I did briefly consider just posting last week’s Indie Basement again — happy Groundhog Day! — but there are too many good records out this week. We’ve got six new album this week including Dinosaur Jr‘s J. Mascis, Kirin J Callinan, Lee “Scratch” Perry‘s posthumous “final” album featuring Tricky, Shaun Ryder and more, UK neo-prog group, Plantoid, Maxwell Farrington & Le SuperHomard, The Paranoid Style, and more.

Over in Notable Releases, Andrew spins the latest from Anika Pyle, Vijay Iyer, Liquid Mike and more.

In other Basement-related news, Portishead’s Beth Gibbons finally announced a solo album! More album announcements: Pet Shop Boys, Dehd, and Shack’s Michael Head.

Need more? Catch up on last month with Indie Basement Best Songs & Albums of January roundup, including track reviews and a 76-song playlist.

Head below for this week’s reviews…

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: J Mascis – What Do We Do Now? (Sub Pop)
The Dinosaur Jr. frontman feels very at home amongst acoustics, piano and a few ripping leads

J Mascis is synonymous with loud guitars; playing with his band Dinosaur Jr., on stage he’s cocooned in Marshall stacks which is as iconic an image as any in indie rock. The band are still making great records and are reliably solid live but, dare I say it, his solo records are more satisfying these days. His weary vocal style and melodic tendencies are not really different from what he did on You’re Living All Over Me back in 1986, but it all feels a little more at home against dusty acoustic guitars and piano. J had planned for his first solo album in five years to be totally acoustic but then he got the itch to play drums and add a few electric solos. Before long he was tapping his friends Ken Mauri to play piano and Matthew “Doc” Dunn for pedal steel. “I dunno why I did that exactly,” J admits, “but it’s just what happened. What Do We Do Now? sounds as much like a “band” record as any by Dinosaur Jr. but this is one J, Lou and Murph would never make. Whether they are or not, the arrangements make songs like “Can’t Believe We’re Here,” “Old Friends,” and “Set Me Down” seem more introspective and personal. More pop, too, in a rambling country rock way which, again, fits in so well with J’s sleepy delivery and sounds so good when he lets those signature ragged solos rip. I hope Dinosaur Jr. never break up again, but I’m glad Mascis gives us a record like this every few years.

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: Kirin J Callinan – If I Could Sing (Worse Records)
This maximalist Aussie eccentric delivers more weirdo pop as only he can. Frequently brilliant

Aussie artist Kirin J Callinan is a gonzo iconoclast, a seriously talented musician, songwriter and singer with an earned bad-boy wildman reputation that at times threatens to overshadow the music. His records embrace both sides of his personality and often feel like he’s answered the question “What if the Aphex Twin in the ‘Windowlicker’ video was a real person and tried to make ’80s-style pop?” That’s certainly the case with If I Could Sing, his first album of original material in seven years, though his 2019 covers album, Return to Center, is a good window into Kirin’s wonderful and frightening world. Speaking of scaring folks, goth ballad opener “Bread of Love,” which features Naem (fka Spank Rock) in what feels like a nod to the KLF, ends with the sounds of polite applause followed by kids screaming for their lives. It’s a new Kirin J Callinan album — do you know where your children are?

If you’ve been following Kirin’s recent run of singles from 2022 and 2023, you’ve heard nearly half of If I Could Sing already, and most of its best songs: “Young Drunk Driver,” a swaying widescreen collab with Hubert Lenoir where he pleads “leave your keys with me”; electro-rock jam “Eternally Hateful”; the brilliant, glitched out sophistipop grandeur of “Crazier Idea” (very Prefab Sprout); “Anæmic Adonis,” a true story of a drug overdose set to new wave ska-pop; and ethereal, glassine ballad “In Absolutes.” The rest of the album is not quite as memorable but there are still diamonds, including “The Truth,” which channels Infected-era The The, and If I Could Sing‘s delicate title track which, with its pizzicato strings, owes a little to Annie Lennox’s “Walking on Broken Glass.” There’s another, more literal question Kirin poses with the title of “If I Could Sing”…which he answers on every track with some real knockout vocal performances. He can definitely sing. His guitar skills have never been in question, but he really dazzles here too, delivering a few maximalist, heavily treated leads and solos that would’ve sounded at home on Yes’ none-more-’80s album 90215. It might even be keytar in some places, but it still rips. Kirin does not know the world subtle and hopefully it never enters his lexicon.

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Lee “Scratch” Perry – King Perry (False Idols)
Tricky, Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder and more contribute to the dub icon’s posthumous “final” album. It’s a fantastic send-off.

Reggae and dub legend Lee Scratch Perry was a mad genius who remained a fiery eccentric right up to the point he exited Planet Earth in 2021 at age 85. Like a lot of reggae artists, Perry never stopped making music — as in he was constantly in the studio — and who knows how many unreleased sessions are out there. King Perry, though, was the last album he recorded and was produced by Daniel Boyle, a UK producer and kindred spirit who understood Scratch’s style and idiosyncrasies and was one of the icon’s primary collaborators for the last decade of his life. Boyle brought in a lot of guests for this album, which is out via Tricky’s False Idols label, including Tricky and his current vocal muse, Marta, as well as Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder, Greentea Peng, and more. Whether it was planned this way from the get go or it became a motivating factor after his passing, King Perry has a lot of extra love in its grooves making for an especially satisfying record. It’s an album that was probably pieced together on a computer from dozens of vocal takes but it doesn’t feel like it, taking care to honor his legacy while not being beholden to the past. The guests are all fantastic. Greentea Peng in particular is someone you wish had entered Scratch’s orbit earlier; she is the best thing to happen to him in years, and her blunted vocal style slides in perfectly next to his on her two contributions (“Jah People in the Blue Sky” and “100 lbs of Summer”). Ryder is another inspired collaborator — “Green Banana” is easily the most fun song on the album — and even though it’s unlikely these two were ever in the studio together, it sounds like they’re trading lines off one mic. Tricky’s presence is more felt than heard, with his touch and taste and magic dust sprinkled across the whole thing. King Perry closes with “Goodbye,” an eerie, moving track that features his last-ever vocal recording. There will probably be more posthumous Lee “Scratch” Perry albums but I can’t imagine a more fitting send-off than this.

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Maxwell Farrington & Le SuperHomard – Please, wait… (Talitres)
French/Australian duo continue to channel Scott Walker on their orchestral second album

Australian singer-songwriter Maxwell Farrington and France’s Le SuperHomard (Christophe Vaillant) have reteamed for a second full-length album of lushly orchestrated ’60s-esque pop. If you’re unfamiliar with their previous records, Farrington is in possession of a deep baritone that bears a striking resemblance to the late Scott Walker, and Christophe gives the songs a backing worthy of it, full of strings, brass, flutes, bassoons, choirs and all manner of vintage synths. This time, the songs were born out of a creative partnership with France’s Nancy Opera before being reworked with opera and conservatory musicians into more familiar duo territory. This is regal stuff, technicolor and widescreen, full of sweep, grandeur and drama. Think Scott 4, think Nancy & Lee’s “Some Velvet Morning,” think Love’s “Alone Again, Or” and Please, wait… is worthy of the comparisons. Especially good is “Postprandial Promenade,” a duet with Nadine Khouri, where they sing “Gilded are the wings we fly / in tapestry we call the people left behind” as strings, brass and pedal steel lift them, and us, into the Milky Way, dreaming.

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Plantoid – Terrapath (Bella Union)
Brighton UK neo-prog quartet take us to another world on their debut album

You only have to look at this British band’s name, album title (and Midjourney AI fantasy cover art) to guess they’re gonna head deep into prog territory. That is indeed the case for Terrapath, Plantoid’s debut album, which is full of warm, jazzy textures, impressive musicianship, lengthy excursions and diversions, complex time signatures, different time signatures within one song, occasional rocking out, and lots of noodling. “Sometimes, when we play the record as a whole, it sort of feels like we’re entering this universe that we’ve created,” says singer and lyricist Chloe Spence. “The sounds, the art, and where our minds go while we’re playing the album takes us to this alien planet that no humans have reached.” I can dig it. Terrapath, like most prog albums, is meant to be ingested as a whole — preferably with mood lighting and some incense burning — but it’s the groovier creations that occasionally slip into Sade territory that draw this writer in the most. Mutant pop numbers like “Insomniac (Don’t Worry)” beguile as well, though, and it all probably makes more sense in a live setting. Plantoid are clearly good at world building, and Terrapath offers vivid snapshots of their alien landscapes.

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The Paranoid Style – The Interrogator (Bar/None)
Rock critic Elizabeth Nelson writes what she knows on her fourth album as The Paranoid Style, with help from a couple dB’s

Can music writers make it as actual musicians? The idiom goes something like “if you can’t do, teach, and if you can’t teach, criticize” but a few have successfully make the leap, including Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan (NY Rocker), Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant (Smash Hits), The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde (NME), and Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley (NME), while most fall into dabbler territory (Michael Azerrad, Jim Derogatis). Elizabeth Nelson, whose bylines have graced Pitchfork, The Ringer, and The New York Times Magazine, falls more towards the former, with her witty observations and knowing references at the forefront of her hooky songs as The Paranoid Style. The Interrogator, her fourth album, takes some perhaps surprising inspiration. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with the sound of ZZ Top’s 1983 LP Eliminator, which was the outcome of Billy Gibbons’ incipient fascination with Depeche Mode and Orchestral Maneuvers In the Dark, and his desire to embroider the sound of those bands onto the Top’s inimitable Texas boogie,” says Elizabeth. “To me it sounds like heaven. When I realized the success of our previous records meant we were going to have a bigger budget for The Interrogator, I immediately huddled with my engineer and co-producer Jason Richmond and told him this was the sonic direction I thought we should go in. He happily agreed and it was all Fairlight synthesizers all the time from there.” She may be joking but you can sort of hear it — mostly in the drum machines — but nobody is going to confuse “​​The Ballad of Pertinent Information” for “Sharp Dressed Man.” Elizabeth enlists a few ringers here amongst the machines, including The dB’s Peter Holsapple and Will Rigby, but her lyrics are the real star here, mixing clever turns of phrase worthy of an ad copywriter or Morrissey (“Are You Loathsome Tonight” where she rhymes “savoy truffles” with “media kerfuffles”) with knowing observations where the personal and professional commingle. Is The Interrogator music for music critics, by music critics? A bit, yes: “Something about rock and roll / Makes me feel defensive,” she admits on “That Drop is Steep,” a song about fleeting fame. But it’s more music for media savvy and underpaid urban-dwellers — fun and knowing and a little overstuffed with syllables at times but all the more charming for it.

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The 20 Best Britpop Albums of 1995

20. Echobelly – On

Where Echobelly's debut album (1994's Everybody's Got One) was as shiny as Britpop got, the band scuffed things up just a little for its follow-up, and made On with American production team Sean Slade and Paul Q Kolderie (Buffalo Tom, Hole, Radiohead's The Bends). The guitars rip and roar a touch more, but songs like "Great Things," "King of the Kerb," and "Pantyhose and Roses" remain chipper, sugar-sweet and ridiculously catchy. Like on their debut, On's most distinctive feature remains singer Sonya Aurora Madan whose crystal clear voice really makes things soar.

19. Salad – Drink Me

London group Salad was led by Dutch musician and model Marijne van der Vlugt who was also a VJ for MTV Europe at the same time she was in the band. She was a striking presence in the band with a clear, powerful voice that cut through the often jagged guitars --- all of which set them apart from the rest of the Britpop pack. Certainly no other group was releasing anything quite as wonderfully odd as "Motorbike to Heaven" or "Drink the Elixir" at the time. Despite being on a major label (Island Records subsidiary Red), Salad were just a little too odd for mainstream popularity -- though Drink Me did briefly enter the UK Top 20 -- but it does, however, make the album ripe for rediscovery (they're also back in action).

18. Menswe@r – Nuisance

Every genre seems to have its blatantly commercial group that pays close attention to the competition, trying to beat them at their own game while proclaiming what they really want to be is famous. Menswe@r were that band for Britpop, a group that felt like they were conceived in the pages of the hype-heavy British music press or at a scene-y Camden pub like The Good Mixer. In fact, the band's Johnny Dean and Chris Gentry managed to get a quote about Menswe@r in an issue of Select when the band was just an idea in their head, and Melody Maker put them on the cover before they'd released a single. (MM did the same for Suede.) Musically, the group swiped ideas from all the other popular bands: Like Elastica, they ripped off Wire ("Daydreamer") and brought in a string section a la Oasis or Blur for swoony ballad "Being Brave." Pulp and Suede are also clearly points of reference from the hairstyles down. But as far as style-forward disposable pop goes, Nuisance is enjoyable fluff and, unlike some groups, Menswe@r don't attempt to hide what they're doing.

17. Various Artists – The Help Album

Some of the biggest artists in the UK and Ireland, including most of the Britpop Elite, contributed new songs to this high concept benefit album aiding the War Child charity. The concept was inspired by John Lennon's "Instant Karma" -- the idea that all art should be released to the world as soon as it's made. So 20 artists went into the studio on September 4, 1995 and the album was in the shops five days later. Some of the Britpop highlights: Radiohead's "Lucky," which would appear two years later on OK Computer; a new, terrific acoustic version of Oasis b-side "Fade Away" featuring Johnny Depp and Kate Moss; Suede covering Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding" (also famously covered by Robert Wyatt); Blur in playful instrumental mode on "Eine kleine Lift Musik"; The KLF's Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty as The One World Orchestra with a cover of The Magnificent Seven theme (their first music in four years); Salad and Specials frontman Terry Hall covering "Dream a Little Dream of Me"; and The Charlatans covering Sly & The Family Stone's "Time for Livin'." The biggest deal was a cover of The Beatles' "Come Together" by The Smokin' Mojo Filters (aka Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller), but the secret best song is Sinead O'Connor's cover of Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe."

16. Shack – Waterpistol

Shack were one of those bands who seemed poised for stardom but just couldn't catch a break or get out of their own way. Led by brothers Michael and John Head, who spent most of the '80s in orchestral indie band The Pale Fountains, Shack updated the '60s merseybeat sounds of their Liverpool hometown, which landed them sonically somewhere between The La's and The Stone Roses. Recording of their second album took place in 1991, but went over schedule as Michael Head struggled to finish songs; when the album was finished, the studio burned down along with the album's masters. The only finished copy of the record was in the possession of producer Chris Allison...who accidentally left the tape in a rental car. The DAT tape was eventually tracked down but by the time it was back in the hands of the group, their label had folded. Waterpistol finally saw release in 1995, by which time Shack had been broken up for a couple years already, with Michael Head falling into heroin addiction. Drama and back luck aside, Waterpistol is a fantastic record that felt very of the moment in 1995, full of shoulda-been-hits like "Dragonfly," "Mood of the Morning" and "Walter's Song." A lost classic that is well worth seeking out.

15. The Verve – A Northern Soul

The Verve started off as a deeply psychedelic band, known more for Nick McCabe's awesome, tripped out guitar pyrotechnics and frontman Richard Ashcroft's million-mile stare than catchy melodies. That all changed with The Verve's second album, which they made with Oasis producer Owen Morris. McCabe's playing was still very cosmic but was now in service of hooky rock songs that also made better use of Ashcroft's powerful pipes. (Drummer Pete Salisbury and bassist Simon Jones, meanwhile, were one of the best rhythm sections of the '90s.) Tracks like "This is Music" and "A New Decade" were still pretty far out, but it was singles "On Your Own" and "History" that proved The Verve could give the Gallaghers a run for their money in the sweeping ballad department.

14. Blur – The Great Escape

After the one-two punch of 1993's Modern Life is Rubbish and 1994's Parklife, there was a lot of pressure on Blur to one up themselves again. Of course, anything short of amazing was gonna be a letdown, and at the time this third serving of quirky British life felt like one Full English Breakfast too many. (Blur were full, too; the band looked to Magic America for 1997's self titled album which, woohoo, gave them their first U.S. hit.) But with the distance of 25 years, The Great Escape is actually a really good album, from singalong hits "Stereotypes" and "Charmless Man" (one of the great Blur singles), to the swaying "Best Days" and bouncing "Top Man." Blur and The Great Escape really excel at sweeping mood pieces and three of their best are here: "The Universal," "He Thought of Cars" and "Yuko and Hiro." Even the none-more-Blur "Country House" sounds pretty good now.

13. Paul Weller – Stanley Road

Never one to get too comfortable with his surroundings, Paul Weller has had a pathological need to reinvent himself over the years. He broke up The Jam at the height of their stardom to form the politically active, suave pop group The Style Council, which he then disbanded in 1989 just after turning 30. He changed things up again for his '90s solo career, making the kind of earthy, soulful rock you might expect from Traffic or Joe Cocker. At the same time a new crop of British groups (Supergrass, Blur, Pulp) looked to The Jam and The Style Council for inspiration. It all made it a perfect time for a Weller comeback. Having primed things with 1993's Wild Wood, Paul really delivered with the million-selling Stanley Road that featured a host of collaborators, including Steve Winwood, his old Style Council cohort Mick Talbot and big fan Noel Gallagher. Stanley Road's sound fit right in between Oasis and The Charlatans and on the album's lead single, "Changing Man," he even addressed his need to blow things up and start again -- "Numbed by the effect, aware of the muse, too in touch with myself, I light the fuse" -- all while cementing his Modfather status.

12. Sleeper – Smart

Louise Wener and Jon Stewart, who had been in a number of college bands together before moving to London, took out an ad in Melody Maker: "Bass player and drummer wanted. Influences The Pixies and The Partridge Family." Sleeper were born. Wener was a charismatic frontwoman and an even better lyricist, riviling Jarvis Cocker with witty, relatable tales of romantic angst, mid-20s ennui and sex in the suburbs. All that can be found on Sleeper's debut album, Smart, which kicks off with three fantastic singles: love-the-one-you're-with Top 20 UK hit "Inbetweener," the Pixies-ish "Swallow," and decidedly randy "Delicious." The nine songs that follow are nearly as good. The IT Girl, released in 1996, is even better but Sleeper  wouldn't last much longer, breaking up in 1998 after their third album; Wener then put her observational talents to good use as a novelist (her debut, 2002's Goodnight Steve McQueen, is terrific). Sleeper reformed in 2017 and released the very good The Modern Age in 2019.

11. Gene – Olympian

London group Gene were dogged by comparisons to The Smiths, due mostly to frontman Martin Rossitter's at times uncanny vocal resemblance to Morrissey, but also their purple-prosed lyrics and a propensity for sticking some of their best songs on b-sides. Those comparisons were fairly superficial, though, with guitarist Steve Mason drawing more from Small Faces' Steve Marriott or Paul Weller than Johnny Marr, and Rossitter offering a more positive, romantic, us-vs-the-world outlook than Moz. Gene also tended to swing for the fences with big riffs and bigger anthemic choruses, and their debut album, Olympian, finds them connecting with real power, whether it was swaggering rock like "Haunted by You," "Car That Sped" and "To the City," or more windswept numbers like "London, Can You Wait" and the title track. To See the Sights, released the next year, collects non-LP singles and b-sides from this era and is, to further that Smiths comparison, their Hatful of Hollow and a great companion to Olympian.

10. The Charlatans – The Charlatans

The Charlatans are survivors, having started as part of the Manchester music scene in the wake of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. But they have managed to change with the changing times, surviving a few major setbacks and tragedies, while maintaining their own identity and Hammond organ-led sound. As Madchester's high faded, guitars began figuring in a little more prominently into their sound. While 1994's Up to Our Hips stumbled, The Charlatans sorted themselves out by the time of their self-titled fourth album, which found them sounding more confident than ever, adopting a Stones-y Exile on Main Street vibe that put them right in heart of Britpop. The Charlatans was a #1 album for them, with terrific hit singles "Crashin' In," "Just When You're Thinkin Things Over" and "Just Lookin'." Another impressive pivot for one of the UK's most resilient bands of the last 30 years.

9. Teenage Fanclub – Grand Prix

Glasgow's Teenage Fanclub haven't altered their musical course much since forming in the late '80s, making a brand of jangly guitar pop that owes much to Big Star, Beach Boys and The Byrds. With a high level of quality that continues to this day, Teenage Fanclub have done it without ever really playing music industry games, just happy to crank out good record after good record. But in the mid-'90s, the Fannies' classic sound fit right in with the Britpop revival. It also coincided with the release of what is arguably their best album, Grand Prix, which to play off the album's Formula One cover art, has them firing on all cylinders. It helps to have three very good songwriters, and Grand Prix was their first record where guitarist Raymond McGinley's work rose to the level of his bandmates Norman Blake and Gerrard Love. Some of Teenage Fanclub's all-time best songs are here: Love's "Sparky's Dream" and "Don't Look Back," Blake's "Mellow Doubt" and "Neil Jung" and McGinley's "About You" and "Verisimilitude."

8. Boo Radleys – Wake Up!

The Boo Radleys began life as died-in-the-wool, noise-loving shoegazers but main songwriter Martin Carr always had a fondness for classic pop songwriting that fought its way through the noise of their early records. The band dabbled in straight-up guitar pop on 1993's Giant Steps, which is also around the time their label, Creation, signed a band named Oasis whose runaway success really changed everything for the label and the existing roster. Where bands like Ride and The Boo Radleys were once content to make "cool" indie records, there was now pressure to compete with the Gallaghers in the charts. Carr came from the same school of pop as The Kinks, The Beatles and The Zombies and proved to be a natural, with The Boo Radleys making the transition effortlessly on their fourth album, Wake Up! The ebullient, horn-filled first single "Wake Up Boo!" is a song, like Katrina & The Waves' "Walking on Sunshine," that was made to be played the minute the weather gets nice, and was a Top 10 hit for the band that stayed in the UK singles charts for most of the spring and summer. While that was the only hit on the album (which also went to #1) but "It's Lulu" and "Find the Answer Within" shoulda been smashes, too.

7. Black Grape – It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah

Happy Mondays crashed and burned during the making of their 1992 album Yes Please!, with frontman Shaun Ryder and other members of the band dealing with serious drug problems. Instead of disappearing off the face of the earth, Ryder and Mondays dancer/vibes man Bez rebounded surprisingly quickly, forming Black Grape in 1993, enlisting Ruthless Rap Assassins members Paul "Kermit" Leveridge and Ged Lynch as well as producer and songwriting partner Danny Saber. Past excesses thankfully hadn't dimmed Ryder's lyrical wit one bit, and the fresh start and new collaborators brought out the best in him. It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah, a title that referenced Ryder's new cleaned-up lifestyle, rivals Happy Mondays' Pills N' Thrills N' Bellyaches for sheer pleasure. The cover art, featuring a Pop Art illustration of Carlos the Jacklyn, referenced other things. Musically, Black Grape resembles Ryder's old band, but adapted to the mid-'90s with Kermit as a great vocal foil, and some of Britpop's anthemicism baked into singles "The Reverend Black Grape," "In the Name of the Father" (which takes swipes at the Catholic Church) and "Kelly's Heroes" (which sounds lot like Madonna's "Express Yourself"). Few artists manage a second act like this, let alone one so good.

6. Cast – All Change

The La's 1990 self-titled debut album is one of the direct precursors to Britpop and while frontman and songwriter Lee Mavers never made another album, sideman John Power proved more than up to the task of leading his own band, Cast. Enlisting Peter Wilkinson from Shack (another Liverpool band who had trouble with labels and frontmen), they formed a group who favored songs over bravado and drama. It was a formula that worked. Songs like "Alright," "Sandstorm," and "Finetime" sounded like classics from the get-go, with earworm choruses that stick in your head on first listen. John Leckie's production -- with layer upon layer of guitars and harmonies -- makes everything pop. The real appeal of All Change is just how effortless it all seems. These songs don't sound like they were written as much as they were always there just waiting to be heard.

5. Radiohead – The Bends

Nobody would call Radiohead Britpop now, and nobody really did in 1995 either, but The Bends definitely has more in common with Blur and Oasis than the proggy widescreen grandeur they would debut with OK Computer. These are pop songs played on guitars -- lots of guitars -- and tracks like "Fake Plastic Trees," "High and Dry," "Bones" and "The Bends" became the template for many new Britpop groups in the second half of the '90s. (See: Travis, Stereophonics, Longpigs, Coldplay.) John Leckie's production helps tracks like "Just" and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" achieve liftoff, and The Bends is also notable as the record where they met Nigel Godrich, who engineered the record and would go on to form a beautiful friendship with the band that lasts to this day. Before The Bends, Radiohead were that band who did "Creep," but with this it was clear they would never be stuck in the land of One Hit Wonders.

4. Elastica – Elastica

Led by Justine Frischmann -- who had been an early member of Suede and for much of the '90s was one half of Britpop's #1 Power Couple with Blur's Damon Albarn -- Elastica were a breath of fresh air when they released "Stutter," their 1993 debut single that mixed punk, new wave and heaps of attitude. If you weren't paying attention then, you certainly were by the time of their third single, "Connection," that borrowed (and later paid for) its riff from Wire's "Three Girl Rhumba." When the song kicks in at the 20 second mark, you've got one of 1994's most undeniable hooks. The band were not shy about paying homage to bands they loved: "Line Up" also borrowed heavily from Wire, and "Waking Up" tipped its hat to The Stranglers' "No More Heroes." The wait for their debut album seemed like forever, and when it was finally released in March of 1995 it became the fastest selling UK album since Oasis' Definitely Maybe the year before and held onto the title till Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not in 2006. More than half of Elastica's songs had already seen release on singles (including some b-sides) which made it a little disappointing for fans at the time, but it now just sounds like a start-to-finish classic.

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

In the storied Blur Vs Oasis battle of 1995, when the band's respective singles "Country House" and "Roll With It" were released on the same day in the UK (August 14), Blur debuted at #1 with the Gallaghers coming in at #2. But Oasis won the war just a couple months later when their second album was released and made them worldwide superstars. (Blur's 1995 album, The Great Escape, was very good but just a little too British for mainstream international appeal.) Songwriter Noel Gallagher was at the top of his confident game; he was still swiping bits from his heroes but had also figured out Oasis' style by this point, mixing equal parts melody and swagger, with sing-a-long choruses that sound good even when the lyrics don't make a lot of sense (often). Beyond singles like "Wonderwall," "Don't Look Back in Anger" and "Champagne Supernova," Morning Glory's deep cuts, like "Cast No Shadow," are just as good. While their boasts of "bigger than the Beatles" were tiresome, for a while Oasis made a very good argument.

2. Supergrass – I Should Coco

Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes was only 19 when the band's debut album was released in May of 1995 (his bandmates weren't much older) and the record gets much of its charm from the trio's unbridled youthful energy that they managed to capture on tape. Its staying power, though, comes from the songs which are smart, insanely catchy and much more sophisticated than they first seem. I Should Coco incorporates a wide range of influences, including punk ("Caught by the Fuzz," "I'd Like to Know), glam ("Lose it," "Time"), '60s psych ("We're Not Supposed To"), and Britpop forebears the Kinks and Madness ("Alright," "Mansize Rooster"), but they jumble them together to make an infectious, distinctive sound. Supergrass were also ferociously talented musicians, with drummer Danny Goffey's playing keeping those energy levels high as the band tear though the album's 13 tracks in just 40 minutes, and that's including the six-minute spaced out, proggy "Sofa of My Lethargy". I Should Coco was a huge hit in the UK -- it was label Parlophone's biggest selling debut since The Beatles' Please Please Me -- and earns extra Britpop points for its title which incorporates Cockney Rhyming Slang.

1. Pulp – Different Class

Having led Pulp to general critical and public indifference since the early-'80s, Jarvis Cocker put the group on hold to study film at London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, where he had his mind expanded by raves and met Steve Mackey who would help usher in a new, more formidable lineup of the band. (He also met a girl from Greece with a thirst for knowledge who studied sculpture, memories of which would come in handy later.) With the '90s, Cocker's lyrical observations became sharper, his stage presence more assured, and Pulp's glammy disco snapped into sharp focus. 1994's His N' Hers was their best yet by a mile, but it did not prepare the world for the record Pulp would release the next year, a massive leap forward that had Cocker and Pulp working at the height of their powers and that perfectly aligned with Peak Britpop. His time at Saint Martin's College was inspiration for "Common People," a tale of upper class slumming that would quickly become Pulp's signature anthem. The album, Different Class, followed suit with 11 more brilliant tales of Misshapes, mistakes, and misfits, including: "Disco 2000," one of a few unrequited love songs here, this one set to a riff nicked from Laura Brannigan's "Gloria"; "Sorted for E's and Wizz" found Jarvis out of his head at a rave; and "Monday Morning" laid out the drudgery of mid-'20s endless post-college partying against ska backing. The hooks are plentiful and the quotable lines are endless, and while the record is exceedingly British it is somehow relatable to anyone who's ever felt out of place. "Blur Vs Oasis" may have been the hot topic in the British press in 1995, but Different Class rendered the debate instantly moot.