Welcome to autumn. It’s a cliche to say that it’s the best time to be in NYC but it’s also true and I’m happy to say that this first week of fall has brought not one, not two but (skipping three) four albums that I love and have all given Album of the Week status. (You’ll have to head below to find out what they are.) We’ve also got the excellent debut from Scottish duo Quad90 and an album of sound effects that only Fred Armisen could’ve made.

This week’s Indie Basement Classic is the debut album from one of the ’80s most distinctive pop groups.

Over in Notable Releases we’ve got reviews of new albums from Geese, Jeff Tweedy, Neko Case and more.

On the BrooklynVegan Interviews podcast this week I talk with Howlin’ Pelle of The Hives, and on BV Weekly, Dave and Andrew discuss the impressive Primavera Sound lineup and more.

Head below for this week’s reviews.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: Cate Le Bon – Michelangelo Dying (Mexican Summer)
The Welsh indie iconoclast’s seventh album is a beautiful, gut-wrenching walk through “all-consuming heartache”

“This is how we fall apart / I’m on the ropes / You’re on the wave / I’d sing love’s story / But nothing’s gonna save it.”

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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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: Sloan – Based on the Best Seller (Murderrecords / Yep Roc)
Every band’s 14th album should be this great

“We’re like city-states that coexist,” is how Chris Murphy described Sloan’s democratic nature on the Revolutions Per Movie podcast, noting that each of the band’s four members writes and sings the songs they bring to an album. “We share space on the albums, but not necessarily in the songs themselves. So Patrick can come in with a song and say, here’s how it goes.” It’s this formula — along with splitting songwriting royalties evenly — that has kept one of Canada’s greatest bands together for over 30 years, still making great music.

Based on the Best Seller is Sloan’s 14th album, and at this point fans know what to expect: expertly crafted power-pop steeped in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and each member bringing their own distinct voice. Guitarist Patrick Pentland leans into fist-pumping hard rock riffs; bassist Chris Murphy channels Paul McCartney with witty turns of phrase; guitarist Jay Ferguson adds baroque pop flourishes informed by his encyclopedic record collection; and drummer Andrew Scott remains the wild card, always throwing curveballs.

Their individuality is clear, but it’s the way they contribute to each other’s songs — especially those harmonies — that makes it Sloan. Longtime touring keyboardist Gregory McDonald’s presence is felt here as well, especially on Murphy’s piano-led tracks and “Fortune Teller,” which tips its hat to the Beach Boys with a touch of “Good Vibrations” organ.

Sloan are one of the most reliable groups of their era, but Based on the Best Seller is an especially strong entry. Pentland delivers one of his best songs in ages with “Here We Go Again”; all three of Ferguson’s tracks are terrific (“Capitol Cool” might be the most Sloan song on the album); and while Scott only contributes two, both “Baxter” and “No Damn Fears” are punchy and full of attitude. Sloan albums are always good bets — but sometimes, like here, they overdeliver.

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #3: Stealing Sheep – GLO (Girl Life Online) (G-IRL Records)
The Liverpool trio’s first proper album in six years blends brains, beats, and the band’s signature interplay

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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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #4: Automatic – Is It Now? (Stones Throw)
The LA trio’s third and best album yet embraces rhythm, humanity and connection

For their third album, LA post-punk trio Automatic have melted a little ice off their coldwave sound. Unlike their previous two records, they recorded mostly live to analog tape, working with Florence + The Machine drummer Loren Humphrey as producer. He also provided additional percussion on the album and, alongside drummer Lola Dompe and their array of vintage rhythm boxes, the results are funkier, more human grooves that really open up Automatic’s sound.

The first thing you hear on Is It Now? are bongos, followed by dubby bass, and suddenly we’re in Slits territory by way of Gary Numan, with “Black Box” making for an enticing invitation to dance. “You have to get people moving,” says Izzy Glaudini. “It’s harder and harder to enjoy a sense of escapism; it’s tinged with delusion. Action feels more rewarding.” Other highlights include “mq5,” which tips its hat to Delta 5 and is loaded with echoey tom fills and jazzy flutes that sit beside the band’s signature arctic synth blasts; the breakbeat-powered “Mercury” with its Ironside synth sirens; and the nature-embracing, Tubeway Army-esque “Country Song.”

Lyrically, Automatic are also looking to make more of a human connection — turning off their phones, getting out of the city, and disconnecting in general. “I feel like this album displays all the different ways you can react to the current state of the world,” says Lola. Is It Now? ends with the frantic, driving “Terminal (طرفي),” featuring artist Diana Quandour, who sings in Arabic: “Enough is enough / The coffee boils / And the fire doesn’t go out / It continues to burn day and night.” A fire has clearly been lit under Automatic, too — Is It Now? is a major upgrade.

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Quad90 – QUAD90 (Last Night in Glasgow)
Dancey post-punk, no wave, and leftfield disco collide on this Scottish duo’s accomplished debut

If this were the ’80s, I’d have Automatic’s Is It Now? on one side of a Maxell XLII tape and Quad90’s debut on the other — a perfect pairing of funky post-punk and disco-tinged pop. Amelia Lironi and Naomi Mackay met at Glasgow’s Riverside Music College and bonded over a shared love of disco and post-punk. Quad90 released their killer debut single, “Le Blank,” in 2023, which earned spins on BBC 6 Music and Radio Scotland. That track—lithe and funky with a rock-solid disco groove and ethereal harmonies—sits at the heart of the group’s sound, which owes equally to Chic, The Slits, and ESG. (At times, they also bring to mind under-appreciated ’00s-era group Gramme.)

“Le Blank” also features on their excellent self-titled debut, which stretches out into other corners of dancey post-punk, no wave, and leftfield disco—not to mention pop and rock. Highlights include a fantastic cover of James Chance’s “Contort Yourself,” the slinky pop of “Too Much Too Soon,” the country/R&B-tinged “Sentimental Sunday,” and “Boomerang.” Elsewhere, “Unequal Division” and “Overcome” channel Blondie with panache. Throughout, the echoey production, solid grooves, and tight musicianship hold everything together. Quad90’s debut is a statement of intent and a thrilling listen. I’m looking forward to seeing where they head next.

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Fred Armisen – 100 Sound Effects (Drag City)
A sound effects album only Fred could make—equal parts absurd and oddly specific

Fred Armisen got his start as a drummer, most notably in Trenchmouth, where his stage banter revealed the offbeat sense of humor that would eventually define his comedy career. He’s long blurred the lines between music and comedy—releasing an instructional DVD as his Jens Hannemann character (“Complicated Drumming Technique”) and touring with his still-running standup show Comedy for Musicians but Everyone is Welcome. Still, his new album is both probably not what you’d expect, but also the most Fred Armisen thing ever: 100 Sound Effects.

“I was thinking about haunted house sound effects albums and how fun those seemed to record,” says Armisen. He originally wanted to make it with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio, but since this isn’t a “music” album, Albini recommended he talk to Dave Grohl, who hooked him up with engineer Darrell Thorp. The album is dedicated to Albini.

Of course, this is a sound effects record only Fred would make. (Does anyone else make them anymore? Probably not.) About a third of it is dedicated to music-and-touring-related bits, including “Music Venue Employee Kicking Everyone Out While Throwing Away Bottles,” “Sparsely Attended Show Encore with Someone Shouting ‘Where’s Jim?,’” and “Small Theater Audience Talking and Ignoring Shshsh.” He also pays tribute to The Jam with the cover art.

There are a few of the expected haunted-house style effects—glasses breaking, ghostly footsteps—but all with a Fred twist, like “Haunted House Ghost Going Upstairs but the Door is Locked.” He also brought in a few friends (Bill Hader, Tim Heidecker, Mary Lynn Rajskub), though unless you know they’re there you probably won’t notice. Like his standup, 100 Sound Effects is tailor-made for musicians, but anyone who appreciates Fred’s skewed humor will find something to laugh at. I’m glad Drag City seemingly gives him carte blanche to do stuff like this.

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: Fine Young Cannibals – Fine Young Cannibals (London/IRS, 1985)
The Beat’s Andy Cox & David Steele reinvented themselves with singer Roland Gift timeless results on their debut album which turns 40 this year

When early-’80s ska-tinged pop group The Beat (aka The English Beat) split after three terrific albums, the band’s main creatives went in two directions. Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger formed new wave pop act General Public (briefly with Mick Jones, who left to start Big Audio Dynamite before their 1984 debut was released), while guitarist Andy Cox and bassist David Steele launched retro soul/R&B outfit Fine Young Cannibals.

Cox and Steele auditioned over 500 singers after placing an ad in the music press, but they kept thinking of Roland Gift, whose former band Akrylykz had toured with The Beat. He got the call.

Cox’s wiry rhythm guitar and Steele’s disco-inspired basslines carried over from The Beat, but with Fine Young Cannibals they clearly had the charts in mind. Their 1985 self-titled debut was a distinctly mid-’80s take on soulful pop, still with a toe in post-punk but mostly walking a creative tightrope between early-’60s influences and 1985 sheen. Their debut single, “Johnny Come Home,” was a nervy, striking calling card that showcased the group’s unique energy and Gift’s amazing voice. It’s one of the best opening salvos of the decade.

The rest of the album nearly lives up to it, splitting time between dancefloor fillers (“Don’t Ask Me to Choose,” “Move to Work,” “Time Isn’t Kind,” “Like a Stranger”) and swoony slow-dance numbers (“Funny How Love Is,” “Couldn’t Care More”). Then there’s their powerhouse, transformative cover of “Suspicious Minds,” featuring backing vocals from Jimmy Somerville of Bronski Beat and Communards, which remains one of the most distinctive Elvis remakes ever.

Produced mostly by Cox and Steele, the record was modern but avoided the overused sonic tropes that would soon date so many late-’80s releases. Those glossy effects would rear their head on FYC’s laboriously made second (and final) album, The Raw & The Cooked which yielded worldwide smashes “She Drives Me Crazy” and “Good Thing.” The self-titled debut remains the real gem, though.

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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.