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