today. The album is let down by some poor songs though, and "The Who Sell Out"-style attempts at adverts and intermissions fail badly. The album is too long, and if it had trimmed some of the poorer songs, could have been a cracker.

Rating: 3/5

Parklife (1994)

"Parklife" perhaps sums up the Britpop sound and scene more than just about anything else; from the obvious and unsubtle references to British music of the past to songs about the present, including the emerging "lad and ladette" culture. Despite featuring a series of era-defining singles, 'Girls & Boys', 'To The End', 'Parklife' and 'End of a Century', this album has the same main failing as "Modern Life Is Rubbish" - it's overlong and needs editing. That said, for two-thirds of the way, this is excellent, and you can't accuse it of being boring; sonically, it jumps around all over the place, from classic rock to synth pop to punk and more.

Rating: 4/5

The Great Escape (1995)

After the massive success of "Parklife", Blur's next album, released only a year later, was much anticipated. Unfortunately, this was that album. Featuring four excellent singles, the rest of the album is terrible, and once more, overlong. Whether it was hurriedly put together or the sound of a band who had taken their sound as far as they could take it I don't know; either way, this is very forgettable stuff, and the kind of album that makes you grateful for "best of" or "greatest hits" collections.

Rating: 2/5

Blur (1997)

The ironic thing about Blur's fifth album being their best is that they had built their success and reputation on looking back to classic British rock for inspiration, criticising American culture and music in the process, whereas this album looked much more to America for inspiration, especially Pavement. The album itself has a kind of sleepy charm interspersed with some more uptempo and melodic songs such as 'Song 2' and 'Chinese Bombs', it flows well, and even though it's quite long, the quality is such that it doesn't overstay its welcome like some of their previous albums.

Rating: 4.5/5

13 (1999)

Continuing the sounds of "Blur", but adding some looser experimental works, "13" is something of a nearly album. Half of it works well, especially the songs more like those of the previous album, but the experimental songs seem too loose and unfocused and sound like they need more work to bring them together. It's not bad but feels like a bit of a comedown form the heights they reached on their previous album.

Rating: 2.5/5

Think Tank (2003)

Blur's final album is something of a stinker. Continuing the experimental sounds of "13", but without Graham Coxon's guitar sounds (he left the band at the start of recording), this is a bit of a mess, sounding like a fairly random collection of studio sketches that were never fully formed. Many of the songs sound like they would be more at home on a Gorillaz album and sit uncomfortably with Blur. best to avoid.

Rating: 1/5

Oasis

Where else to begin my Britpop odyssey than with the biggest Britpop band of them all?

Definitely Maybe (1994)

Oasis's first, and best, album is a veritable classic of Britpop and the 1990s. A heady and uplifting album with tales of rock 'n' roll dreams, youthful positivity, friendship and hedonism, this album is such a joy that you turn a blind eye to the many rip-offs and references to other songs and artists (especially The Beatles) throughout. This is proper rock'n' roll and was the moment when Britpop and British "indie" music crossed over fully into the mainstream, for better or worse.

Rating: 5/5

(What's The Story) Morning Glory? (1995)

Eschewing the swirling rock sounds and guitar riffs of "Definitely Maybe" in favour of sing-a-long choruses, ballads and poppier and melodic songs, "Morning Glory" is a very good follow up, though let down by a couple of stinkers; 'Wonderwall' is an especially annoying song and still haunts me to this day due to its seemingly universal playing on TV/radio throughout the second half of the 1990s. The release of this album would make Oasis superstars and its more radio-friendly gentle indie rock sounds would become the template that many other Britpop bands would aspire to copy over the following years.

Rating: 4/5

Be Here Now (1997)

The hype ahead of this album was probably as big as I can remember for any album in my life; after lead single 'D'You Know What I Mean' was premiered, I remember Jo Whiley playing the song and its b-sides for most of an hour of her Radio 1 show that day. Sadly, the album didn't live up to the hype and Oasis's reputation and album sales in the UK would never really recover after the disappointment of this release.

The album itself is an overlong, self-indulgent mess, attempting (I assume) some sort of bigger, Led Zeppelin-esque sound. The songs however are not that great and the album seems terribly produced; the drumming is especially bad and watered down in the mix, not something you want on a "big" sounding album. Most of the songs also last way too long. This is also the moment at which the band's "dadrock" tendencies overtook the youthful exuberance and positivity of the previous two albums.

Rating: 2/5

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000)

After the attempted bombast of "Be Here Now", Oasis toned things down a bit on their fourth album. Back are the more anthemic songs, and even some attempts at experimentation; the trippy 'Who Feels Love' and industrial-sounding 'Gas Panic!' hint at attempts at trying something new. Sadly, the band wouldn't try anything out of their comfort zone again until their last album. The album also features 'Little James', Liam's first Oasis song, and a rather terrible one at that. It is essentially just a big, bad rip-off of 'Hey Jude'.

Rating: 3/5

Heathen Chemistry (2002)

Going back to a more straightforward rock sound, and featuring only six out of eleven songs written by Noel, Oasis's fifth album is something of a return to the dadrock of "Be Here Now", though it is enlivened by a couple of cracking singles, 'The Hindu Times' and 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out' and one or two other decent songs. The rest is all fairly forgettable stuff, though it never gets as bad or overlong as most of "Be Here Now" was.

Rating: 2.5/5

Don't Believe the Truth (2005)

Oasis hit a new low on their sixth album, which features almost no good songs and snores along like the most mediocre dadrock imaginable; this is what "phoning it in" sounds like. The whole album is filled with all the worst things about Oasis; Liam's singing is terribly strained and unfocused, the sound is muddy retro rubbish and there's a whole bunch of plodding, mid-tempo, tuneless dirge which served the band as filler in the past, but here, is the main focus of the album. This is truly dreadful and is actually quite painful to listen to when you remember that this was the same band that made "Definitely Maybe".

Rating: 0.5/5

Dig Out Your Soul (2008)

On their last album, Oasis throw in a big mix of psychedelia, Indian sounds and, as had become their norm, some rather terrible dadrock. The album doesn't really flow that well, typical of the latter Oasis albums that weren't written entirely by Noel. Despite the return-to-form lead single 'The Shock of The Lightning', the album can be described as "patchy" at best. Still, at least they tried something a bit different on some of the songs and it's better than the woeful "Don't Believe The Truth". They at least went out on something of an upward curve.

Rating: 2/5

Britpop Revisited

Weren't things so much better when you were young? The weather was better, films were better, TV was better, and the music was, of course, better.

I was young during the Britpop years. I remember Blur vs Oasis, Jarvis Cocker getting onstage at The Brit Awards during a Michael Jackson performance of some god-awful song or other, I remember Euro 96, and I remember the feeling that anything was possible and that England was the coolest place on Earth. Again.

Obviously, I was young and stupid then, and years of the crushing monotony of working for a living in the real world in the intervening time have made me question how good some of the things from that time really were.

Lots of people claim to have invented Britpop, from NME/Melody Maker writers to Radiohead, Blur and Suede. Most of those same people also say they destroyed Britpop too, so I don't know what to think of their claims. Certainly, I think the resurrection of manufactured pop bands like The Spice Girls and pop artists like Robbie Willams embracing the Britpop sound probably did more to kill it off than Suede getting a keyboard player did.

As someone who was there at the time, I think the Britpop "era" really began in 1994 when Oasis released "Definitely Maybe" and Blur released "Parklife". I'm not reallty sure how it came about before that, but given that it the preceding years, we'd already had madchester, acid house, shoegaze etc meant it was only a matter of time before one of the music "movements" took off in a big way, and it was probably more luck than judgement that Britpop was the one that crossed over, although the fact that it was generally poppier in sound helped too, I think. Damon Albarn claims it came about because of a negative reaction to the grunge scene in America, which he famously called "disgusting", but the British music scene generally operates and progresses in a way that generally ignores what's happening in America at the same time, so I think he's talking shit personally.

Obviously, the biggest Britpop bands were Oasis, Blur, Suede and Pulp. Interestingly, Blur and Pulp had both been around for a while before Britpop but got their biggest success during that period. In the wake of these bands we got the likes of Sleeper, Supergrass, Ocean Colour Scene et al and the career resurrections of artists like Paul Weller and Echo & The Bunnymen as well.

The answer is "no".

Like all parties it had to end, and it had done so by the end of the 90s, to be replaced by "The New Acoustic", and the rise of shite like Coldplay, Travis, David Gray, Keane etc, though I'm sure people who were teenagers then probably look back at that time the same way Britpop teenagers look back at the mid-90s. There's been something of a Britpop revival of sorts in recent years (or at least a nostalgia cash-in) with Blur, Pulp and others reforming and touring again, and pieces in magazines like The Word looking back at the period.

Having lived through that time, I definitely have fond memories of it, though not necessarily as one might expect. Lots of my favourite music is from the mid-90s, though it's mainly American acts like Liz Phair, Tiger Trap, Belly, The Breeders and others; these artists were slightly ignored in Britain because of the time's obsession with Britpop, which is a bit of a shame really. There was some excellent TV ('Northern Exposure' and 'The X-Files' - both American - in particular), but you could say the same about TV from just about any age. I doubt that people will be buying 'This Life' box-sets ten years from now. And while people like me love Alan Partidge, kids of today will love 'The Inbetweeners' just as much.

I think what made the Britpop years so memorable was that the music coincided with other things (purely by chance?). The removal of the Tories after so long in power, the creation of the Premier League and Euro 96 and the perceived resurrection of British cinema (especially with 'Trainspotting') all helped to create what was in effect a perfect storm, several things that people really wanted and enjoyed all happening at the same time, topped off with a handy soundtrack of successful British artists. The fact that because of these things (especially Euro 96), it also became OK to be patriotic again in Britain (after years of "Britishness" being associated with far-right racist groups) added to the general good feeling of the time

Anyway, I'm gonna be revisiting a lot of Britpop music over the coming weeks to see/hear how it holds up...