Britpop Comebacks

As well as new acts, the Britpop era also saw (coincidental?) career resurrections or boosts for several more established acts. I've already looked at Shaun Ryder's comeback with Black Grape, but there was also some others...

Paul Weller's career had hit something of a slump at the end of the 80s when his record label refused to release the fifth album by The Style Council. After breaking up the band, he went solo and released two fairly acclaimed albums. However, 1995 album "Stanley Road" became the biggest selling of his career and his first number one album for a decade.

Elvis Costello reunited with The Attractions for "Brutal Youth" (1994). Following diversions with (instrumental) soundtracks and classical music, this was viewed as a return to form and vastly outsold his previous few albums.

In 1996, the Sex Pistols reunited for a world tour ("Filthy Lucre Tour"), which spawned the inevitable cash-in live album. Radio 1 broadcast one of these shows live one Sunday evening, and I'm pleased to say that I actually listened to it. Even though I remember it being a bit lame.

Morrissey's solo career had stuttered a bit after a successful start. Even though previous album "Your Arsenal" was very good (and did fairly well in America), it only reached number four in the UK charts and created lots of negative press because of some of the ambiguous lyrics and themes, especially in regards to football hooligans and the National Front. But "Vauxhall And I" (1994), considered by many to be Morrissey's best solo album, was released to much fanfare and was his first number one album since "Viva Hate" in 1988.

Edwyn Collins had enjoyed some succes with Orange Juice in the 1980s. However, his subsequent solo career seemed to be going relatively nowhere until 1994 with the release of international smash hit 'A Girl Like You'.

Black Grape: "It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah"

Released: 1995

Formed by Shaun Ryder following the break up of Happy Mondays, Black Grape brought a funkier and more chaotic sound to Britpop, as you might expect from Ryder, with some added hip hop influences.

The album itself is something of an oddity. Featuring outstanding singles 'Reverend Black Grape', 'In The Name Of The Father' and 'Kelly's Heroes' within the first four songs, the first half of this ten track album is very good, save for track five 'Yeah Yeah Brother', which sounds dated, almost like a song from about five years previous, and certainly sounds dated today.

The second half of the album is not as good as the first. 'Shake Well Before Opening' and closing song 'Little Bob' are quite poor, and although the other three songs are pretty good, they too sound dated, even by 1995.

That said, this is a very entertaining album, and a whole lot better than you could have expected from Shaun Ryder given how poor Happy Mondays had become by the time they split. A minor triumph and almost excellent.

Rating: 3.5/5

BBC Radio 1

One of the main reason's for Britpop happening was because of, like many things in British music, BBC Radio 1. In particular, Matthew Bannister, who became controller of the station in 1993, and changed the station's line up and output, played a major part in the resurgence of British music.

When Bannister took over Radio 1 in 1993, the station was filled with older DJs, such as Dave Lee Travis, Simon Bates etc, and the music output was, for the most part, of a more MOR nature, and shows centred as much around the DJs' personality and features as it was about music. Bannister's brief was, quite simply, to cater for younger listeners and play newer music.

This was achieved mainly by getting rid of many of the older DJs in favour of younger, specialised DJs, such as Steve Lamacq (indie/rock), Trevor Nelson (R 'n' B) and Tim Westwood (hip hop). Chris Evans also took over the breakfast show, as I discussed in a previous post).

This strategy took a little while to work; listening figures dropped at first as older listeners deserted the station, but eventually, with the rise of Britpop, Bannister's move seemed to have worked. More importantly, for me, the quality of programming had improved, and Britain's younger audience were finally catered for again, which, let's not forget, is the chartered reason for Radio 1's existence in the first place.

Whether Radio 1 made Britpop, or Britpop made (a revitalised) Radio 1 is a debatable point. Certainly, they were both good for each other and they both needed each other to have achieved what they did; I doubt Bannister's strategy for Radio 1 would have been so successful without the Britpop bands, and the Britpop bands wouldn't have been so successful without Radio 1. That said, many of the (better) Britpop bands pre-dated Bannister's tenure at Radio 1, so I doubt that Radio 1 was really responsible for making any better music at the time, but it was certainly responsible getting it to a larger audience.

You can read Wikipedia's (rather brief) section on this period at Radio 1 here, a rather good article on Bannister's "cull" here, or a recent interview with Bannister himself here.

Manic Street Preachers: "Everything Must Go"

Released: 1996

Following the disappearance of band member Richey Edwards, which you can read more about on his Wikipedia page here, the Manics decided to continue as a three-piece and made this album, their fourth, and most successful, and for many, their breakthrough into the mainstream.

This album left behind the bleaker, sparser sound of previous album "The Holy Bible" in favour of bigger, rockier and more epic sounds, and obviously, this worked commercially for the band.

The best songs here, as seems to be a recurring theme of many of the Britpop albums I'm reviewing, are the singles 'A Design For Life', 'Everything Must Go', 'Kevin Carter' and 'Australia'.

The rest of the album is a mixed bag. 'The Girl Who Wanted To Be Good' and closing track 'No Surface All Feeling' are the best of the rest, but some of the songs, especially 'Enola/Alone' and 'Small Black Flowers', are really quite poor.

Overall, a fairly average album, certainly not the best the Manics have made, nor the worst.

Rating: 2.5/5

Cast: "All Change"

Released: 1995

One group of bands during Britpop were seen as being the "dadrock" bands, most famously Cast, Ocean Colour Scene (see previous post) and their leaders, Oasis.

Formed by John Power after he left The La's, Cast not only took their name from a La's lyric, but also sounded fairly similar, with a kind of fuzzy jingle-jangle sound, heavy on melody.

This, Cast's debut, was a big success and launched a fairly successful career for the band. The album starts off fairly well with single 'Alright', one of the better songs here, and is followed up by the average 'Promised Land' and decent single 'Sandstorm'.

The album then takes a downturn, followed by three pretty boring songs, which are fairly tuneless and sound like filler. Track seven though, 'Finetime', is the album's highlight and was a justified hit single. This is then followed by three more poor songs including ballad 'Walkaway', which despite being a big hit single, is a song that makes me want to stab myself in the ears, such is my hatred for it. To this day it seems to be a song used over footage of teams losing sporting events (i.e. England losing penalty shoot-outs etc).

The album ends with two better, and slightly more ambitious sounding songs, though a bit messy in execution, but overall, this is a fairly bland album. It's not a particularly offensively bad album ('Walkway' aside), but a lot of it is just boring filler songs with the odd better moment. Highly forgettable.

Rating: 2/5

Ocean Colour Scene: "Moseley Shoals"

Released: 1996

Championed by Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller and Chris Evans, Ocean Colour Scene, seemingly one of the few Britpop bands from the Midlands, were often singled out for being "retro" and "dadrock", perhaps slightly unfair as that was an accusation that could be made against almost any Britpop band.

The band had actually been around for several years before the release of this, their breakthrough album, coming off the back of big support slots with Oasis and Paul Weller, and perhaps more importantly, having 'The Riverboat Song' used frequently by Chris Evans on radio and most noticeably on 'TFI Friday'.

I never heard this album at the time, as I wasn't into any of the dadrock bands or sounds, so listening to it now is a little strange. I feel dirty, like I've sold out or something. To be fair, the album actually starts out pretty good. First two songs, 'The Riverboat Song' and 'the Day We Caught The Train' (both singles) are clearly the best songs on the album, and were unsurprisingly hits. Track three, 'The Circle', also a single, is not that bad.

After that, the album takes a distinct downturn into mediocrity. Only two other songs, 'Policemen & Pirates' and further single 'You've Got It Bad' avoid being terrible, the rest being a mix of bad blues, ballads and nonsense.

Rating: 2/5

Chris Evans

When looking back at Britpop, it's important to look at some of the influential people other than the bands.

One of the most important was Chris Evans. As Breakfast show presenter on Radio 1 (1995-1997), the then biggest show on British Radio, then later as host of 'TFI Friday' (1996-2000) on Channel 4, Evans was in a position where he could break bands into the public arena. One of the most famous of these were Ocean Colour Scene, when he used one of their songs ('The Riverboat Song') repeatedly during TFI Friday.

It is worth mentioning though that Evans did have a reputation as something of a "dadrocker", i.e. he seemed to favour the more retro Britpop bands such as Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, Reef, Cast etc. Also, he seemed strangely obsessed with poor commercial music such as Texas. To this day, critics of his Radio 2 Breakfast Show make the same observations; it seems little has changed.

That said, Britpop was already well underway before Chris Evans jumped on the bandwagon. Personally, I see Evans as a "personality" DJ rather than a "music" DJ anyway, so I don't think it any great surprise that he was hardly on the cutting edge of music of the time. He was more into the "lad and ladette culture" side of the time I think rather than a hardcore music fan.

To be fair, he did champion bands like Pulp and Black Grape at the time though, and bands such as Gene and Longpigs did make it onto the show too so it wasn't all bad I guess.

If you really want to see what Evans was about on 'TFI Friday', you can see best of compilations on YouTube here.

The Bluetones: "Expecting To Fly"

Released: 1996

The Bluetones were an unexpected hit during Britpop, coming from apparently nowhere to rather big success (three top ten albums), though like many Britpop bands, followed by a later decline back to relative obscurity before splitting up.

I've got to be honest and say that when I first got this album (which reached number one in the album charts!) around the time it was released, I thought it was pretty terrible and got rid of it. But, thanks to the joys of Amazon Marketplace, I've been able to buy it again for a grand £0.01 (+ £1.26 postage).

Listening to the album again some 15 years later, it sounds a lot better to me now than it did then. Full of measured, intertwining guitar sounds rather than Oasis-like attempts at big riffs, The Bluetones sound more like you would expect a British indie band to sound.

The album starts off pretty well. The first four songs are all pretty good, though followed by a rather poor song, before a couple more good songs until track seven, smash hit single 'Slight Return', which got to number two in the singles charts and made the band. After that though, the album rather slumps on the final four songs.

While the album is good, though, it is very entertaining (track five, 'The Fountainhead', aside) and it's a disappointment that it turns so bland at the end. 'Slight Return', 'Bluetonic' and 'Cut Some Rug' (all singles) are the highlights though some of the other earlier songs on the album are good too.

Overall, this is certainly a lot better than I remember it and has been a pleasant surprise to listen too again, but is let down by a poor final third.

Rating: 3/5

Elastica: "Elastica"

Released: 1995

Hot on the heels of Sleeper's breakthrough for women in Britpop were Elastica. Lead by Justine Frischmann, a former member of Suede, and one half of Britpop's "golden couple" (with Damon Albarn), Elastica found a lot of early success (in the UK and USA) before fading away and splitting up shortly after the release of their second album ("The Menace", 2000) some years later.

This was actually the UK's fastest ever selling debut album (at the time of release) and it's easy to see why, as this is a fast, exciting, punky album full of great songs. Where as many Britpop bands looked to the 60s for inspiration, Elastica were more obviously influenced by punk and post punk, and dare I say it, even by grunge and American alt-rock. Wire though were their main influence, and it's easy to hear, and no surprise that the band were sued by  Wire after the release of this album for plagiarism on one or more songs. I've heard the comparisons of the "alleged" plagiarisms and they are pretty obvious.

That said, this is a very good album, let down slightly by a lull in the middle, especially 'Indian Song', a dreadful attempt to include Indian influences, which doesn't fit the album at all, and just isn't a very good song in its own right.

The plus points though are many. All five singles from the album ('Stutter', 'Line Up', 'Connection', 'Waking Up' and 'Car Song') are excellent, as are other highlights 'Annie', 'Blue', 'Vaseline' and 'Never Here'. Save the slight lull, the rest of the album flows well and is just as enjoyable now as it was when released, and doesn't sound dated at all.

This is definitely a highlight of the Britpop era and it's a shame it took five years to produce a follow up because it would have been good to have heard more of what this band could have done.

Rating: 4.5/5

Sleeper

You can't assess Britpop without mentioning Sleeper, the first band of the era with a female lead to have any mainstream success.

Singer-songwriter Louise Wener was a big star of the Britpop movement. Aside from her success with Sleeper, she was something of a pin-up for indie boys at the time though had a love-hate relationship with the NME and Melody Maker, gracing their covers and carrying out seemingly loads of interviews with them (though that's just my recollection of the time), but getting something of a slaughtering from them the rest of the time. She also guest-hosted 'Top of the Pops'.

Another notable, if bizarre, feature of Sleeper was that the term "Sleeperbloke" was coined about the perceived faceless other (male) members of the band; this then came to be used about backing members of other bands seen to have dominant frontmen/women.

Aside from the two albums below, Sleeper made a third album, released in 1997, called "Pleased To Meet You". I've got to be honest, I didn't buy that album at the time and I couldn't be bothered to buy it now. You can though read Allmusic's review of it here. The band split in 1998 and Louise Wener has gone on to have a fairly creditable career as a writer.

Smart (1995)

Sleeper's first album was a fairly fast-paced and straightforward album, reminiscent to a certain degree of American band's Tiger Trap's (one and only) album, though it's not as good as that.

The stand-out songs are singles 'Inbetweener' and 'Vegas', though this is a surprisingly consistent album short on terrible songs, though it sometimes can get a little samey.

Wener's fairly unique breathy delivery on vocals was always a point of contention over whether people liked Sleeper or not, and I think they work fairly well here as the album is made up almost entirely of short, quick songs (only one song is four minutes long).

Overall, this is a fairly tidy album which still sounds pretty good, though it needs a couple more songs as good as 'Inbetweener' and 'Vegas' to really make it stand out.

Rating: 3/5

The It Girl (1996)

Sleeper's second album expanded on the sound of the first album, taking on a poppier edge on some songs. The result is an album which features more "good" songs, but has less pace and flow than the debut album.

Again, the singles are the standout songs and this is another fairly solid album, though like the first album, the non-singles sometimes seem to blur together a bit.

The themes on this album are also more personal and pop-culture based than on the first album, where each song seemed to be about a different character/person. Single 'Nice Guy Eddie' references 'Reservoir Dogs', and there's also mentions of The Smiths, gameshows and various literary figures.

I would say this album is on a par with the first album. While the sound has moved forward, the album is slower and has some boring songs on that drag it back. It's still pretty good though.

Rating: 3/5

Trainspotting

Director: Danny Boyle

Writer: John Hodge

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlisle, Johnny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner

Released: 1996

Released at the height of Britpop, Trainspotting tells the story of a group of friends, who are largely heroin addicts, in Edinburgh.

Fuelled by ecstatic reviews, controversy and the Britpop-inspired love of most things British at the time, the film was an international success and cultural phenomenon, and to this day remains one of the most successful British films ever made.

Although fairly short on plot or story, the film is a fast-paced, funny and imaginative look at the lives of the characters, from main character Renton (McGregor), who tries on several occasions to get clean during the film, to psychotic friend (and non-heroin user) Begbie, who thinks nothing of glassing people who spill his drink in pubs.

Made for next-to-nothing (the budget was only around £1.5 million), the film still looks pretty good to this day, though one or two scenes do look a bit cheap, though I guess that's forgivable on such a small budget.

The main failing of the film, as I mentioned, is the lack of plot throughout; the first three-quarters of the film are more like a series of sketches than a coherent film, and the scenes that don't work soon become annoying. It's only towards the end of the film when four of the characters come into a large packet of heroin that they try to sell that any story or tension comes into play.

That said, this is still a very enjoyable film, though not quite the masterpiece it was hailed as at the time. It's very fresh and funny, and even though some parts don't work, the film moves along quickly onto something else.

The film also spawned two best-selling soundtrack albums featuring Britpop artists such as Pulp, Sleeper, Blur and Elastica, as well as older songs from the likes of Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, further cementing its place at the heart of the Britpop scene.

Rating: 3.5/5

Supergrass: "I Should Coco"

Released: 1995

Supergrass were one of the more successful Britpop bands, though like many of their contemporaries, their popularity waned somewhat as Britpop did.

Because of the fairly youthful and energetic nature of the music on this album, and the video for 'Alright', Supergrass became known as the cheeky chappies of Britpop, and lead to rumours that Steven Spielberg wanted to make a Monkees-style TV show featuring the band.

This (their debut) is a very entertaining album, and certainly one of the best by any of the Britpop bands. Full of bouncy pop-rock tunes mixed with feisty punk songs and weirder, slower songs, the album flows really well, and along with Oasis's "Definitely Maybe", is probably the Britpop that best sums up youthful fun and enthusiasm. Featuring a bunch of killer hit singles, it was no surprise that this was one of the best-selling Britpop albums, though it's probably best remembered today for being the album containing 'Alright', a song you will still hear on radio today.

Despite the positives, some of the slower songs don't really work as well, and end up as the kind of songs you skip past when you listen to the album. These songs appear towards the end of the album and mean that it does tail off towards the end.

The band would go on to make five further albums, of decreasing quality, before splitting in 2010. A rather excellent singles compilation, "Supergrass Is 10", released in 2004, is probably the best way to get a flavour of the band.

Rating: 4/5