It’s not even July yet and we’re in the dog days of summer already. Woof! The heat is on (RIP Glenn Frey) and it’s a hot week for indie rock vets. We’ve got Guided by Voices‘ 40th album and The Folk Implosion‘s first album in 25 years, plus new records from Redd Kross and Cornelius. There’s also ’80s college-rock-influenced Lame Drivers and, last but definitely not least, the wonderful third album from Loma which you should carve out some time to digest.

For more reviews of this week’s new records, Andrew listens to Megan Thee Stallion, Sour Widows and more in Notable Releases.

Some other Basement-friendly news from the week: Naima Bock announced her follow-up to Indie Basement’s #1 Album of 2022; Ulrika Spacek will be touring in September; Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougall announced their second The WAEVE album; punk icons X announced their final album (and the first single is good); and we’ll soon have new records from Dummy and Peel Dream Magazine.

Admin note: with Independence Day next week, there’s not much in the way of new releases, so there likely won’t be a regular Indie Basement on Friday. But there will be both the Indie Basement Best of June songs/album roundup, and the Indie Basement Best Albums 2024 So Far mid-year list. Stay tuned for that.

Until then, stay cool and head below for this week’s reviews and please excuse me while I binge The Bear. See you in July.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: Loma – How Will I Live Without a Body? (Sub Pop)
Subtle and sublime third album from Emily Cross, Dan Duszynski and Jonathan Meiburg is very much worth your time

“It’s like a demon enters the room, whenever we get together,” says Loma’s Emily Cross. A demon that pulls her, Dan Duszynski and Jonathan Meiburg back together but loves to set up obstacles in their path. Cross and Duszynski broke up during the making of Loma’s 2018 debut and thought that would be it for the band, but the trio’s connection brought them back for 2020’s wonderful Don’t Shy Away. Then the pandemic scattered Loma across the globe, with Meiberg relocating to Berlin and Cross to Dorset, England while Duszynski stayed in Texas. Attempts to record remotely never gelled, and neither did sessions at Dan’s Dandysounds studio outside Austin. Not giving up, Cross threw a hail mary and suggested Dan and Jonathan come to Dorset, where she was working as an end-of-life doula.

They did all convene in Dorset, turning two rooms of Cross’ small house — formerly the home of a coffin-maker — into a studio during the snowy winter months, and the Loma magic returned. Or to quote their third album’s first single, “This is how it starts to move again.” As before, their surroundings informed and became part of the recording. A padded coffin that had been left there became a vocal booth, while a nearby abandoned 12th century church became their echo chamber, and the sounds of nature (birds, the crashing waves from the nearby English Channel) are woven throughout the album’s 11 gentle, gossamer and grand creations.

Loma attract unlikely collaborators: Brian Eno was a fan of their first album and volunteered his expertise on Don’t Shy Away; this time it’s Laurie Anderson. Sort of. She offered the band access to an AI that had been trained exclusively on her years of work. Meiburg sent it a photo from his book-in-progress about the once and future life of Antarctica and Anderson’s AI responded with two poems which gave them the title of the album — they felt it eerily suited the difficulties of making this one — and inspired lyrics for a couple songs.

Cross, Duszynski, and Meiberg have always worked in watercolor, but How Will I Live Without a Body? Is their most subtle, sublime album yet. “Somehow, out of the chaos, we made something that sounds very relaxed,” Cross says. Relaxed, for sure, and at times bordering on ambient but also frequently thrilling, thanks to wonderful songs, expert performances, and arrangements / production that envelop you like a planetarium.* Is that a guitar solo? No that’s a clarinet (via Cross, who also plays viola on the album) and is typical of their sideways but perfectly realized sonic approach that favors atmosphere over flash.

Tinkling piano, fluttering brass and woodwinds, brushed drums, simmering feedback and synths that lie just below the surface, those are Loma’s weapons of choice, all of which are used to lift Cross’ crystal clear voice that, even if the music had you drifting off, could jolt you awake with its beauty. Even her background vocals, like on “This is How it Starts,” send shivers. There are a number of standouts here — “Pink Sky,” “Affinity,” “Broken Doorbell,” “How it Starts” — but How Will I Live Without a Body? is a record you really need to devote some time to sit down with. “The quiet’s what he needs,” Cross sings on another of the album’s highlights, “A Steady Mind.” You might need the quiet too, even if you don’t know it yet. But Loma do.

*I don’t have a hi-fi (or the number of speakers) capable of playing the Dolby Atmos spatial audio mix of the album made by Porcupine Tree leader and Atmos master Steven Wilson, but I’d sure like to hear it.

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: Guided By Voices – Strut of Kings (Rockathon / GBV Inc)
Holy crap this is Guided by Voices’ 40th album, depending on who is counting, and their hot streak continues

First things first — what number album is this? Their last, Nowhere to Go But Up (released in December 2023) is listed as “their 39th overall” on Guided by Voices’ own Rockathon Records website, but press materials refer to this, their first since then, as #41. Did they secretly drop a record over the holidays that only Martin Shkreli has heard? Or did they do enough celebrating in 2023 with their 40th anniversary celebration and are now trying to skirt the pressure. It doesn’t really matter and I’m sure if I had as many releases as Bob Pollard, I’d have trouble remembering how many records I’d put out too. A title like Strut of Kings certainly befits such a landmark as 40.

Perhaps even more astounding, Strut of Kings is GBV’s 18th album since 2016 (!!!) and one thing I’m sure of is it’s the latest fantastic LP from what is an incredible late inning hot streak. Pollard turns 67 later this year and he shows no signs of running out of steam, high kicks or indie rock earworms. At 11 songs and 36 minutes, this one isn’t quite as ambitious an undertaking as Nowhere to Go But Up, but it doesn’t need to be with great, gloriously titled fist-pumpers like “Olympus Cock In Radiana,” “Cavemen Running Naked,” and instant-classic “Serene King.” All hail Guided by Voices, and I’m looking forward to the next 40 albums, which at this rate could all come by Bob’s 75 birthday.

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Redd Kross – Redd Kross (In the Red)
Eternally youthful glam-punk greats’ self-titled double album plays like a greatest hits

Has another band personified the teenage dream of rock n’ roll as well and for as long as Redd Kross? Jeff and Steven McDonald were actual teenagers when they started the band in the late ’70s, and they have outlasted most of their peers while still sounding and–for the most part–looking the same. Their self-titled eighth album is a great representation of their signature mix of ’60s British invasion, ’70s glam, bubblegum, power-pop, and punk. Redd Kross sounds like it could’ve come out at any moment during their 44-year history, but is well timed with the new documentary about the band, Born Innocent, which is making its way around the country. The McDonalds sound especially inspired and make the most of the double LP’s 18 songs and hour runtime. They sound a little angry too, which gives confections like “I’ll Take Your Word For It,” “Too Good to Be True,” and “Terrible Band,” real bite. “We grew up with industry gatekeepers telling us you’re only allowed to do what we do up to a certain age, that if you haven’t attained some certain status of success it’s time to hang up the dream,” says Steven. “But I’m still hungry and ambitious, trying to figure out what I want to say and how to say it. I give the correct amount of fucks. I’m ready to start our third act, and for it to be magnificent.” So far so good, guys!

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The Folk Implosion – Walk Thru Me (Joyful Noise)
How do you do, fellow KIDS: Lou Barlow and John Davis are back with the first Folk Implosion album in 25 years

They’ve been working on it for a few years, and following a 2022 single, Lou Barlow and John Davis have finally delivered the first new Folk Implosion album in 25 years. “It was the middle of the pandemic and we were old guy musicians commenting on a lot of the same things,” says Barlow of his reconnection with his “Natural One” collaborator. Adds Davis, “There was a moment when I was worried one of us might kick it, or never talk to each other again, so I decided we should pick it back up.” Walk Thru Me is a much more obviously collaborative Folk Implosion album than anything they released in the ’90s, with Davis taking lead vocals on a number of songs, as well as bringing his recent interest in Eastern rhythms and instrumentation to the production. (Davis almost sounds like Prince on a couple songs, “The Day You Died” in particular, thanks to an eerily similar vocal inflection and register. It’s a little uncanny.) Davis’ more pronounced input brings a freshness to their collaboration while keeping things with the danceable indie rock style you remember from Kids. Lou’s songs remain the strongest — “My Little Lamb,” “Moonlit Kind” and Walk Thru Me‘s title track are terrific – but this is a welcome return that still sounds like The Folk Implosion without ever being beholden to the past.

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Cornelius – Ethereal Essence (Like Ltd / Warner Music Japan)
Even when Cornelius tries to make an ambient record, it still holds your attention

With a title like “Ethereal Essence” you might think you know what to expect from the latest from Japanese musical genius Keigo Oyamada, aka Cornelius. If you thought “ambient album,” you would not exactly be wrong but that’s not quite right either. “I gathered songs that have an ethereal feel from the various purposes for which they have been produced over the past few years and I decided to make one album,” Cornelius says. “With the current strange situation in the world and the stressful social life, I feel comfortable with something that fits into the introspection and spiritual world.” Ethereal Essence is relaxing but it is not wallpaper, and I don’t think I could put this on to help me go to sleep. (Max Richter, your permanent place on my Spotify Wrapped feels secure.)  As usual, Oyamada’s creativity shines through, whether it’s using an old Speak N’ Spell toy on “Heaven is Waiting,” diving into slow jam sexytime territory on “Too Much Love for the Sauna (Falling Deep),” or spitting out spectral guitar fireworks on “Sketches for Spring” which is a tribute to The Durutti Column’s Vini Reilly. There’s also a lovely rework of the late Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Thatness and Thereness” to end the album on a sweet note. This might not be a “proper” album, pulled from other projects as it is, but Cornelius maintains his unique essence without ever dissolving into the ether.

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Lame Drivers – Become an Island (Bleeding Gold / Jigsaw Records)
NYC indie rockers’ first album in nearly a decade would’ve been a college radio hit in 1986, and still sounds great in 2024

We’ve got a lot of the Old Guard in today’s Indie Basement, really delivering on the column’s slogan of “classic indie, alternative and college rock.” NYC’s Lame Drivers aren’t exactly spring chickens (their first release was 2004), but in the scheme of things they are relative fresh faces in the indie rock world. They also haven’t been heard from in a while — Become an Island is their first record in nearly a decade. I’m not sure what they’ve been doing in that time (probably life stuff, going through a global pandemic, etc), but I’m glad they’re back, as this is a terrific record. If you’re a fan of jangly, ultracatchy guitar like me, this is a real sweet spot and makes me think of the North Carolina scene in particular and doing overnight shifts at my college station. I double checked to make sure Mitch Easter didn’t have anything to do with this one cause it reminds of his band Let’s Active as well as The dB’s, and other groups of the era like Game Theory, Love Tractor, Windbreakers, and yes R.E.M. Mitch is not in the credits but Travis Harrison, who’s worked on most of the recent Guided By Voices albums is, and he’s helped them get that sound. They clearly already had the songs.

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Creation Records’ 21 Best Records

21. Biff Bang Pow! – Oblivion (1987)

Alan McGee wasn't just the head of Creation Records, he was also one its musical artists, involved in a few projects over the years, including Laughing Apple, Revolving Paint Dream and his longest-running group, Biff Bang Pow! that also featured, at various points, label co-founders Dick Green and Joe Foster, as well as Primal Scream's Andrew Innes. Oblivion, the second of two albums Biff Bang Pow! released in 1987, is the group's best record, full of the sort of jangly pastiche psychedelia you'd expect from a band that, like his label, were named after '60s beat group The Creation. McGee's a better songwriter than he is a singer but his fey vocal style works just fine on terrifically titled tracks like "A Girl Called Destruction," "The Only Colour in the World is Love" and "She's Got Diamonds in Her Hair." The band's other 1987 album, The Girl Who Runs the Beat Hotel, is worth checking out too and contains the band's best-ever single, the Andrew Innes-sung "Someone Stole My Wheels."

20. Various Artists – Creation Soup Vol 1-5 (1990)

Most people associate Creation Records with their '90s heyday of Oasis, Primal Scream, Ride, Super Furry Animals and My Bloody Valentine, but the label's first five years were full of singles from jangly, '60s-inspired bands who most people have probably never heard of, most of which were only released on 7". In 1990 Creation gathered them all up for a five volume CD set. McGee notes that "The first twenty came in hand folded sleeves which Joe Foster and I used to stay up and fold all night four or five times a week." They include great early singles by Primal Scream, Felt, The Loft, The Weather Prophets, The Jasmine Minks, The Pastels, House of Love, Biff Bang Pow!, The Bodines, and more. Noticeably absent from these, though, is the label's breakthrough -- The Jesus & Mary Chain's 1984 debut single "Upside Down" (due to rights issues). Creation Soup is still a fascinating look at the formative years of a label that would become an indie powerhouse.

19. The Jesus & Mary Chain – Munki (1998)

The Jesus and Mary Chain's 1984 debut single, "Upside Down," turned the UK indie scene upside down with its then-novel approach of taking a Phil Spector-eque pop song and wrapping it in pummeling noise and feedback. It also put Creation Records on the map, paving the way for House of Love, My Bloody Valentine, Ride and many more of the label's most famous groups. JAMC made the leap to Warner Bros immediately after this single but Creation founder Alan McGee stayed the band's manager, and JAMC quickly became alt-rock stars. By the late-'90s, though, Jim and William Reid felt chewed up and spit out by the music industry and weren't getting along with each other so well, either. If Warner had lost interest in the band after five albums, McGee had not, and welcomed the Reids back to Creation with open arms. Bookended by the supercatchy "I Love Rock N' Roll" and tinnitus-inducing "I Hate Rock N' Roll," the sprawling, 17-track Munki plays like a career retrospective, including buzzsaw pop, semi-acoustic numbers, duets with Hope Sandoval, and dissonant noise jams. Munki served as a great final word on the JAMC...till they reformed and made a new album 19 years later.

18. The Loft – One Round the Fair (1989) / The Weather Prophets – Diesel River (1988)

You can't really tell the story of Creation Records without including Peter Astor, the label's first shining star, who wrote charming, literate songs with his Television/VU-esque bands The Loft and The Weather Prophets. (The Loft's original name was The Living Room, which was also the name of Alan McGee's pre-Creation London club night; Astor changed it to avoid confusion.) Astor also had a face meant for magazine covers, as well as a fine if not exceptional Tom Verlaine-esque voice that probably kept his groups from crossing over into more mainstream success. Not that Creation Records' Alan McGee didn't try. The Loft broke up before making a full length record but their excellent singles "Why Does the Rain" (which Astor recorded with The Weather Prophets, too) and "Up the Hill and Down the Slope" are among Creation's best early singles and, along with the b-sides, make up compilation Once Round The Fair. Astor and Loft bandmate Dave Morgan formed The Weather Prophets who continued in much the same direction, releasing three albums that never quite captured the magic of the band's Creation singles, most of which are collected on Diesel River (though your best bet is 2004 best-of comp Blue Skies & Free-Rides).

17. Adorable – Against Perfection (1993)

Making their debut with the undeniable "Sunshine Smile," Adorable were initially lumped in with the shoegaze scene, because almost everything on Creation in 1992 was kinda shoegaze, but the band were closer in spirit to House of Love's textured, romantic pop than My Bloody Valentine or Swervedriver. They owed a lot to the Pixies and The Wedding Present, too, held Echo & The Bunnymen in the highest regard, and Fijalkowski had no shortage of big hooks and mile-wide choruses in his arsenal. Their debut album, Against Perfection, is one of the great, underrated UK indie records of the early '90s, jam-packed with memorable melodies, roaring/chiming guitars, clever/heartfelt lyrics and lots of swagger. The American release, via SBK records, betters the UK version by adding "Sunshine Smile" and another early single, "I'll Be Your Saint," alongside killer album cuts like "A to Fade In," "Homeboy," "Favorite Fallen Idol" and "Still Life."

16. The Jazz Butcher – Fishcotheque (1988)

With the Jazz Butcher's mid-'80s albums for Glass Records, which featured a band that included bassist (and ex Bauhaus member) David J, The Jazz Butcher (Pat Fish) had gained the reputation for whimsical indie a la Robyn Hitchcock. Signing to Creation, Pat started a new version of the group with collaborator Kizzy O'Callahan, intent on changing his image. That makeover began with 1988's Fishcotheque, one of his best albums that showed a new, more serious side to The Jazz Butcher. "I was keen to get as far away from all those 'w, words that had followed my group around," Fish wrote later of the album, "to make it as clear as I could that this was a rock & roll thing, not some 'eccentricity.' I had my shades and I had my fringed suede jacket and I had the Weather Prophets rhythm section." Witty without being wacky, Fishcotheque is loaded with great songs, including the punky "Looking for Lot 49," the wistful "Swell" and "The Next Move Sideways," terrific pop number "Let's Get it Wrong," and one of his best-ever songs, "Susie," which features Sonic Boom on feedback. Pat didn't entirely abandon his "w" side, though, which rears its head on "Living in a Village" and vegan rap song "The Best Way" (which isn't as kooky as it may seem).

15. Momus – The Tender Pervert (1988)

Named after the Greek god of satire and mockery, Momus (aka Scottish artist Nic Currie) was Creation's most idiosyncratic artist on record*, writing almost exclusively about sex and death but in a high-minded style that was likely to quote the bible or ancient literature, and playing in a style somewhere between Donovan and Jacques Brel. (Most eccentric in real life: Felt's Lawrence.) As the '80s went on, Currie would incorporate Pet Shop Boys-style synthpop into the Momus sound. The Tender Pervert was his first real flirtation with drum machines, and was a deeply twisted, angry record fueled by disgust with Margaret Thatcher's response to the AIDS crisis. "I'm so furious about this that I decide that, if gay people are not only dying but being gagged by the government while dying, it's up to straight people to promote homosexuality in their place," Currie wrote reflecting on the record. Momus is at the height of his witty, erudite powers here on tracks like "The Angels Are Voyeurs," "The Homosexual," "A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy (Parts 17-24)" and the elegant, complex "Bishonen." Currie is not wrong when he writes that The Tender Pervert is "my best and most definitive album" -- it's also the best place to start for this artist who is definitely an acquired taste.

14. Swervedriver – Ejector Seat Reservation (1995)

Swervedriver were one of the best groups of the original shoegaze era, but by 1995 interest in the genre in their home country (and label, Creation) had fully moved on to Britpop. Unlike some bands (Ride, Lush), Swervedriver stuck to their guitar pedals while trying to expand upon their sound with their third album, Ejector Seat Reservation. It was still heavy, but there was an equal emphasis on melody and maelstrom, adding elements of Bowie and Bolan to the mix, not to mention a string and horn section. It's Swervedriver's best album and loaded with memorable songs, including pile-driver "Bring Me the Head of the Fortune Teller," the poppy/heavy "The Other Jesus," elegant first single "Last Day on Earth," and soaring closing cut "To the Birds." Unfortunately there was no time to celebrate: Creation Records dropped Swervedriver the week after Ejector Seat Reservation was released and deleted the album from their catalog, making it for years the band's hardest-to-find album.

13. Saint Etienne – Good Humor (1997)

Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs formed Saint Etienne in 1990 as a way to mix their obsession with '60s and '70s pop, R&B, soul and reggae with the indie dance and rave culture that had taken over the UK at the time. They originally envisioned the group as having a different vocalist for every single, but that changed when they met Sarah Cracknell, and Saint Etienne became a trio. After three albums of sample-based dance pop, Saint Etienne changed course, and decamped to Malmo, Sweden to make a full-band album with Cardigans producer Tore Johannsen at his famed Tambourine Studios. Armed with a group of crack session musicians, Good Humor is unlike any other record in Saint Etienne's catalog before or since, working in elements of exotica, acid jazz and Beach Boys/Phil Spector wall of sound pop. While Saint Etienne's previous albums had been released by Heavenly Recordings through Creation, Good Humor was the first -- and last -- to be released by Creation proper. Singles "Sylvie" and "The Bad Photographer" were both Top 30 UK hits and Good Humor remains Saint Etienne's biggest seller in the US (where it was released by Sub Pop).

12. The Boo Radleys – Giant Steps (1993)

Liverpool band The Boo Radleys began as one of the noisiest of the '90s shoegazers, with some songs on their 1991 Creation debut, Everything's Alright Forever, sounding like a garbage truck in a rockslide. But deep down, guitarist Martin Carr was a lover of the classics -- The Beatles, Kinks and other late-'60s psychedelic pop -- and that side of him was ready to emerge. The watershed moment was the title track of 1992's Lazarus EP which took a roaring, anthemic melody and built it up slowly with an extended, dubbed-out intro. It's one of their best-ever tracks. "Lazarus" turned out to be the first taste of what would be their magnum opus -- the boundary pushing, Coltrane-referencing, appropriately named third album, Giant Steps. Noise and hazy effects still rang through songs like "I Hang Suspended," "Butterfly McQueen," "Rodney King - Song for Lenny Bruce" and "Take the Time Around," but nothing was obscuring the massive hooks Carr loaded the songs with. There were also just straight-up pop songs like "Wishin' I Was Skinny," "Barney and Me," and "If You Want it, Take It." It's a record that, in its own way, is every bit as ambitious as Screamadelica or Loveless, and one that opened Creation's door for Britpop's coming surge. "I felt that everything was moving towards this big pop thing," Carr says in David Cavanagh's The Creation Records Story. "Loads of bands -- young bands with guitars -- were getting into the charts. Blur were getting there. Suede were having hits. We didn’t sell that many records with Giant Steps but everyone was dying to see what we were going to do next." Next would net them a massive UK hit single -- 1995's "Wake Up Boo!" -- but Giant Steps is still their finest hour.

11. Super Furry Animals – Radiator (1997)

Oasis may have been Creation's biggest selling act of the '90s (by a mile) but, pound for pound, Super Furry Animals were probably the best. The band were proudly Welsh, not afraid to sing in their native tongue, and wildly creative, with a wide anarchic streak. Their terrific 1996 debut album, Fuzzy Logic, paid tribute to Welsh drug smuggler (and national hero) Howard Marks both on the cover art and on song "Hanging With Howard Marks," and the same year they released single "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" which sampled Steely Dan and held the record, at 50 utterances, for most "fucks" given in a song (till Insane Clown Posse's "Fuck the World" beat it in 1999). Just a year later, SFA were back with Radiator, a record that was leaps and bounds better than their debut, and where they went from being a lot of fun to one of the more consistently great, wildly creative bands of the era. (They still are.) Radiator incorporates Madchester-y shuffle ("Play it Cool," "The Placid Casual"), Bowie-style spacerock ("Demons," "Bass tuned to DEAD"), punk, and mutant pop ("Herman Loves Pauline") into a style that became distinctly their own.

10. Slowdive – Souvlaki (1993)

Influenced by the Cocteau Twins' ethereal style, not to mention The Jesus and Mary Chain and probably a fair amount of goth, Pink Floyd and prog, Slowdive didn’t really sound like any other group from the original shoegaze era, riding a massive wave of shimmering guitars that were at times so transformed by effects pedals, they resembled synthesizers. Like their early EPs, the band's debut album, Just for a Day, was hypnotic and sensuous, wrapping listeners in layer upon layer of gorgeous haze, but it was maybe a little lacking in focus and A-level material. Not a problem with their sophomore album that nestles memorable songs and a stronger rhythmic backbone into their signature aural cloudwork. Their best album to date, Souvlaki features some of their catchiest songs ("Alison," "When the Sun Hits," "40 Days") with muscular material like "Machine Gun," vivid trip-out "Yellow Melon" and two songs ( "Sing," "Here She Comes") featuring keyboards and treatments by Brian Eno. Best of all, though, is "Souvlaki Space Station" which takes their spiraling sound deep into dub territory. Never as popular at the time as their shoegaze contemporaries Ride or Lush, Slowdive's records have aged better than most things from the '90s, and the group have led one of the most satisfying second acts in recent memory.

9. Teenage Fanclub – Grand Prix (1995)

Teenage Fanclub's third album, Bandwagonesque, is one of the three pillars in Creation's 1991 crown (the other two are slightly higher up on this list), and an album that, along with Ride's Nowhere, helped the label realize its place as a home for classic guitar pop done in new and exciting ways, or at least by new and exciting groups. What Teenage Fanclub did wasn't exactly new -- they drank deep from the well of Big Star and Dinosaur Jr. -- but they did it very well and had three three talented singer-songwriters who had yet to reach their creative potential. That hit with 1995's Grand Prix that, to carry on the Formula One racing theme, had Norman Blake, Gerrard Love and Raymond McGinley firing on all cylinders, with such instant earworms as "Sparky's Dream," "Neil Jung," "Mellow Doubt," "Verisimilitude," and "Don't Look Back." The album was also released at the height of Britpop and pulled the Fannies into that orbit, even though they were never really part of that scene. While they may not equal Oasis in the ambition and swagger department, Grand Prix delivers just as many classics as (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, just in a more humble way.

8. Sugar – Copper Blue (1992)

Spoiler alert: this is the only American-made album on this list. Creation did release a few records by U.S. acts (Medicine, Guided by Voices, The Cramps) but not many, and most were more licensing deals than actual signings. But Bob Mould put together separate deals with Creation in the UK and Rykodisc in North America for his new band Sugar who rivaled MBV for being loudest-ever group on the label. With their roaring, punk-injected guitar pop sound, the trio (Mould, bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis) were definitely a more natural fit with a label of noisemakers like Creation than Rykodisc (who were mainly known for being the first CD-only label). In any case, Sugar's classic debut album is one of 1992's best, and one of the greatest albums Creation Records released, with Mould's signature mix of rippers ("Changes," "A Good Idea") and pop songs ("Helpless," "If I Can't Change Your Mind") and even a little prog ("Hoover Dam"). Copper Blue was actually more of a hit across the pond first, reaching #10 in the UK album charts and with NME naming it the Best Album of 1992; the record really caught on with American alt-rock radio and MTV in 1993. Sugar burned bright and hot, releasing Beaster a mere six months later, yet flamed out during sessions for their second album. Still, Copper Blue remains one of Mould's best collection of songs.

7. Felt – Forever Breathes the Lonely Word (1986)

Led by the decidedly eccentric but frequently brilliant Lawrence Hayward who was prone to 2 AM vacuuming and still only goes by his first name, Felt set out to release 10 albums and 10 singles in 10 years -- "In and out in a decade," he put it. He accomplished his goal, making crystalline guitar pop that owed much to Tom Verlaine (and just a little to Bob Dylan) with two sharply defined eras of the band. Felt's first four albums were on Cherry Red and featured guitarist Maurice Deebank's distinctive arpeggiated guitar style; the second began with the group's move to Creation, with Deebank out and keyboardist Martin Duffy in, adding wonderful, rich organ to the band's sound. Forever Breathes the Lonely Word was Felt's first album for Creation and is Felt's masterwork, with shimmering production, Lawrence at his most lyrically romantic, and Duffy's brilliant playing all over it. It's just great song after great song, including "Rain of Crystal Spires," "Down But Not Out," "All The People I Like And Those That Are Dead," and "A Wave Crashed on the Rocks," being particular highlights. Creation's first great album.

6. Ride – Nowhere (1990)

Oxford's Ride released their debut album in 1990 and perfectly split Creation Records' two decades in existence down the middle. The band were clearly a product of the student indie scene that Creation was at the center of, owing much to House of Love, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus & Mary Chain and early Primal Scream, but they were a half step generation younger, savvy, and ambitious. You could easily imagine songs like "Seagull" and "Kaleidoscope" being released with thinner production by the label just a couple years earlier, but Ride were not a group who just wanted to play to 150 people the rest of their lives. While undeniably part of the psychedelic shoegaze scene -- they remain of the genre's most iconic bands -- Andy Bell and Mark Gardner were great songwriters, too, and underneath Nowhere's beautiful murk, haze and feedback is some serious musicianship and craft. Nowhere owes as much to The Byrds as it does MBV and is loaded with great tunes, as can be heard on the undeniable classic "Vapour Trail" -- perhaps the greatest song to come out on Creation Records and not get released as a single. Ride would get more ambitious (and pop-savvy) on 1992's excellent Going Blank Again, and would make a grab for the Britpop ring on 1994's Carnival of Light, but Nowhere is the sound of a scene and a label at the dawn of the '90s.

5. House of Love – House of Love (1988)

While The Jesus & Mary Chain's "Upside Down" put Creation Records on the map, The House of Love's debut album was the first album released by the label that really registered shockwaves beyond the indie charts. Led by Guy Chadwick, whose deep voice matched his high cheekbones, House of Love had some of JAMC's squall but fed it through Chadwick's graceful songwriting and guitarist Terry Bickers' inventive playing. Opening salvo "Christine" is such a stunner, from the roaring guitars to the "Bah bah be dah dah" hook, if the rest of the album had been a dud it still might've made this list. But House of Love is all hits, from the dark, sexy cool of "Road" and "Hope" to the riff-heavy "Sulfur" and "Salome" to the ethereal grandeur of "Man to Child," and the album's second best song, "Love in a Car." The album was also as big an influence on the burgeoning shoegaze scene as My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything, and it's hard to imagine groups like Ride and Catherine Wheel existing without House of Love.

4. Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)

As Andy Bell of Ride, who would end up joining Oasis by the end of the '90s, told us, Oasis "were the band Creation had been waiting for, and I think the label was also exactly what the band needed." Oasis fit Creation head Alan McGee's rock n' roll ethos, ticking every box possible with a cup-runneth-over mix of attitude, razor-sharp wit, hedonistic joie-de-vivre and arrogance. It might've all been too much if Noel Gallagher wasn't a one-man hit factory, losing songs in the couch that were better than many bands wrote in their whole career. They were definitely the guitar band McGee had always wanted, turning out singles like his '60s and '70s heroes, but putting a fresh face on them just in time to lead in the new Britpop movement that pushed grunge out of the country much like the USA had done to the King's army some 200+ years before. While 1994's Definitely Maybe was a fantastic debut, Oasis managed to follow it up just a year later with an even better album, one of the best of 1995 and without a doubt the peak of Gallaghers' powers. (What's the Story) Morning Glory? even managed to be a hit in America, something a British rock band hadn't done in years. The album is filthy with classics, from singles like "Wonderwall," "Don't Look Back in Anger," "Champagne Supernova," and "Roll With It" to deep cuts like "Cast No Shadow," and "She's Electric." While Oasis stayed popular throughout their existence, creatively, it was diminishing returns after this -- but in 1995 the band could do no wrong.

3. My Bloody Valentine – Isn’t Anything (1988)

If Loveless was the sound of "how'd they do that?," Isn't Anything was the sound of "I wanna do that!" It's hard to imagine Ride, Swervedriver, The Boo Radleys or any of the rest of the soon-to-erupt shoegaze scene -- or half the indie rock of the '90s -- happening the way it did without the visceral impact of My Bloody Valentine's first album for Creation. Songs like "(When You Wake (You're Still in a Dream," "Feed Me With Your Kiss" and "Sueisfine" hit like a brick and sound like you've already been knocked senseless. Kevin Shield's glide guitar sound -- a unique mix of tuning and playing style -- was mysterious, instantly distinctive and deceptively attainable. The band used less effects pedals than most people thought. "The sound is purely physical," MBV Svengali Kevin Shields said at the time. "It's movement, a manual moving of the string: the short travel of he Jazzmaster and Jaguar tremolo that gives it that characteristic sort of upwards drone to the chord." My Bloody Valentine even managed to make acoustic guitars seem heavy ("Come Cupid") and the band's more ethereal tracks like "Lose My Breath" were aptly named. The album has a reputation for thin, tinny sonics, but Kevin Shields' all-analog 2018 remastered edition really shows what a gorgeous monster it is.

2. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991)

A record so monumentally important to popular music it's all but impossible to overstate its importance, Loveless is a bonafide classic. It's also a record that took forever and somewhere around £250,000 to complete, that nearly bankrupted Creation, forcing the label to drop the band shortly after Loveless' release, and sell 49% of its stake to Sony Music. ("Overdue" and "over budget," meanwhile, are words associated with the band to this day.) Even though countless artists have stolen from Kevin Shields' signature "glide guitar" style, what the band get from their instruments on Loveless still sounds like nothing else. The four dry snare hits that open the album do not prepare you for the sludgy, white-dwarf heavy riff of opener "Only Shallow," or when the song shifts into pure beauty and back again. Moments like that happen throughout Loveless, from the ethereal slipstream of "To Here Knows When" to the poppy indie rock of "When You Sleep," to the dreamy, danceable perfection of "Soon." So many rock critic cliches and adjectives were created -- and wore out their welcome -- with folks trying to describe Loveless, yet you can't not be in awe 30 years on. It nearly destroyed the label but has always stood as one of its finest moments.

1. Primal Scream – Screamadelica (1991)

Led by gangly, cocksure Bobby Gillespie (who was The Jesus & Mary Chain's original drummer and grew up with Creation boss Alan McGee), Primal Scream were Creation Records' longest-running band, having released their debut single, "All Fall Down" on the label in 1985, and XTRMNTR in 2000, the last album released by the label before it dissolved. Like McGee, Gillespie seemed to live and breathe rock n' roll and he and his bandmates, including the invaluable Andrew Innes, at times managed to stay cool purely on attitude while releasing less-than-stellar early records. Things for them changed, though, when they gave their lackluster, Stonesy single "I'm Losing More Than I Ever Had" to DJ Andrew Weatherall to remix. He took out almost all the vocals, threw a beat under it and added a sample of Peter Fonda From The Wild Angels yelling "We wanna be free to do what we wanna do! We wanna get loaded and we wanna have a good time!" Released in February 1990, "Loaded" was one of the cornerstones of the acid house/Madchester scene and forever changed Primal Scream's trajectory. They spent nearly two years on one continuous party, working with Weatherall, Jah Wobble, Stones producer Jimmy Miller -- whatever suited their fancy and vibe -- and releasing singles along the way which would eventually be collected as the era-defining Screamadelica. It shouldn't have worked, but that sense of freedom made it come together beautifully. "Instead of having two guitars, bass, drums, vocals... we destroyed that," Gillespie said in The Creation Records Story. "It was anything goes - synth, tabla, drum machine, no vocals, instrumentals, gospel singers, sitars. The whole range of anything goes noises and suddenly the band were freed. It was a much looser approach to making music. And then getting people like Andy and Hugo, and Alex Patterson and Thrash from The Orb, Jimmy Miller, Wobble, you know – these people, Messing with our music, taking it somewhere else, making it more interstellar, as far out as… It was incredible. The greatest time." You still feel that listening to Screamadelica, too.