Echobelly

Echobelly were a notable Britpop band. Having an Indian, female singer and a black, female guitarist made them stand out from the crowd of white indie boys.

The band would make five albums in total, though I'm only featuring the band's first two (successful) albums here.

Everyone's Got One (1994)

Echobelly's first album is a really rather good indie record, elevated by singer Sonya Madan's intriguing lyrics, referencing her tough upbringing, and with gender and sexuality as common themes.

This is consistently good from start to finish, though lacks a killer song or two to make it a five star album, but this is a very interesting album and still sounds good today.

Rating: 4/5

On (1995)

Echobelly came up with some of the killer songs their debut album lacked ('Great Things', 'King of the Kerb' and 'Dark Therapy') but lost the consistency that made it such a strong album.

The big songs here are bigger than on the first album, but there is a few more slower songs that don't really work, 'Dark Therapy' aside. Overall, this is still a pretty decent album but not as good as the first one.

Rating: 3/5

Marion: "This World And Body"

Released: 1996

Macclesfield's Marion were a hotly-tipped Britpop band who never achieved the predicted success many felt the band deserved.

Often compared to other north-west bands like Joy Divison and The Smiths, Marion's sound was dark and fesity, with some crunching guitars mixed with delicate slower songs, and it works really well on this album.

The first half of the album is excellent with not a single bad song, and highlights like 'Sleep' and 'I Stopped Dancing', the best song here.

The second half of the album is slightly messier. 'Toys For Boys', 'Time' and 'Your Body Lies' are all good, but the other three songs are quite poor and really slow the album down.

Overall though, this is a good album and show why the band attracted early hype. Rumoured drug problems and disagreements with their record label probably explain why the band made only one further studio album, in 1998. 

Rating: 4/5

Gene: "Olympian"

Released: 1995

There used to be a story told about Gene singer Martin Rossiter that he would ring up radio stations and pretend to be Morrissey. It's probably not true, but it says something about the perception that people had for Gene wanting to be like The Smiths.

That said, there are many worse bands you could want to be like, and Gene did a pretty good job on channeling The Smiths on their debut album, even having a Smiths-like cover picture.

Sounding more like latter-day rather than the earlier jingle-jangle Smiths, the comparisons are obvious, from the sound, look and lyrics. that said, this is a very good album, and rises above the comparisons to be a good album in its own right, rather than just a poor pastiche.

'Haunted By You', 'London, Can You Wait?' and 'Olympian' are the standout songs in a  consistently good album, let down only by a few of the slower songs that verge on the mediocre.

Even though Morrissey and The Smiths were a massive influence on Britpop, Gene were probably the only notable band of the time where the influence was so obvious, and it did mean that Gene carved out their own little niche in the Britpop era, and had a small, but committed following.

However, like a lot of Britpop bands, there was diminishing returns from the band after their debut album, with subsequent albums getting gradually worse, and not being worth a listen. This, though, is very good and is definitely worth checking out.

Rating: 4/5

Salad: "Drink Me"

Released: 1995

Salad were something of a devisive group in the Britpop era, at least amongst people who had heard of them, which sadly wasn't that many.

I remember reading one review of a Salad single in the NME or Melody Maker which was just one line along the lines of "I hate Salad".

As for the music itself, Salad are one of those indie groups whose music that words such as "angular" and "spiky" are commonly used. And to be fair, that would be a fair description of a lot of the songs on here, full of punchy guitar riffs and cool female vocals.

The weak points on the album are the slower songs, which don't really work at all. Fortunately, there's not too many of them. The lyrics are also particularly weak and pointless, but you don't notice them so much on the more uptempo songs.

The highlights are the first three songs on the album, 'Motorbike to Heaven', 'Drink the Elixir' and 'Granite Statue', though 'Your Ma' and 'A Man with a Box' are also pretty good.

Overall, this is a pretty good album, and is something of an undiscovered gem of the Britpop era. With a bit of editing (i.e. leaving off some of the weaker slower songs), it could have been even better, though it's worth checking out.

Rating: 3.5/5

P J Harvey: "To Bring You My Love"

Released: 1995

P J Harvey had already released three albums when this was released. The first album, "Dry", had a lo-fi alt-rock sound and was very erratic; her second album, "Rid of Me", expanded her sound and was better; her third album, "4-Track Demos" consisted of, you guessed it, 4-track demos, mainly of songs from "Rid of Me", and was actually pretty good.

For this album, the sound was expanded further, from grungy rockers ('Long Snake Moan') to Spanish-sounding jingle-jangle ('C'mon Billy'), and a hell of a lot inbetween.

Despite being all over the rock map, this album is consistently good from beginning to end, and holds together really well, despite the constant changes of pace and sound; there really isn't an dull or uninteresting song here.

The absolute best songs are 'Meet Ze Monsta', 'C'mon Billy', 'Long Snake Moan' and 'Down By The Water'; considering this album only contains ten songs, and I can instantly list five of them as brilliant says something about the quality here.

In my opinion, this is still one of the best albums of the 1990s, let alone the Britpop era, and still sounds great today, and hasn't aged at all. This is still the best album P J Harvey has made in a very good career, I think, though that's not to say anything bad about her albums that came after this. This is really an essential purchase for any rock music fan.

I actually bought this album in France in the summer of 1995, and my CD claims to be an "edition limitée", though as far as I can tell, the only extra thing in it is a second booklet inside the CD containing a massive 6 pictures (by Valérie Phillips).

Rating: 5/5

Britpop On TV

The success of Britpop benefitted not only from the shake-up at Radio 1, but also from the arrival of several TV programmes, and the emergence in Britain of satellite TV in the early 90s.

I've already mentioned 'Britpop Now' and 'TFI Friday', but the most important music show in Britain was, of course, 'Top of the Pops' [TOTP]. TOTP was obviously based around what was successful in the charts in the time, meaning that it only reflected Britpop as it became more successful. That said, in 1997, when Chris Cowey took over as producer of the show, he instigated a live performance policy for artists appearing in the studio. In 1994, the BBC also launched 'Top of the Pops 2' [TOTP2], which, as an archive show, allowed (in theory) more space for newer artists on the main TOTP.

A major addition to music TV in Britain was 'Later... with Jools Holland', which began in 1992. It's clear looking through the list of episodes that from Series 4 in late 1994 up until about the end of Series 8 in late 1996, there was at least one "Britpop" artist on just about every episode.

Channel 4 responded with their own short-lived live music TV show, 'The White Room', which ran for 3 series throughout 1995 and 1996. This show was even more Britpop-heavy than Jools Holland's, though is perhaps best remembered for Iggy Pop performing 'Lust For Life' in see-through trousers. Host Mark Radcliffe introduces Iggy by asking "Will he get his knob out?" Producer Chris Cowey then moved to TOTP in 1997.

BBC also had music magazine show 'The O-Zone', which had been running since 1989 (and ran until 2000). In 1995 however, the show got re-launched with Jamie Theakston and Jayne Middlemiss as hosts. The show was primarily pop-based, though it did feature Britpop bands much more from 1995 onwards.

In 1992, Sky acquired the rights to show the new Premier League football. This lead to a massive increase in Britain to the number of people getting satellite TV, which in turn lead to increased viewers for MTV and VH-1, the two available music channels at the time. I can certainly remember Britpop videos being played extensively at the time, especially Oasis and Blur. I do not need to see the video for 'Wonderwall' or 'Don't Look Back In Anger' ever again.

All of these things happening definitely contributed to the public awareness and success of Britpop. Some were already there of course, and some were created or changed to reflect the success of and public interest in Britpop. And if you compare this time with the lack of music programming on terrestrial TV today (only Jools Holland and the odd show on Channel 4 remain), it is an indicator that a movement like Britpop could possibly never happen again in Britain, which is kind of sad.

Ash: "1977"

Released: 1996

Northern Ireland's Ash built their name on a series of punky, exuberant, youthful - and sometimes verging on the novel(ty) - hit singles, and so by the time they released this, their first album proper, it was a pleasant surprise that they embraced a slightly more mature and expansive sound, especially given that two-thirds of the band were only 19 at the time of the album's release.

The album kicks off with 'Lose Control', the best song on the album, opening with the sound of a TIE fighter (from Star Wars), and a definite example of their maturing sound, followed by the excellent singles 'Goldfinger' and 'Girl From Mars'. The first half of the album continues solidly until track six, another really good hit single, 'Kung Fu'.

The second half of the album starts well with 'Oh Yeah', another good single, but then takes a distinct downturn in quality. The best song of the last five is the rather weak single 'Angel Interceptor'; the other four songs here are rather mediocre and mean the album goes out on something of a downer.

That said, this is a pretty good album, and is by some distance the best the band would make; their follow up albums are rather tepid, though each one contains a few hit singles meaning that their later singles collection ("Intergalactic Sonic 7"s") is very good. It's well worth a listen though and is certainly one of the better and more interesting albums of the Britpop era.

Rating: 3.5/5

Mansun: "Attack Of The Grey Lantern"

Released: 1997

Mansun took many people by surprise when they released their debut album. The band had released several good if fairly straightforward but slightly quirky indie rock singles, so when "Attack Of The Grey Lantern" arrived, full of strings and electronic touches, as well as it being close to a concept album in terms of lyrics and narrative, it came a a pleasant shock.

The album itself is really rather good. The five songs released as singles are all very good, and there's only a couple of weaker songs among the rest. The album flows really well, even when changing from string-laden songs (like opener 'The Chad Who Loved Me') into quieter, partly-electronic songs (like track two, 'Mansun's Only Love Song').

'You, Who Do You Hate?' and 'Naked Twister' are the weaker songs, but they don't detract too much from what is an excellent and fairly ambitious album. This was a real highlight of the latter days of the Britpop era.

Rating: 4.5/5

The Boo Radleys: "Wake Up Boo"

Released: 1995

The Boo Radleys had been around, and been press darlings, for a while, but achieved their greatest success with this, their fourth album, off the back of hit single 'Wake Up Boo!'.

I never really understood the appeal of The Boo Radleys. I got their album previous to this one and hated it, and I didn't like this one much more. Other than 'Wake Up Boo!', which is an admittedly brilliant, upbeat single, there's not a single other song on this album that I like, despite this supposedly being the band's "pop" album. It's pretty much just one big mess of substandard, messy songs with little in the way of tunes or direction.

I mentioned before on the 'Britpop Now' post how The Boo Radleys how the band were heavily critical of Britpop, yet appeared on that programme and released the poppiest album of their career at the height of Britpop, which, if anything, makes me dislike this band more than I already do; if you're going to criticise Britpop, then don't jump on the bandwagon.

I'm being generous giving this album one out of five purely because 'Wake Up Boo!' is such a good song. Proof that anyone can write one good song if they try for long enough.

Rating: 1/5

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

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