Britpop: The End

I've finally come to the end of my Britpop retrospective, after spending many pounds buying and several months listening to a whole bunch of albums, and many hours watching YouTube clips. I could have gone on forever really, but I really can't be bothered, and I think I covered all the important stuff really, but there were some artists I didn't cover, The Verve, Embrace, Kenickie and Catatonia probably being the main ones.

MP3s not pictured

The Verve pre-dated Britpop by several years and broke through as Britpop ended, so I didn't include them. Embrace and Catatonia I would consider as post-Britpop bands really, even though they are often included by some people. As for Kenickie, they were a band I loved at the time and will do a look back on them at a later date.

Overall, I enjoyed looking back at what was essentially the music of my youth. There were few surprises, most things were pretty much as I remembered them, good and bad.

If one thing was noticeable, it was that there were a lot of good singles, but most of the albums were fairly average.

Despite having reservations when I began, I would now conclude that Britpop was a good thing. No big cultural movement has really happened in Britain since then; the coverage Britpop got was fairly remarkable, and given what has happened to the media in Britain since then (few remaining independant radio stations, the decline of the music magazine industry, the lack of music coverage), one is unlikely to happen again. With all the coincidences involved with the rise of Britpop, such as the arrival of satellite TV, the move towards the mainstream of "alternative" comedy and the seeming return of British nationalistic pride, it makes it all the more amazing. If for no other reason, Britpop will probably be the last in the line of youth cultural movements (following things such as rock 'n' roll in the fifties, the swinging sixties, punk etc) to really sweep through Britain in such a big way, though I'll be happy to be proved wrong. The closest thing we have had recently I guess is the increasing obsession with celebrity culture and the rise of reality TV.

The Nearly Men

Before I finish my Britpop retrospective, I should mention some of the bands that didn't make it, or I just couldn't be bothered to buy any of their albums.

Dodgy were a poppier, summery sounding band, and were shit. They are regularly perceived as one the reasons Britpop was shit by haters of the period, and were seen as one of the dadrock-type bands that Chris Evans championed.

Like Dodgy, Reef were a band tainted by their Chris Evans associations, making their name when one of their songs was used regularly on "TFI Friday". Coming from the West Country, the band had a large regional fanbase, but seemed only to be liked by retro rock fans elsewhere in the country.

Sheffield's Longpigs were actually not that bad, having a couple of good singles and half-decent debut album. That said, I couldn't be bothered to buy the album again. The band are most notable today because they featured Richard Hawley on guitar, though when I was at school, it was rumoured that singer Crispin Hunt was originally from my home town of Leek (in Staffordshire), and formed the band when he went to university in Sheffield, though I've never been able to confirm if this is true or not.

Northern Uproar were one of the most hated of all Britpop bands. Seen as being a poor man's Oasis, due to kind of looking and sounding like a worse version of them, and the band were constantly mocked by music magazines and fans alike.

If one Britpop band were hated more than Northern Uproar, it was Shed Seven, though this was probably related to the fact that they were a lot more successful than Northen Uproar and a lot more people had heard of them. Singer Rick Witter's name became Britpop rhyming slang, and lots of stories went around about how the band got its name (because the singer was one of a family of seven that were born and lived in a shed, being my favourite). Like Northern Uproar, they were a crapper Oasis.

Scotland's The Supernaturals had a couple of poppy hit singles, then disappeared again. I can't really add any more than that.

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