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 September’s best music, highlighting my favorite songs and albums, plus links to relevant features and news, a monthly playlist, and more.

After a sleepy August, September hit the ground running with big announcements (The Cure! Oasis!), anticipated tours (Pulp!), and lots and lots of new music. On the albums front, September’s cup runneth over. I picked six for Best Of status but following close behind are Party Dozen’s Crime in Australia, Naima Bock’s Below a Massive Dark Land, and Dummy’s Free Energy. On the songs/singles front, I reviewed 12, including some true alt/indie icons, a few up-and-comers, and one awesome remix. I included even more in the Indie Basement Best of September playlist which is available in both Spotify and TIDAL forms.

Head below for the Best of September 2024 song and album reviews and playlist.

INDIE BASEMENT – BEST SONGS OF SEPTEMBER 2024

The Cure – “Alone”

How good does Robert Smith’s sound? He is 65 and his voice is still everything you want it to be, fragile, anguished, and full of life even when singing about death (which he does a lot). The Cure’s first single in 16 years also manages to hit all the band’s familiar pleasure centers while still bringing something new. We’re in Disintegration territory but the sound is modern; the synths are pastoral, the bassline owes a little to Twin Peaks, drums crash like waves on rocks, and little atmospheric touches swirl around your head. That you have to wait half the song’s six-minute run time for Robert Smith’s vocals to enter the scene only makes the payoff better. Magical. Welcome back.

Amyl & The Sniffers – “Big Dreams”

We are in new Amyl & The Sniffers territory. Amy Taylor has shown her sensitive side before, lyrically, but never with music that matches that mood. “Big Dreams” is a brooding, slow burn that keeps things at a simmer till opening up into widescreen rock glory in the last minute or so. It’s not exactly a ballad but does present another side of the band, which makes for a nice contrast to their many high-octane rippers.

The Darkness – “The Longest Kiss”

After 20 years of trying to live up to / rebel against the glory of their debut album Permission to Land, The Darkness seem to have found the spark again. Opening with a swirl of over the top rock grandeur — drum fills! twin lead riffage! — “The Longest Kiss” shifts gears into playful ’70s pop somewhere between Queen, ELO and Thin Lizzy, which has always been a sweet spot for Justin Hawkins. This is a bravura production that condenses an album’s worth of hooks and cheeky bombast into a sweet, romantic and very fun 2:50 earworm.

deary – “The Drift”

My favorite new shoegaze band bar none, London’s deary continue to entrance with every new single, balancing vibes and atmosphere with solid songwriting, great production, and arrangements that really understand dynamics. Their best songs to date have had a danceable element, but “The Drift” shows they are adept at the more rock side of the genre too. The beat is still a little syncopated but this is driving stuff, shimmering and loud, with singer Dottie’s ethereal harmonies riding atop on a breeze.

Ex-Vöid – “Swansea”

For those who miss the late great Joanna Gruesome, Ex-Vöid are for all intents and purposes GJ 2.0, with Lan McArdle and Owen Williams co-leading the group and still making wonderful, poppy indie rock. “Swansea,” named for the seaside city in Wales, is the first taste of the band’s second album and it grabs you instantly with its pleasingly messy guitar noise, big chorus and guitar hook (shades of Dinosaur Jr and Teenage Fanclub). McArdle and Williams sound heavenly together even when they’re singing about heartbreak and resentment.

Franz Ferdinand – “Audacious”

I was head-over-heels for Franz Ferdinand when they burst on the scene with “Darts of Pleasure” in 2003 and still hold their 2004 self-titled debut in high regard. I’ve loved songs they’ve released since that initial rush but always felt like they got boxed in by “Take Me Out” and have spent the last 20 years trying to recreate it over and over again. That’s why “Audacious” works so well, it’s trying something different. Not unlike the new Darkness single, Alex Kapranos is taking inspiration from the ’70s with this bouncy bit of pop that comes with an arm-waving chorus right out of “All the Young Dudes.” It’s their best single in ages.

The Innocence Mission – “This Thread is a Green Street”

Karen Peris says “This Thread is a Green Street” is “sort of envisioning the landscape as a world of doorways, that might allow us to locate memory or to be nearer in some way to people we miss.” She’s got such a unique worldview and poetic sense that allows her to tap into past memories and convey wonder and magic. Piano is usually at the forefront of Innocence Mission songs, but here acoustic guitar provides the vehicle for Peris to transport us to her gorgeous memory palace.

The Jesus and Mary Chain – “Pop Seeds”

How did “Pop Seeds” get left off The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Glasgow Eyes album from this year? If you’re a fan of their 1994 single “Sometimes Always” with Hope Sandoval, this is very much in that mold, with strummed acoustic guitars and a warm melody, and a chorus of “Don’t let those grey skies get you down.” Plus, with frontman Jim Reid reminiscing about the band’s formative years, it’s an origin story and pop song wrapped up into one.

Katrina Ford – “Cry Wolf”

One band from the mid-’00s indie renaissance that doesn’t get talked about enough is Baltimore’s Celebration, who were led by intense, wild-eyed singer Katrina Ford, who had a powerful voice to match her personality. They’re on hiatus but Ford is still making music with bandmate Sean Antanaitis. Powered by a wall of analog synths and a soaring melody, “Cry Wolf” is a subtle knockout.

Mogwai – “God Gets You Back”

Post-rock greats Mogwai channel their Scottish neighbors Boards of Canada, just a little, on this terrific new single. Produced by John Congleton, “God Gets You Back” opens like a typical Mogwai song, all slow-build atmosphere via some BoC-style synths, but then turns into spiralling dreampop/rock territory with rich harmonies. The song also has a surprising collaborator. Barry Burns says he thought it “needed some melody or vocals, but I couldn’t come up with the lyrics so I asked my 7-year-old daughter to make some up, and she did and I sang them.” Talent runs in the family.

Safe Mind – “6′ Pole”

Boy Harsherʼs Augustus Muller and Cooper B. Handy (aka LUCY) are behind Safe Mind, whose debut single has both of their talents on display. “6′ Pole” takes lots of industrial/minimal wave/EBM/big beat sounds, including some especially gnarly electro handclaps, but uses them towards something decidedly more poppy. With the funky disco guitar riff, the song approaches mid-’80s Duran Duran territory, but Simon LeBon never sounded as wonderfully sleazy as this. Irresistible.

Slowdive – “kisses” (Daniel Avery Remix)

When looking for artists to remix their 2023 single “kisses,” Slowdive (or someone within their organization) knew just who to call. Daniel Avery has been mixing shoegaze with his techno for years now, and he takes out nearly everything from “kisses” apart from backing harmonies and the song’s other atmospheric element and retrofits a drum and bass breakbeat to it. It’s a race through the heavens.

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INDIE BASEMENT – BEST ALBUMS OF SEPTEMBER 2024

Tindersticks – Soft Tissue (City Slang)
Following 2020’s string-heavy No Tragedy But Hope and 2021’s (excellent) experimental post-punk-inspired Distractions, Tindersticks’ new album Soft Tissue is warm and inviting, a distinctly theirs riff on classic soul, full of sultry grooves and Memphis-style horn arrangements and backing vocals. It would be a very different album, but you could imagine the late, great Charles Bradley subbing for Staples on the whole thing, but especially on “New World,” “Nancy,” and “Turned My Back,” the three best numbers of the album. Stuart Staples’ voice, though, makes it Tindersticks through and through, and one of their best. It’s got the late night closing-time vibes, lyrics soaked in romance, regret and red wine, and eight great, memorable songs. They’ve dabbled in soul before (1999’s Simple Pleasure), but embracing Stax style arrangements is new territory for them. It works so well that it’s hard to believe it took Tindersticks 30 years to make a record like this.

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Nilüfer Yanya – My Method Actor (Ninja Tune)
For her third album (and first for Ninja Tune), Nilüfer Yanya shrunk her creative pod to pandemic levels, making My Method Actor with regular collaborator/producer Wilma Archer and no one else. ]That insular process has given us the West London artist’s most nuanced album yet, a refinement of the sound Yanya cultivated on 2019’s Miss Universe and 2022’s Painless, mixing grungy guitars with nimble grooves and her unique, sultry delivery. Nilüfer’s vocals are the key here; she often blends a lower register melody line with a second one sung in a breathy falsetto which mirrors her use of melodic basslines with delicately arpeggiated guitar. There’s always a little noise in there too: as gorgeous strings swell on “Ready for the Sun (touch),” so does a sinister, crackling feedback worthy of David Lynch. Few artists work droney textures into pop music today as well as Nilüfer Yanya, and her distinct guitar chording powers rock-leaning songs “Keep on Dancing” and “Like I Say (I runaway),” slippery R&B jam “Mutations,” and delicate ballads like “Binding.” Nobody else sounds like her, and My Method Actor finds Nilüfer continuing to rise.

Kate Bollinger – Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind (Ghostly International)

Kate Bollinger has wisely taken her time getting to her debut album and her patience has paid off. She’s been releasing singles since 2017, toured with Real Estate and Faye Webster, directed videos for Jessica Pratt, and honed her songwriting and arranging skills. That filmmaker side of her art also informs her music. “When I’m recording a song,” she says, “my indication of whether it’s worth pursuing is if I’m seeing a movie in my head to go along with it.” Songs from a Thousand Frames of Mind is as vivid as Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a technicolor album that doesn’t sound French, per se, but still has a bit of that feel with its baroque, playful sound, frothy, light melodicism and Bollinger’s breathy vocals. It’s also got a cast of thousands, including including producer Sam Evian and old Virginia friend Matthew E White who co-wrote a few songs on the album. Despite all the collaborators, from the musicians to the designers who helped create the whimsical album sleeve and videos, this is an auteur at work, dazzling whether indulging in rich ’70s rock (“I See It Now,” “Any Day Now”), sunshine pop (“Postcard From a Cloud”), or classic singer-songwriter stylings (“Running”). I can’t wait to see what she does next, and I won’t be disappointed if it’s a movie musical.

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The The – Ensoulment (Cineola / Earmusic)
The The’s first album in a quarter century arrives like magic; an eerie sound rises from the speakers like an unexpected plume of colored smoke and soon materializes, fully formed, like a genie from a bottle. But Matt Johnson is not here to grant us wishes. Ensoulment is more of a Monkey’s Paw situation, showing us how everything we wished for blindly has come true but at a tragic cost. “Truth stands on the gallows, lies sit on the Throne,” Johnson sings on “Cognitive Dissident,” which opens the album. “Something in the shadows communicates by code.” In this turbulent election year, it’s good to have The The back even if, as Johnson told us, “I wish we lived in a very different world.” Ensoulment is The The’s best album since Dusk and his most overtly political since the ’80s when he was delivering melodic warnings like “Heartland” and “The Beaten Generation,” songs that sadly haven’t dated a bit, lyrically. He’s a bit more subdued, musically, than the days of Infected and Mind Bomb, but no less astute and witty; working with Warne Livesay (who produced those albums) and the same band that accompanied him on The Big Comeback tour in 2018, Matt has crafted a “speak softly and carry a big stick” of an album, mixing post-covid fears and doom-scrolling with sublimely produced songs about loss, aging, and love, mixing cynicism and despair with hope and humor.

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The WAEVE – City Lights (Transgressive)
UK indie power couple Graham Coxon (Blur) and Rose Elinor Dougall (Pipettes) compliment each other whether at home, in the studio or on stage. The WAEVE lets them stretch their musical wings as well. Did you know Coxon blows a mean sax? It’s all over their second album, which like their debut was made with producer James Ford (who also worked on Blur’s The Ballad of Darren and Fontaines D.C.’s ROMANCE, and many Arctic Monkeys albums). The WAEVE is a true collaboration and you can feel Dougall and Coxon’s presence — musically, vocally, lyrically — across these 10 songs, whether it’s an ethereal, flute-laden ode to new motherhood (“Simple Days”), skronky/glammy Berlin Bowie new wave (“Moth to the Flame”), motorik postpunk rippers (“Broken Boys”), windswept, string-laden baroque (“Song for Eliza May”), or wildly romantic balladry (“I Belong To”). Ford’s production gives everything the scope it needs; City Lights is a big ambitious record that, while familiar, sounds like nothing else either have done, or nothing that anybody else has done either.

The Wolfgang Press – A 2nd Shape (Downwards)
One of imperial era 4AD’s most underrated bands, The Wolfgang Press started in the ’80s as gothy post-punk and left in the mid-’90s as brightly colored, danceable alt-rock. For their first album in 29 years, A 2nd Shape finds them going back to the start of the band, recording on an ADAT multitrack (digital, but pre-ProTools tech), with most songs featuring only bass, keyboards, primitive drum machines and frontman Mick Allen’s unmistakable baritone that can go from a whisper to a wail. There are no attempts to write anything as immediate as original era singles “A Girl Like You” or “The Great Leveller,” but “Sad Surfer,” “This Garden of Eden,” “The Line” and eerie instrumental “The 1st” all have that compelling, low-key menace that is the hallmark of the great TWP records. The album’s centerpiece, though, is “Take it Backwards,” a classic, snarling Wolfgang Press banger that also serves as a statement of intent: “I’m not broke, I’m not a joke, I’m not thinking backwards.” This reunion has no interest in nostalgia.

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REISSUE OF THE MONTH

Galaxie 500 – Uncollected Noise New York ’88-’90 (Silver Current Records)

Iconic late-’80s indie rock trio Galaxie 500 were only together for a few years but their music has gone on to inspire a lot of current in-fashion genres (shoegaze, slowcore, post-rock). Detractors accused them of just aping The Velvet Underground, but Dean Wareham, Naomi Yang and Damon Krukowski pulled influence from a lot of different sources, including UK groups like New Order and Young Marble Giants, both of whom they covered. Listening now, they just sound like Galaxie 500. During their short run, which included three great albums, they recorded a lot of non-album material, including singles, b-sides, radio sessions, compilation/tribute album songs and more. This new double LP collects most of them as well as recordings that have never seen the light of day before. (Many were on the bonus disc of Ryko’s 1996 CD box set but there’s a good 10 that are previously unheard.) There are alternate versions of songs you know from their albums (“Oblivious,” “King of Spain,” “Fourth of July,” the single version of “Blue Thunder” with sax), some great covers (New Order/Joy Division’s “Ceremony,” The Rutles’ “Cheese & Onions,” Buffy Sainte Marie’s “Moonshot,” Young Marble Giants’ “Final Day”), songs that would become other songs (“See Through Glasses” turned into their rock band take on Jonathan Richman’s acapella “Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste”), and more. ​”I can see why we left some of these songs in the vaults, but there is pleasure in hearing them today,” says Wareham in the liner notes. “They sound very alive, like Galaxie 500 playing in the brick-walled room that was [producer Kramer’s studio] Noise New York.”

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Here’s the Indie Basement Best of September 2024 playlist featuring everything mentioned above plus lots more of the month’s best stuff. Available in Spotify and TIDAL:

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.