Indie Basement is a weekly column on BrooklynVegan focusing on classic indie and alternative artists, “college rock,” and new and current acts who follow a similar path. There are reviews of new albums, reissues, box sets, books and sometimes movies and television shows. I’ve rounded up October’s best music, highlighting my favorite songs and albums, plus links to relevant features and news, a monthly playlist, and more.

Eleven months down, one to go on 2025 one of the weirdest years ever. Not musically, as we’ve gotten lots of great stuff and it was no problem picking five albums from the month to highlight, and at least two of them are likely to end up on the Indie Basement Best of 2025 list which is coming very soon. As for songs, November was overflowing with great ones but I narrowed it down to 11 to write about today and you’ll have to head below for reviews.

As usual, there’s also a Best of November 2025 playlist in TIDAL, Apple and Spotify form that includes those 11 songs I review, songs from my five favorite albums of the month and lots more stuff I also dug. Listen below.

Be sure to check out the BV Interviews podcast I host — I talked to Midlake and The Charlatans this month — and BV Weekly where Andrew and Dave discuss the week’s biggest news and releases.

Just a note: There will be no Best of December as there are almost no new releases, and we’ll have lots of year-end lists for you to stay busy with. Until then…

INDIE BASEMENT – BEST SONGS OF NOVEMBER 2025

Ladytron – “Kingdom Undersea”
“There’s an itch we never scratched,” Ladytron’s Hunt says of this new single and the Liverpool electro vets’ upcoming eighth album. “Despite our origins in the DJ world, we never actually made a ‘disco’ record. Albeit, ‘disco’ in our context has a somewhat different meaning.” In the icy world of Ladytron, “Kingdom Undersea” hits differently, adding a little early-’90s baggy/Madchester to the equation, and the song’s staccato, housey piano riff almost makes them sound like a different band — at least until Helen Marie’s distinctive vocals enter. This is also a rare duet with Hunt, whose vocal style leans ’80s goth, all making for one of the most refreshing and unusual Ladytron singles ever.

Robber Robber – “Talkback”
Burlington, VT’s Robber Robber are one of my favorite new American bands of the last few years, mixing a few different strains of post-punk and rock into a unique sound that never takes the obvious route. New single “Talkback,” their first release since signing to Firetalk, leads with a syncopated beat that seems to begin mid-measure before adding a driving bassline and slashing guitar chords. The rhythm cuts through everything and gives the song so much energy. Nina Cates has just the right amount of disaffected chill in her vocals, slipping from sung to spoken in a way that recalls Kim Gordon, and Sonic Youth feel like a clear influence on this lean, two-minute earworm ripper.

Man/Woman/Chainsaw – “Only Girl”
London band Man/Woman/Chainsaw’s early singles pegged them as art-school weirdos — which I’m all for — but they always had pop smarts under the esoterica. “Only Girl,” their first single for Fiction Records (making them labelmates with The Cure), finds them stepping confidently into sophistipop territory, with wonderful string arrangements, anthemic melodies, and just a little fuzz simmering underneath. The makeover suits them.

Whitelands – “Songbird (Forever)”
One of my favorite new bands, Whitelands just keep getting better. While initially lumped in with the new shoegaze scene — and they’re still on Sonic Cathedral, which focuses heavily on the genre — “Songbird (Forever)” finds them taking flight fully into pillowy dreampop territory. Some use “shoegaze” and “dreampop” interchangeably, but no one would confuse this song’s gossamer beauty, resplendent in swirling strings, with My Bloody Valentine or even Slowdive. They still pull off a loud-quiet-loud trick, though, via the vocals: beautifully breathy in the verses, going full-throated technicolor in a knockout chorus that practically demands you close your eyes and sway as it envelops you.

Marlon Magnée – “Nuage Gris”
Fans of La Femme will find co-founder Marlon Magnée in familiar territory on “Nuage Gris,” his debut solo single. Is it indistinguishable from the hyper-Francophone pop of his band? Pretty much — but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t light up every pleasure center with its zippy mix of Plastic Bertrand–style new wave, early rock ’n’ roll, and ’60s Francophone pop. Marlon says it’s “a song about life’s ups and downs, encouraging listeners to chase away the grey clouds looming overhead,” and with its manic pop energy, those clouds don’t stand a chance.

Adrian Sherwood, African Head Charge & Speakers Corner Quartet – “Wicked Kingdom of This Empire”
Hot on the heels of this year’s The Collapse Of Everything, post-punk and dub legend Adrian Sherwood is back with a new EP featuring longtime collaborators African Head Charge and rising jazz ensemble Speakers Corner Quartet. While many of Sherwood’s signature moves are here, this feels more modern and organic than the digital textures he often favors. All four tracks are psychedelic, enveloping, and compelling, but “Wicked Kingdom of This Empire” is especially magnetic with its refrain of “no peace, no love, no joy.” It’s another feather in the cap of one of the great innovators of the last 40+ years.

Kiwi Jr – “Hard Drive Ontario”
Give it up for Kiwi Jr’s Jeremy Gaudet. His band gets compared to Pavement a lot — it’s gotta be a monkey on their back — but in the best way, he comes up with so many great lines that don’t feel like he’s copping a look, yet Stephen Malkmus would probably appreciate them anyway. “It’s hard to leave home with your heart on a hard drive” is such a perfect lyric, paired with a melody that won’t leave your brain for days. “Hard Drive, Ontario” is unusual even for this band, with its changing tempos and time signatures, but once it sinks in, you’re hooked.

David Byrne – “T Shirt”
It’s a fact: David Byrne does all his best work with Brian Eno, from Remain in Light to My Life in the Bush of Ghosts to Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. And now there’s “T-Shirt,” Byrne’s best single since “Strange Overtones,” co-written with Eno and featuring Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes on piano. Lyrically he’s in classic mode, taking a skewed look at the world — lines like “My beliefs are on this t-shirt / My religion’s in my pants” could’ve been on Talking Heads: 77 — and the melody feels familiar too, but “T-Shirt” has a bounce and zing thanks to its bubbly synth bassline that’s undeniable. One question: how did this song not make Byrne’s new album?

Hercules & Love Affair – “Someone Else is Calling”
Back in 2022, Hercules & Love Affair’s Andy Butler declared he was over dance music, something that was evident on the group’s album In Amber, which took influence from ’80s goth artists like Dead Can Dance, Diamanda Galás, and Throbbing Gristle. Three years later, the disco has reopened for an upcoming EP Butler made with Quinn Whalley (DECIUS, Paranoid London) and vocalist Elín Ey (Hips & Lips). Whalley is an inspired collaborator, and “Someone Else Is Calling Me” throbs with deep house bass, dashes of techno and acid house, and tons of attitude. Ey’s smoky vocals complete the picture, and for those wishing Róisín Murphy would stop talking off the cuff and get back to making music, this banger’s for you.

Getdown Services – “Don’t Cheese Me Off”
“You wouldn’t like me when I’m cheesed off,” Getdown Services’ Ben Sadler warns in the duo’s new single, which already evokes for this writer memories of the ’70s Incredible Hulk TV series (which was a little cheesy). The rest of “Don’t Cheese Me Off” hits pure dopamine centers as its stream-of-consciousness lyrics feel like a transcription of someone whose wisdom teeth were just removed and the anesthesia hasn’t quite worn off: “When I was six I broke my leg / What’s your favorite color? Mine’s greeeeeeeeen.” It’s all set against an irresistible disco beat — almost like a chopped-up “Everything She Wants” by Wham! — and the video starring Seb from fellow Bristol band Langkamer as “Red Bastard” makes it all the more surreal.

The Notwist – “X-Ray”
It’s always nice to have The Notwist back — in this case, bigger and better. Their upcoming album News From Planet Zombie is their first since 1995’s 12 to be recorded in the studio by the expanded 11-piece live formation. You can feel the extra oomph on first single “X-Ray,” which is noisier, wilder, and rawer than anything they’ve done post–Neon Golden, yet still anchored by a winsome, unmistakably Notwist-style chorus. This is great.

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INDIE BASEMENT – BEST ALBUMS OF NOVEMBER 2025

Sorry – COSPLAY (Domino)

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.  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. Opening song “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.) 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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Sharp Pins – Balloon Balloon Balloon (K)

Kai Slater is one-third of Chicago post-punk band Lifeguard, but he also makes super-catchy, ’60s-inspired lo-fi guitar pop on his own as Sharp Pins. Balloon Balloon Balloon is actually the second Sharp Pins album of 2025 — he released Radio DDR back in the spring — and his prolific nature is in line with the artist he’s most likely to get compared to: Guided by Voices. Early GBV, specifically, and Slater holds up well against them. Like Robert Pollard, he has a way with home recording, playing every instrument, multitracking harmonies, and evoking his heroes without ever exactly stealing from them. He also bears a vocal resemblance to Pollard, especially when dropping lines like “all the silver-tongued creeps” on “Popafangout.” Balloon Balloon Balloon is a nonstop hook-fest, with jangly, chiming guitars, “ooh ooh” and “ahhhhh” choruses, and “yeoowwww!” intros to solos. The album also features some clever, trippy production touches that keep things from being a total time machine. It’s almost as if Kai is wearing his influences (Beatles, Big Star, Zombies, Kinks, Television Personalities, Cleaners From Venus) like armor, and earworms like “I Don’t Have the Heart,” “Queen of Globes and Mirrors,” and “Stop to Say Hello” are his ammo. They’re protecting him well.

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Midlake – A Bridge To Far (Bella Union)

“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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< Oneohtrix Point Never – Tranquilizer (Warp)

Daniel Lopatin’s latest cosmic trip as Oneohtrix Point Never was inspired by two different traumatic situations. The first came when a vast library of commercial samples from the ’90s and ’00s — made from hundreds of sample CDs that had been uploaded to the Internet Archive — suddenly disappeared from the web. They eventually resurfaced, but the idea that something so foundational — sounds used across film, TV, video games, and advertisements — could simply vanish, inspired Lopatin to make an album about transience, and about disappearing into a world built entirely from vintage audio. As with most of his records, Lopatin slices, dices, shreds, manipulates, and reassembles these sounds into something wholly other while firmly rooted in the 0PN universe. Tranquilizer is his most engaging album in some time: melodic, magnetic, and immersive, yet still untethered in that unique liminal, liquid dreamstate. “Rodi Glide,” “Lifeworld,” “Measuring Ruins,” and the rest of the album may be made from decades-old echoes, but they defy timestamping, with shards of plastic and polished steel blending with stone, flesh, occasional organic instruments, and sounds of the natural world for a truly transportive listen. The second traumatic event that inspired the record was a trip to the dentist, as Lopatin lay back — mouth full of metal instruments — gazing up, half anesthetized, at the peacefully painted ceiling. Tranquilizer indeed.

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The Gnomes – Introducing the Gnomes (Dog Meat Records)

Melbourne teenager Jay Millar had a love for ’60s Brit Invasion rock and his own way with a catchy tune, and began making his own spin on the era as Gnome with a flurry of one-man-band releases on Bandcamp. When he finally decided to play out, he put together a band and Gnome became The Gnomes. Introducing is Millar’s first with the full group, and it crackles with youthful energy, earworm riffs, and big choruses. It’s garage rock, but really more in line with the many international groups that sprung up in the wake of The Beatles, The Kinks, and The Creation — think Sweden’s Tages, Peru’s We All Together, or Australia’s The Twilights. Millar and crew wear their influences like fully tailored suits, ankle boots included, but the enthusiasm and performances are far too fun and memorable to dismiss as mere pastiche. This plays like Nuggets if the whole comp were made by the same band.

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Here’s the Indie Basement Best of November 2025 playlist in TIDAL (best sounding, less morally dicey), Apple Music, and for those who haven’t left it yet, Spotify :

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

And check out what’s new in our shop.

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.