Happy November from New York CIty where a large part of its population is still basking in the glow of Zohran Mamdani’s landmark mayoral win. This first week of the next-to-last-month of 2025 has delivered one of my favorite albums of the year and the other seven records I review are pretty good too. They include Sorry, Midlake, Insecure Men, Steve Gunn, Constant Smiles, P.E., Westerman, and Asa Moto.

For this week’s Indie Basement Classic, I look back at one of the first US bands to sign to UK independent label Beggars Banquet and their noise, heartfelt first album for them.

If you’re feeling behind, catch up on last month with Indie Basement’s Best Songs & Albums of October 2025.

Over in Notable Releases, Andrew reviews the latest from Armand Hammer & The Alchemist, Danny Brown, Rosalía, Drain, and more.

On this week’s episode of the BV Interviews podcast, I talk to Tim Burgess of The Charlatans.

You should also check out our other podcast, BV Weekly, where Dave and Andrew discuss Radiohead’s return, Kate and Allison Crutchfield’s new project Snocaps, and lots more.

Head below for this week’s reviews…

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: Sorry – COSPLAY (Domino)
This London group perfect their uneasy blend of heartbreak, humor, and haze on their captivating third album

Asha Lorenz says the title of her band Sorry’s third album was inspired by meeting documentary filmmaker (and Massive Attack collaborator) Adam Curtis, who told them his next project was about cosplay — and how he felt the whole world is just cosplaying everything. It struck a chord with Lorenz, who felt the new songs Sorry had been working on were all like trying on different outfits.

Of course, the different styles Sorry try on are all filtered through the band’s distinctive sound — bummed out, dark, a sludgy melting point of indie rock and dance music — which end up sounding only like themselves. They quote Burt Bacharach’s “Save a Little Prayer” and Toni Basil’s “Mickey,” sample Guided by Voices’ “Hot Freaks,” and dabble in loungey exotica and downtempo electronics. “Some big cultural references feel so far away from what they used to mean that they’re almost like inanimate objects that are part of the furniture,” Lorenz told Rolling Stone.

COSPLAY feels like Lorenz and band cofounder Louis O’Bryen searching for meaning, identity, and connection in an increasingly fractured world. It’s a lonely album, one where even love feels fleeting. “I think we’re losing now / I think we’re fucking it up / But it felt so good / When we were drifting in the dark,” Lorenz sings on “Echoes,” her voice cracking into falsetto on the words “losing” and “fucking.” Its chorus — “Echo, echo, echo, echo I love you” — clings desperately to something that’s slipping away. It’s heartbreaking and beautiful, and arguably Sorry’s single finest moment to date.

“Echoes” sets a high standard, but the rest of COSPLAY — Sorry’s best record yet, by a mile — nearly matches it. The album most recalls Maxinquaye-era Tricky: sultry and sinister, evoking urban wastelands and post-industrial ruins, with a deep romantic streak. (It doesn’t sound like Tricky, but very similar vibes.) “Jetplane” rides manic, nervous energy with skittering beats and skronky sax bleats darting through the mix, while “Waxwing” turns Toni Basil’s cheerleader anthem inside out, coating it in glossy grime, dark synths, and a searing solo that drains all the pep from the source (in the best way).

Sorry have become masters of dynamics, shifting from delicate balladry to squalling rock epics within the span of a song (“Antelope”) and crafting eerie, music-hall sing-alongs with twisted undercurrents. They also know when to keep things smoldering, like on “Life In This Body,” a black-cloud duet between Asha and Louis that ties back to the album’s theme: “Everybody changes / I have loved every version of you.” COSPLAY is a captivating record that pushes Sorry into the big leagues.

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: Midlake – A Bridge To Far (Bella Union)
Midlake’s most Midlake-y album yet; a very satisfying mix of ’70s folk, rock and prog

“Days Gone By,” the opening song on Midlake’s sixth album, sounds like a woodland sunrise in June, as the light cracks across the ridge and the flora bend their leaves to catch the rays. A cyclical song about the cyclical nature of, well, nature, “Days Gone By” blankets you in gently strummed acoustic guitars, fluttering flutes, tinkling ivories, delicately crashed cymbals, and gorgeous harmonies. Building with each stanza, it’s an exceedingly cozy, welcoming start to what may be the most Midlake-y Midlake album yet. Sonically, at least, A Bridge To Far is a near-perfect distillation of everything these Denton, TX baroque folk-rock vets have been making for more than two decades.

After working with John Congleton on their fantastic 2022 comeback album For the Sake of Bethel Woods, frontman Eric Pulido said he never wanted to make a record again without a producer. For this one, they tapped Sam Evian, who proves to be a perfect match. “This album, we leaned into our own past in a way where we weren’t referencing some new find or some new path,” Pulido told us. “It was just kind of pulling from the collection of every place that you’ve been. And then you have someone like Sam, objectively kind of going, yeah, let’s go further down that road.”

A Bridge To Far—not a typo, just one “o” in “to” —has all the Midlake earmarks: proggy bangers (“The Ghouls,” “The Calling”), spectral folk wonderlands (“The Valley of Roseless Thorns,” “Days Gone By”), groovy pastoral rock jams (“Make Haste,” “Eyes Full of Animal,” and the Madison Cunningham duet “Guardians”), more flutes and lush harmonies, Fleetwood Mac-y moments, and more. Yet it never sounds like they’re treading water. By embracing themselves, Midlake have made their most satisfying record since The Trials of Van Occupanther—and maybe, with time, their best yet.

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Insecure Men – A Man for All Seasons (Fat Possum)
Fat White Family co-founder Saul Adamczewski returns from the brink with Insecure Men’s beautifully haunted second act

In 2024, Saul Adamczewski had bottomed out. The co-founder of the infamously debauched Fat White Family had, according to a press release, spent “months in a cupboard in Tulse Hill amid severe psychosis and opioid addiction.” He called his mother, and with her help made it through withdrawal, got straight, reconnected with old friends and bandmates, and started making music again.

Saul was always the most pop-oriented member of the Fat Whites and took that sensibility even further with Insecure Men, the group he formed with Warmduscher drummer Ben Romans-Hopcraft. Their self-titled debut album was one of 2018’s best, but their sophomore effort was rejected by the label — which Saul has since admitted was probably for the best. Clean and sober, he reunited this spring with Romans-Hopcraft and members of Warmduscher, Mozart Estate, Primal Scream, and more to make the second Insecure Men record. It’s a very worthy follow-up.

Despite the clear-headed circumstances of its creation, A Man For All Seasons still has that swarthy, haunted last-call feel, mixing woozy lounge and VU chug with early-’80s mutant pop and Saul’s thoughtful, vulnerable lyrics. The new wave-y “Cleaning Bricks” might be the catchiest song he’s released with any of his bands, while the dreamy “Alien” and “Weak” rank among his most affecting. He’s still capable of a good creep-out, too — the clanking, menacing “Butter” proves that. Saul has come out the other side with his wits, voice, and melodic instincts intact, and it’s great to have him back making records this good.

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P.E. – Oh! (Wharf Cat)
This band featuring members of Pill and Eaters throw one last dance party before the lights come up on their third and final album

Members of Brooklyn groups Pill and Eaters joined forces back in 2019 to form P.E., a name that represented the union of their combined talents — even if it was maybe not the best choice in the hometown of Public Enemy. After six years, two terrific albums, a tape, and an EP, the group have decided to call it quits, but not before throwing one hell of a farewell party on their third and final album.

Oh! is P.E.’s danciest record by far, mixing elements of techno, synthpop/new wave, city pop, mid-’00s DFA, and more — with great songs to boot. “Color Coordinator” is a slinky banger featuring the immediately recognizable vocals and poetic verbosity of Eleanor Friedberger; “Wandering Eye” feels like a long-lost electroclash classic; “Moonface” is a stripped-back house jam; and the title track floats on a light, driving beat and Jonny Campolo’s fluid saxophone (which is all over the record). Campolo — nodding to his new project, pets — lends his dulcet voice to “Purple on Time,” a smooth duet with main singer Veronica Torres. It’s sad to see them go, but Oh! is a terrific way to bow out.

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Constant Smiles – Moonflowers (Felte)
Constant Smiles find beauty in quiet, starlit melancholy on their album featuring Cassandra Jenkins, Shahzad Ismaily and more

The free-flowing project of singer-songwriter Ben Jones, Constant Smiles have made many different-sounding records over the years — 2023’s great Kenneth Anger, for example, was draped in gothy synths — but for his 19th album (depending on how you count), he’s gone for lush, melancholic, ambient folk-rock. It feels like a return to center for Jones, and he’s brought along a number of cool guests, including Cassandra Jenkins, Shahzad Ismaily, Fred Thomas, P.E.’s Jonathan Schenke, and more.

Moonflowers is the perfect title for this collection of dark, beautiful creations, elevated by lightly atmospheric arrangements. Most of the contributors don’t call attention to themselves, but the especially pretty, lightly electronic “Time Measured in Moonflowers” gets extra lift from Jenkins’ presence. It’s an album best appreciated under the stars — take this one out on a clear night in the country.

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Westerman – A Jackal’s Wedding (Partisan)
A Greek detour inspires Westerman’s breezy, transportive third album

Will Westerman’s third album was inspired in large part by his “failed attempt” to move from London to the Greek isle of Hydra. In a couple of instances, it’s quite literal: the rolling, synth-powered “Adriatic” sounds like someone aboard a schooner, riding the waves and in awe of where they call home. It’s also an album he made almost immediately after his second, An Inbuilt Fault, a record he feels he took too much time with. As good as his previous album is, the looser, breezier nature of the quickly recorded A Jackal’s Wedding feels like a breath of fresh seaside air in comparison, reflecting the brief five weeks he spent in Hydra.

Produced by Björk collaborator Marta Salogni, it features drummer Stella Mozgawa and Big Thief’s James Krivchenia (who also produced An Inbuilt Fault). Guitar-based songs like “Mosquito” and “Nevermind” are lovely, but it’s the synthesizer creations — including “PSFN” and “Weak Hands” — that are the most transportive. Westerman has since relocated to Milan; we’ll see how the fashion capital of the world influences his next chapter.

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Steve Gunn – Daylight Daylight (No Quarter)
Steve Gunn embraces space, serenity and strings on his elegant new LP

Following this year’s tranquil, immersive, and instrumental Music for Writers, singer, songwriter, and subtle guitar hotshot Steve Gunn returns less than three months later with his latest proper studio album. Daylight Daylight is his first for No Quarter after nearly a decade on Matador, and with the label shift comes a more stripped-back album that still showcases his same delicate touch for airy arrangements and graphic design.

Unlike his last vocal album, 2021’s Other You, Gunn made this one with a smaller cast of collaborators, including James Elkington, bassist Nick Macri, string players Macie Stewart and Ben Whitely, and woodwinds player Hunter Diamond. The orchestration sounds especially lovely in the extended instrumental passages — particularly the long tail of “Morning on K Road,” where Gunn’s fluid leads weave among violins and cellos. Your new favorite Sunday morning album.

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Asa Moto – Music for Disk Jockeys Pt. 1 (DEEWEE)
Soulwax fans take note: David and Stephen Dewaele co-produced and released this latest batch of sleek bangers from another Belgian dance duo

Belgian producers and electronic musicians Oliver Geerts and Gilles Noë have been making sleek dance music as Asa Moto for the better part of a decade, all of it for Soulwax’s DEEWEE label. Music for Disk Jockeys Pt. 1 is their fifth 12″ — and first in four years — and like everything on DEEWEE, it’s made in collaboration with label owners, Soulwax leaders and 2ManyDJs alter egos, David and Stephen Dewaele.

It’s impressive how strong the through-line is across everything DEEWEE releases: each record bears that distinct Dewaele sonic fingerprint while still letting the artists maintain their individuality. The allure of these four tracks is undeniable, even as the groove sneaks up on you — all hovering around an easy 120 bpm, save for final cut “Twee Dikke Nekken,” which ups both the tempo and temperature a notch.

The two center cuts are the real reason to check this one out: “Slow Tongue, Fast Lips” sounds at times like it was inspired by an old 14.4 modem, while “MJ Complex” is the banger of the bunch, powered by a patented Dewaele boom-bap beat, synth lines flying across the stereo field, masterful builds and drops, and a wonderfully deranged pitched-up vocal. It pairs perfectly with the new Soulwax record that dropped just a couple of weeks ago.

related: hear me talk about this release & more with Soulwax themselves on our interviews podcast

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: Buffalo Tom – Birdbrain (Beggars Banquet, 1990)
Buffalo Tom’s 1990 J Mascis-produced breakthrough still burns with heart and volume

I’ve been enjoying the new podcast States of Independence, which in its first season shines a light on Beggars Banquet — the goth-leaning label that struck early gold with Gary Numan and became one of the coolest UK indies of the ’80s and early ’90s before evolving into an empire as the Beggars Group, home to 4AD, XL, and Matador. This week’s season penultimate episode featured an interview with Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom, one of the first American groups to sign with the label, which made me want to revisit their second album — also their first for Beggars Banquet.

With a raging, fuzzy, and deafeningly loud guitar attack, Boston’s Buffalo Tom earned the affectionate nickname “Dinosaur Jr Jr” in the late ’80s — not least because J Mascis produced their first two albums: 1988’s self-titled debut (released on SST) and this one, their 1990 college radio smash Birdbrain. While there was a definite sonic kinship with Dino Jr’s ragged squall, Buffalo Tom hit from the heart, with Janovitz writing deeply affecting songs like “Skeleton Key,” “Fortune Teller,” and “Enemy.”

They’d go on to make more nuanced records like Let Me Come Over and Big Red Letter Day, but Birdbrain’s collision of noise and emotion makes it an all-timer — one that might’ve been even bigger if it had landed just a year or two later, after Nevermind broke.

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

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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.