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 rather lazy July and August, September entered the room hot and never let up, between big announcements, packed New Release Fridays and, especially, big ticket shows. Given that one week I gave four records Album of the Week status, I could’ve picked probably 12 albums for Best of the Month…but I whittled it down to six. Runner ups include Automatic’s Is It Now?, Sloan’s Based on the Best Seller, and Kieran Hebden & William Tyler’s 41 Longfield Street Late ’80s.

As for the Best Songs, it’s a mix of bangers, rippers, legends, shoegazers, rebels and iconoclasts. Those 10 songs, plus tracks from all the albums of the month and even more stuff I loved in September are in the Indie Basement Best of September playlist that is available in my prefered Tidal format but also on Spotify.

I’ve been talking to lots of Indie Basement Hall of Famers on the BV Interview podcast, and in September those included Fred Armisen, Saint Etienne, Baxter Dury, The Hives’ Pelle Almqvist, and Suede’s Mat Osman.

As for all those big shows, they included Oasis, Pulp, Nine Inch Nails, Haircut One Hundred, CMAT, and Elbow.

Head below for Best of September song and album reviews…

INDIE BASEMENT – BEST SONGS OF SEPTEMBER 2025

Kneecap & Paul Hartnoll – “Sayōnara”

Kneecap are such a hot-button topic these days — gloriously outspoken as they are — you might forget they also make bangers. “Sayōnara” is their biggest in a while, getting back to their rave roots with a backing track produced by Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll. If Google Translate isn’t steering me wrong, this one is about raving, dancing all night, and pure release. Probably something Kneecap need right now. The video is fantastic too, starring Derry Girls’ Jamie Lee O’Donnell as an office drone who leads a secret double life as a dominatrix party girl. Unfortunately the long nights start bleeding into the day.

Dry Cleaning – “Hit My Head All Day”

“When I was a child I wanted to be a horse,” Florence Shaw tells us in her usual deadpan on this first taste of Dry Cleaning’s upcoming album Secret Love. Produced by Cate Le Bon, you can feel her sonic tendrils in “Hit My Head All Day,” which slinks around in dubby, craggy funk. Apparently about misinformation on social media, it’s the kind of thing that makes a lot of us want to hit our heads all day. “I want to explode,” she sighs — a very 2025 sentiment. I know how she feels.

Cardinals – “Masquerade”

Irish band Cardinals aren’t shy about their Celtic roots, and at times their mix of post-punk and traditional melodies recalls ‘00s-era Glasvegas. “Masquerade,” however, pulls mainly from ’90s indie rock with a little slack in the guitar chug and a classic quiet-loud-quiet structure. It’s very satisfying, and the subtle squeezebox reminds you who you’re listening to and where they’re from. It’s the title track off Cardinals’ upcoming debut album, and it’s got me anxious to hear the rest.

Whitelands – “Glance”

I don’t mean to generalize, but a lot of new shoegaze bands focus on hazy atmosphere over melody, burying whispered vocals under reverb. Not so with London’s Whitelands. Singer/guitarist Etienne Quartey-Papafio says listening to Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter encouraged him to belt it out. It works on “Glance,” which is packed with emotion and big hooks. His full-throated delivery also fits perfectly with the soaring dreampop backdrop.

Sleaford Mods – “Megaton”

They’re baaaaack. It feels like forever since the last new Sleaford Mods track — two and a half years — but they don’t disappoint on this explosive single, which takes aim at war and social media. “Genocide… swipe… gym bods… swipe… food pics… swipe… starvation. Killing upon killing, so much terrible, horrifying information followed by a cat meme followed by faces filtered beyond recognition.” Jason Williamson shouts, “Megaton! No war no death!” over Andrew Fearn’s jackhammer beat. Glad to have them back.

Peel Dream Magazine – “Venus in Nadir”

Joe Stevens tries on indie styles like he’s browsing a well-curated thrift shop where almost everything fits. As Peel Dream Magazine, he’s dabbled in shoegaze, Stereolab-style drone-and-zone, and High Llamas tropicalia. On “Venus in Nadir,” he channels early Belle & Sebastian, even though the title nods to the Velvet Underground and Stevens cites Nick Drake as the real inspiration (two of Stuart Murdoch’s biggest influences). It’s very “A Century of Fakers,” but Stevens puts his own spin on it, adding gentle synths and vibraphone to keep it from straying into pastiche.

Sebastien Tellier – “Refresh”

We’ve hit the French Touch portion of this month’s Top 10 with Sebastien Tellier’s first new music in five years. “Refresh,” co-written with longtime collaborator Amandine de la Richardière and featuring contributions from SebastiAn and Oscar Holter, is a glorious hodgepodge of ’70s disco, ’80s electrofunk, and ’90s Ed Banger. The song almost feels like it’s about to fly off the rails, but Tellier keeps it on the dancefloor. New album on the way? Let’s hope.

UFO – “UFOs”

I got a 12″ in the mail a few weeks ago from Domino with this song on one side and an etching on the flip. No note on who UFO was. We listened in the office, trying to guess. One person said Phoenix, another suggested Braxe + Falcon. Turns out, put those two together and you’ve got the right answer. “UFOs” is a grower — deceptively simple on first listen but sneaking up on you after a few plays. I’ve found myself humming it a lot this past month. Very curious to hear what else they’ve got.

Juana Molina – “Siestas ahí”

Born out of an improvised tour with Emilio Haro, Juana Molina’s new album Doga stitches together the best riffs and melodies from those shows, later reworked in the studio. “Siestas ahí” is wonderful: gentle, playful, and full of little surprises tucked into the mix. (Headphones required.) If you like your folk glitchy and tropical, this one’s for you.

Sharp Pins – “I Don’t Have the Heart”

When Kai Slater isn’t making angular noise with Lifeguard, he’s writing ultracatchy guitar pop as Sharp Pins. Drawing on ‘60s British Invasion and ‘70s Alex Chilton, he already dropped one album this year, Radio DDR, and has another due in November. Kai is a total hook machine in this guise. He wears his influences like armor, but the melodies are undeniable. “I Don’t Have the Heart” will be stuck in your head before the first chorus is over.

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INDIE BASEMENT – BEST ALBUMS OF SEPTEMBER 2025

Cate Le Bon – Michelangelo Dying (Mexican Summer)

Cate Le Bon has always had melancholy running through her veins, able to do more with a sigh than most can manage with an entire song. That ability has carried her through lyrics that can often be oblique and strange, but on her seventh album there’s no mistaking the subject. Michelangelo Dying is a gut-punch breakup record, delivered with gentle, ornate beauty. It’s also a further refinement of the sound she’s been exploring since 2019’s Reward — Bowie’s Berlin trilogy refracted through the Cocteau Twins’ mid-’80s goth wonderland. Heavily treated guitars and saxophone, deep-sea bass, and glowing synths create a bog of “all-consuming heartache” that pulls you in. Cate says it all arrived at once — the lyrics, the music, the arrangements — whether she wanted it out in the world or not. “I didn’t want to discuss them but they wanted to be discussed, so I surrendered to it.” Euan Hinshelwood’s saxophone mirrors Cate’s voice in many ways — emotive, sultry, but never slipping into ’80s kitsch. The album rewards listening at high volume, when every detail in the mix comes alive: the multilayered bath of “Mother of Riches,” or “Ride,” a duet with fellow Welsh legend John Cale. There are even flashes of sunlight among the shadows. Michelangelo Dying is Cate Le Bon’s most fully realized album yet and, despite all the heartbreak (or perhaps because of it), one of her most compelling.

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Saint Etienne – International (Heavenly)

Saint Etienne have made some of the best, smartest, most sophisticated pop of the last 35 years, but Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs, and Sarah Cracknell—still best friends—have decided to retire the project. They’re going out with a bang, though: their final salvo has pretty much everything you could want from a Saint Etienne album. They’ve also invited a lot of talented friends to the party, including The Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Vince Clarke, Erol Alkan, Confidence Man, pop hitmakers Xenomania, Haircut 100’s Nick Heyward, and more. Sometimes too many cooks spoil the broth, but in this case everyone understands the assignment and brings ideas that fit perfectly under the trio’s pastel-colored sonic umbrella. There are three instant classics: album opener “Glad,” co-written with Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowlands and Doves’ Jez Williams, is a banger powered by chopped-up orchestra hits, vocal samples, and the kind of soaring chorus Williams always delivered in Doves; the pure sophistipop sunshine of the Confidence Man collab “Brand New Me,” a spiritual cousin to 1991’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us”; and the dubby, acid-house-infused “Take Me to the Pilot,” made with Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll. The whole record plays like a Best Of retrospective, but with all new songs, and it ends perfectly with “The Last Time,” a bittersweet look back at the band’s career that may leave longtime fans misty-eyed. International is a perfect way to say goodbye.

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Stealing Sheep – GLO (Girl Life Online) (G-IRL Records)

What a fascinating progression Stealing Sheep have made over the last 15 years. The arty Liverpool trio began making proggy folk-pop on their 2012 debut Into the Diamond Sun, but by 2015’s Not Real (my favorite album of that year), they had transformed into something closer to Hot Chip or Metronomy. They stayed on a similar track with 2019’s Big Wows (their last proper studio album), but then began experimenting more broadly, both musically and visually, paying tribute to synth pioneer Delia Derbyshire and even starting their own art festival. Now on their own G-IRL Records, they’ve made their most aggressive turn into dance music yet, and it’s their best record since Not Real. A concept record of sorts, GLO (Girl Life Online) is, in their words, “a commentary on the girl gaze, identity performance, and navigating culture through a female lens — it’s about reclaiming our voice, exploring millennial girlhood in today’s toxic online world, and searching for something utopian and real beyond the screen.” That reclamation mostly happens on the dancefloor, as Stealing Sheep pull from techno, dubstep, two-step, Big Beat, and other club subcultures while keeping pop songs at the core. The interplay between members Becky Hawley, Emily Lansley, and Lucy Mercer remains key; they trade verses, harmonize, and weave voices into the dense sonic fabric. Perhaps their own take on Brat and the broader ’90s revival, GLO stands firmly on its own: banger after banger, with brains behind every irresistible beat.

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Baxter Dury – Allbarone (Heavenly)

After dipping a toe or two into dance music over the last 10 years, including his B.E.D. album with Etienne de Crecy/Delilah Holiday and a collab single with Fred Again, Baxter Dury has dove headfirst into dance music on his eighth album. To help him achieve the “mature art school rave” sound he was aiming for, Dury enlisted producer Paul Epworth, whom he met at Glastonbury 2024 where they made the kind of plans one does in “foggy, heady festival fields and may say things they don’t mean.” But Epworth was serious, and Baxter soon found himself in the Adele and Florence producer’s very fancy studio. Epworth got his start on records by Bloc Party and The Futureheads, so it’s not that crazy that he chose to take his first producer job in five years with a much-loved cult indie artist. Dury and Epworth make for a terrific combination, resulting in Baxter’s best album since Prince of Tears (my favorite album of 2017). His shabby-chic, marble-mouth style—full of stream-of-conscious creative swearing and poppy choruses sung by a rotating cast of female vocalists (with various accents)—can actually take quite a glow-up without losing its charm, and they push it to the limit for much of Allbarone. It all works like gangbusters, and Dury is in fine, louche form throughout, dropping non sequiturs like “The international fuck omelette,” “Breakfast at the Berghain,” “Back flips on MDMA,” and “Big fat Olympic Ozempic hips.”

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Gruff Rhys – Dim Probs (Rock Action)

Dim Probs is Rhys’ ninth solo album—that’s as many as he made with Super Furry Animals—and it’s easily the thematically darkest record he’s ever made. Often an abstract lyricist, this time it’s pretty clear he’s working through what a lot of us are currently feeling. It’s not so much heavy as ominous, surveying the state of things, the worst of times, in a near-constant fog of doom and gloom. You can feel it even if you don’t understand Welsh (most of us). “I went to wash in Nwygyfylchi,” he sings on “Dos Amdani” (“Go For It”). “Between the sea and the rotting swamp of saliva of the sheep that vomit the emptiness of life and over-complication.” Gruff is a pop songwriter at heart, though, and he tempers the noirish mood with Brazilian chords, warm melodies, horns, and his signature harmonies. (Also lightening the mood: cover art by frequent collaborator Pete Fowler which is should really be made into a beach towel and available at Gruff’s merch table.) The push and pull is exemplified on “Taro #1 + #2,” Dim Probs‘ most immediate song, is about “accepting death as the end of the turn.” Meanwhile, old friends Cate Le Bon and H. Hawkline show up to sing backup on two of the album’s friendliest songs—“Pan ddaw’r haul i fore” (“When Sun Comes to the Morning”) and “Chwyn Chwyldroadol!” (“Revolutionary Weed!”)—which open both sides of the record, respectively. The mix of dark and light, plus Gruff’s melodic skills and endless supply of empathy, make Dim Probs a deeply rewarding listen.

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Suede – Antidepressants (BMG)

“If Autofiction was our punk record,” Suede frontman Brett Anderson says, “Antidepressants is our post-punk record.” This writer thinks of Autofiction as Suede’s goth album, and the new one is even more so. Of course, goth grew out of the original post-punk scene, and the touchstones here are The Cult circa Love, The Chameleons, Bauhaus, Siouxsie, and Faith-era Cure, as opposed to Floodland or Fields of the Nephilim. It’s a natural extension of Suede’s signature “beautiful trash” glammy sound, and the jagged yet manicured arrangements on their 10th album—they’ve now made as many since reforming as they did the first time around—befit a group whose members are in their 50s and still, y’know, rocking out credibly. They do it so well, too: Matt Osman’s basslines are dark and melodic; Richard Oakes mixes big riffs, wiry leads, and atmospherics; Neil Codling coaxes icy tones from his keyboards; Simon Gilbert remains a subtle beast behind the kit; and of course, Anderson’s voice has always carried that dark melodrama. Also the cover art, based on a photo of Francis Bacon from a 1962 issue of Vogue, is none more goth. The songs, recorded mostly live by longtime Suede producer Ed Buller, are memorable and grand, with “Dancing With the Europeans,” “Disintegrate,” “Life is Endless, Life is a Moment,” and “Antidepressants” all quintessentially Suede. Bring on the night.

Here’s the Indie Basement Best of September 2025 playlist (click here for the better-sounding, less-problematic TIDAL version):

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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.