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. There are also special editions like this one the best reissues, box sets and compilations of 2025.

If there’s one area of the music industry that is doing ok in these wobbly times, it’s the business of reselling fans stuff they already own (maybe a couple times over). Do we need all this repackaging the past? Sometimes, yes. Every year, among the many pointless “deluxe edition” release of new albums and slapped-together reissues and Best Ofs, there is always some gold: much needed vinyl represses, newly unearthed archival material, surveys of obscure but important scenes, and more. 2025 got the first official, artist approved vinyl reissues of one of my favorite albums of all time, a super deluxe edition of an ’80s hit that now feels like a cult classic, a few very cool various artist compilations, live albums, best-ofs, a revelatory collection of Nick Drake demos and alternate takes, the “lost” debut from one of the most enigmatic one-single wonders of the ’80s/’90s, and more.

Most but not all of these picks are on streaming, and any one of them would make a great use for a stocking stuffer gift certificate you may have gotten this holiday season. Head below for my picks for this year’s reissues, box sets, and compilations…

INDIE BASEMENT – BEST REISSUES, BOX SETS & COMPILATIONS OF 2025

Pulp – Different Class (30th Anniversary Edition) (Island/Universal)

Pulp’s 1995 album Different Class is a Britpop classic that catapulted the Sheffield band from indie cult heroes to UK superstars, thanks in large part to the anthemic single “Common People.” And the rest of the record, of course, is just as great, including “Disco 2000,” “Misshapes,” “Something Changed,” and “Sorted for E’s and Wizz.” The album arrived at a time when vinyl was on the decline, and while it received a deluxe 10th anniversary CD edition in 2005, it never got a proper, sanctioned vinyl reissue — until now. Paired with the release of their new album More, it makes 2025 the most exciting year for Pulp fans in a very long time. For this box set edition, Different Class has been remastered from the original master tapes at Abbey Road, overseen by Jarvis Cocker and Pulp guitarist Mark Webber, and pressed across two LPs at 45 RPM for maximum analog fidelity. Jarvis says, “This 45rpm double album version of Different Class will make it sound a whole lot better. Now, 30 years later, we are finally ready for Different Class to be heard in all its glory.”

The vinyl box set also recreates the album’s very cool original “aperture” sleeve, which allowed listeners to change the cover image that features life-size cardboard cutouts of the band placed in real-world environments. It includes a 12″ × 12″ poster of those cutouts, plus a comprehensive 28-page booklet featuring extensive liner notes drawn from new interviews with the band members, previously unseen images from photographers Rankin and Donald Milne (who shot the original release), and material from the band’s own archives. Different Class fills the first two LPs, while the remaining discs capture Pulp’s legendary 1995 Glastonbury Festival performance — stepping in as headliners when The Stone Roses were forced to drop out — a set that helped cement the band’s rapid ascent that year.

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Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Welcome to the Pleasuredome 40th Anniversary Edition (ZZT)

Liverpool’s Frankie Goes to Hollywood were a genuine sensation in England in the early/mid-’80s. Their debut single, “Relax,” was an epic, unsubtle, one-chord, pro-sex dancefloor anthem and a controversial hit that remains one of the greatest one-song documents of the Big ’80s era. Released in 1983, the song didn’t truly take off until 1984, but went on to sell over two million copies in Britain alone. At one point that year, “Relax” and their second single “Two Tribes” were the #1 and #2 songs in the UK during the same week.

Frankie’s debut album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, arrived in October 1984 and reportedly cost £1 million to make — and it definitely sounds like it. The first side of the double LP alone justifies the price tag: a continuous 16-minute sonic wonderland, largely taken up by the album’s awesomely bombastic title track, and is one of the greatest-sounding things the ’80s produced. As for the rest of Pleasuredome: side two features “Relax” and “Two Tribes,” smartly linked by a great cover of Edwin Starr’s “War” (featuring spoken word by a Ronald Reagan impersonator) but the second LP finds the band running out of steam (and originals), padded with covers and so-so new tracks — including knowingly sappy ballad “The Power of Love,” which was the album’s other big UK hit.

Diminishing returns or no, that first LP, combined with its incredible, audacious sleeve concept — including a catalog of expensive high-fashion merch, liner notes by Paul Morley, and an X-rated inner gatefold illustration — makes Welcome to the Pleasuredome absolutely essential. The 40th anniversary reissue arrives in a variety of editions, including a Super Deluxe box set featuring all the original 12″ versions of the singles and their many alternate mixes, extended versions, and edits, plus a remastered stereo mix of the album, radio sessions, demos, and more. Most exciting of all are new surround sound and Dolby Atmos mixes by Steven Wilson, which have this writer pricing new receivers and wondering whether an Atmos setup is even possible in a small Brooklyn apartment. There’s also a remastered vinyl edition and a Blu-ray-only release containing all versions of the album, plus Wilson’s brand-new, 30-minute “Supernova” remix of “Pleasuredome”:

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Various Artists – Telepathic Fish: Trawling The Early 90s Ambient Underground (Fundamental Frequencies)

As Portishead’s Geoff Barrow said in our recent interview, ecstasy fundamentally changed British (and European) culture forever in the late ’80s and early ’90s, creating a huge market for thumping techno, house, and other dance music genres. But it also gave rise to chill-out rooms, where partiers could take a break, hydrate, and reflect on their place in the world — spaces that required music that was less thumping but still actively engaging. There were only so many Brian Eno, Harmonia, Steve Reich, and Tangerine Dream records you could play, so contemporary electronic artists like The KLF, The Orb, Nightmares on Wax, and Aphex Twin began making their own. In turn, that music inspired parties dedicated entirely to this sound. In many ways, the entire downtempo movement grew out of this moment.

One such party was Telepathic Fish, held in a South London squat and hosted by Kevin Foakes (DJ Food), Mario Aguero, Chantal Passamonte (Mira Calix), and David Vallade. This compilation documents the music of those nights, with selections drawn from the founders’ personal favorites, including Global Communication, Nightmares on Wax, Tranquillity Bass, Spacetime Continuum, and Aphex Twin’s Caustic Window. More than a moment frozen in amber, these tracks still hold up — even if you’re chilling out in very different ways now.

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The Durutti Column – The Return of The Durutti Column (London Records)

As The Durutti Column, Vini Reilly was one of the first artists signed to Factory Records and appeared on the label’s inaugural release, a 7″ compilation that also featured Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, and John Dowie. He stayed with Factory throughout the ’80s, crafting gorgeous, mostly instrumental music built around his distinctive, finger-picked, spiderweb guitar style. (He also played guitar on Morrissey’s first solo album, Viva Hate.) Released in 1980, The Durutti Column’s debut album is a thing of austere beauty, opening with what is arguably Reilly’s best-known song, “Sketch for Summer,” and continuing to enchant with its forward-thinking use of synthesizers and Martin Hannett’s signature production touch.

It’s a classic, and this reissue has been newly remastered from the original source tapes for the first time since its initial release, cut at half speed for vinyl, and presented with restored “second edition” artwork, complete with a textured sleeve and liner notes by James Nice. It’s great to have The Return of the Durutti Column back on vinyl and sounding this good, but the CD edition goes even further, adding nearly 30 bonus tracks, including non-LP singles, B-sides, demos, and live recordings, plus a 48-page book featuring essays by Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and MOJO writer Ian Harrison.

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Various Artists – All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 (Night School)

The “junkshop” genre of compilations — which shine a light on obscure acts who may have only made one self-released single before vanishing into the ether — are almost always worth a gander, and 2003’s Velvet Tinmine: 20 Junkshop Glam Ravers, compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Lush’s Phil King, remains the gold standard. King is also behind All the Young Droids, which digs into “junkshop synth pop” from the genre’s original golden age: 1978–1985, roughly the period between Daniel Miller forming Mute Records to release “Warm Leatherette” and the moment glossy ’80s production took over pop and rock.

Most of the tracks lean toward the darkwave end of the spectrum — sci-fi themes, band names to match — built on very early drum machines that click, pop, and whoosh more than they kick, snare, or tom, with minor-key melodies paired with melodramatic vocals. Some songs sound delightfully naïve, made by musicians still figuring out the gear (often built by hand), while others are surprisingly lush. The best land somewhere in between, like Rich Wilde’s “The Lady Wants to Be Alone,” Disco Volante’s “No Motion,” Peta Lilly’s “I Am a Time Bomb,” and Die Marinas’ “Fred From Jupiter,” which features expertly layered synth work that wrings every ounce of potential from cassette four-track recording.

Beyond discovering all this great music you probably haven’t heard before, the accompanying booklet — packed with rare photos and excellent liner notes — is a treasure trove of information, not to mention incredible fashion and wild hairstyles. It’s a vivid document of an era when the future felt within reach of anyone with a soldering iron and access to a Radio Shack. Let’s hope there’s a Volume 2.

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Nick Drake – The Making of Five Leaves Left (Island)

Nick Drake is one of those artists many prefer to keep as an enigma, known largely through images and the music itself. (Drake died in 1974 at age 26, leaving behind just three albums.) His 1969 debut, Five Leaves Left, is a beautiful baroque pop record draped in strings, percussion, pedal steel, Mellotron, and more. But if you’ve ever dreamed of hearing those songs as just Nick and his guitar — or even if you haven’t — this collection of demos is a revelation.

A box set nine years in the making, culled from unlabeled tapes discovered in Universal Music’s archive and assembled despite numerous hurdles, from painstaking restoration to pushback from Drake’s estate, The Making of Five Leaves Left presents 32 unaccompanied demos, studio outtakes, and previously unheard songs that open up a series of fascinating sliding-doors moments. (Also here is the original album.) The most revelatory are the unadorned performances: “Day Is Done” and “Time Has Told Me,” in particular, grow wings with no accompaniment; the solo piano version of “Way to Blue” is quietly devastating; and an early version of “Cello Song,” titled “Strange Face,” is beautiful in its own right. The previously unheard songs — “Mickey’s Tune,” “Blossom,” and “My Love Left With the Rain” — are welcome additions, but it’s the alternate takes that provide the deepest pleasures.

As an added bonus, there’s a surprising amount of studio chatter from Drake left intact, offering an even rarer glimpse into his world and creative process — all while preserving the air of mystery that continues to surround him.

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Hot Chip – Joy In Repetition (Domino)

How would Hot Chip define their new compilation, Joy in Repetition? “We continue to be fairly self-deprecating. We haven’t had hits as such, so we wouldn’t want to call it Greatest Hits,” Alexis Taylor told me earlier this year. “It’s just that we don’t have as many hits as some people… or any hits.” I corrected him, noting that “Ready for the Floor” reached #6 in the UK in 2008. “Greatest Hit would be a short compilation,” he replied.

Taylor and Joe Goddard started making music together in college in the late ’90s and formed Hot Chip around 2000, following the release of their debut EP. They soon expanded into a proper band with the addition of Al Doyle, Felix Martin, and Owen Clarke, and over the years have amassed plenty of “hits,” even if most didn’t crack the main Top 40. Those include “Over and Over,” “Boy From School,” “One Life Stand,” “I Feel Better,” “Flutes,” “Need You Now,” and more. All of those tracks — and then some — appear on Joy in Repetition, whose title comes from “Over and Over” (also the name of a Prince song), as does its artwork, featuring a toy monkey clashing miniature cymbals. The sleeve was designed by Sir Peter Blake, best known for creating the cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

After more than 20 years together, Hot Chip were due a compilation like this and as they usually do, they went the extra mile to make it special. The requisite new song, “Devotion,” is terrific, and Joy in Repetition holds up surprisingly well as an album in its own right.

Pick up Joy in Repetition on double vinyl in the BV shop.

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Drop Nineteens – 1991 (Wharf Cat)

Boston shoegaze greats Drop Nineteens formed while in college in 1990, recording demos on an 8-track reel-to-reel set up in their dorm room and sending them out to labels in hopes of getting signed. They landed deals with Caroline in the US and Hut in the UK (both owned by Virgin), and when it came time to record their debut album, they opted to write and record all-new material, leaving those early demos behind. Fast-forward more than 30 years: the band are back together, more popular than ever, having released a great new album and reissued their debut, Delaware, last year — and now they’ve finally returned to those early 8-track recordings.

“We called them demos at the time,” says guitarist Greg Ackell, “but now they’re just unreleased Drop Nineteens songs that never benefited from the fidelity of a recording studio. We remastered them some 33 years later for this release, but they still evoke our infancy as a band.” 1991 isn’t quite a what-could’ve-been, Sliding Doors moment for Drop Nineteens; instead, it plays more like a Polaroid snapshot of a band frozen in time, still deeply immersed in their influences. With its funky beat and waves of glide guitar, “Shannon Waves” owes a lot to My Bloody Valentine’s “Soon,” and the rest of the collection practically invites a round of shoegaze bingo, with squares for Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, Lush, The Field Mice, and even a touch of ’80s goth.

Derivative? Sure. But this was also when shoegaze was brand new and it’s still impressive for a group that had barely been together a year — and were barely old enough to drink — and you can clearly hear what got Drop Nineteens signed in the first place. Their gift for melody and dynamics was already peeking through the murk and reverb on tracks like “Mayfield,” “Another Summer,” and “Song for JJ.” For Drop Nineteens fans, 1991 is essential: a lost album from a time when fandom and bandom were often interchangeable.

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Q Lazzarus – Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus (Sacred Bones)

Q Lazzarus (real name Diane Luckey) officially released just one single, “Goodbye Horses,” but it’s had an extraordinarily long life — first appearing in Jonathan Demme’s Married to the Mob and later, far more famously, in The Silence of the Lambs. (Even if you don’t know the song by name, you definitely know the scene.) Demme was her most visible champion, and arguably the reason anyone knows her work at all. In the ’80s, Q drove a cab to pay the bills and one day picked up the director as a fare, coincidentally playing her own demo in the car. “Who is that?” he asked. “That’s me.”

Demme went on to use her song “Candle Goes Away” in Something Wild (though it didn’t appear on the soundtrack album) and had her perform a cover of Talking Heads’ “Heaven” in 1993’s Oscar-winning Philadelphia, but by the early ’90s, Q Lazzarus had largely disappeared from public view. Given how little music she released, the pre-internet era, and her intensely private nature, very little was known about her story. That changed significantly this year with Eva Aridjis Fuentes’ documentary Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus, which follows the NYC artist through her near brushes with fame in the late ’80s and early ’90s and her eventual departure from the music industry to drive both cabs and a bus on Staten Island. (Like Demme, Fuentes was also a chance cab fare.) Q granted Fuentes rare access to her life — just a few years before her death in 2022 — as well as to her archives of unreleased recordings. The resulting soundtrack effectively serves as her debut album, arriving more than 30 years after the release of her lone single.

“Goodbye Horses” remains Q Lazzarus’ most transcendent and magical work, but there are plenty of gems here as well, including the studio version of “Heaven,” the buoyant “See Your Eyes,” which recalls Lips Like Sugar-era Echo & the Bunnymen, a post-punk–funk–reggae take on George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” the housey banger “My Mistake,” and a “new wave” version of “Goodbye Horses” that sounds like it could’ve slotted neatly into a John Hughes soundtrack. The double-CD and digital editions add an additional 13 songs, though “The Candle Goes Away” appears only on the CD. While some of the enigma surrounding Q Lazzarus — and perhaps a bit of the magic — inevitably fades, it’s a more than fair trade to finally have these songs, and this film, out in the world. Finally.

Pick up Goodbye Horses on summertime green vinyl in the BV shop.

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Beta Band – The Three E.P.s (Because Music)

One of the great musical surprises of 2025 was the reunion of Scottish art-pop experimentalists The Beta Band, who toured the UK and US and appear poised to continue into 2026. The tour was billed as a celebration of their 1998 compilation The Three EPs, which was most people’s introduction to the band. It makes perfect sense that the album would be reissued, and it’s just as welcome as the band getting back together.

The Beta Band appealed to much of what was happening in late-’90s indie — new dance culture, and listeners burned out on Britpop but still deeply engaged with UK music — with a sound that was both hippy-ish and indebted to the Madchester scene of a decade earlier, yet somehow felt very now (then). As the title suggests, The Three EPs collects the band’s three UK-only releases up to that point — 1997’s Champion Versions and 1998’s The Patty Patty Sound and Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos. Their style is so uniformly shaggy across the three records that most people simply consider it the band’s debut. (That distinction technically belongs to 1999’s self-titled album, which isn’t especially beloved — particularly by frontman Steve Mason.)

This set contains nearly all of most fans’ favorite Beta Band songs — “Dry the Rain,” “B + A,” “Dog’s Got a Bone,” “The House Song,” “She’s the One,” and “Needles in My Eyes” — and nothing else sounded quite like it at the time and its loose, organic vibe still sounds just as great today.

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Hüsker Dü – 1985: The Miracle Year (Numero Group)

Back in 2017, reissue-centric label Numero Group released Savage Young Dü, a box set chronicling Hüsker Dü’s early years that featured the entirety of their studio recordings from 1979–1982, plus 47 bonus tracks, including singles, B-sides, demos, alternate takes, live cuts, and more. This year, Numero followed it up with another excellent box set, this one documenting the Minneapolis punk legends at their creative, performative, and prolific peak. 1985: The Miracle Year features their entire January 30, 1985 set at Minneapolis’ First Avenue, plus 20 additional live tracks recorded throughout a year of near-constant life on the road.

Hüsker Dü always seemed to be an album ahead when they played live, and while the First Avenue show took place just two weeks after the release of New Day Rising, the band played five songs from Flip Your Wig, their final album for SST, which wouldn’t arrive until September of that same year. “When I think of that time,” bassist Greg Norton says now, “it was three guys doing what they loved, having fun, and basically showing other people that you can be true to yourself, true to your music, and not have to bow down to fashion or expectations to make something really great.” Compiled from several different shows, this four-LP set is a bit up-and-down fidelity-wise, but what it lacks sonically is more than made up for in sheer performance and energy. In fact, some of these versions sound better than the studio takes, and they really make you wish someone would pony up the dough to remix and remaster the Dü catalog à la The Replacements’ Tim.

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Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Barafundle (Real Gone)

Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci sprung out of the early-’90s Wales scene that also gave us Super Furry Animals and Catatonia, but they didn’t sound like either of those bands, eschewing ’90s alt rock for late ’60s and early-’70s psych, freak folk and prog. After a few weird but well-regarded albums on Welsh label Ankst that were sung entirely in their native tongue, Gorky’s signed to major label Fontana. Barafundle was their first album for the label and while it still had plenty of room for the band’s eccentricities, they turned down the “weird” knob to 6, and sang almost entirely in English for the first time. It’s their best album in a rich discography, orchestrated with violin, oboes, flutes, harmonium, hurdy-gurdy, jaw-harp, and all manner of organs and synthesizers. There’s a bit of a Ren Faire vibe thanks to use of shawm and crumhorn, not to mention song titles like “The Lizard and The Wizard” (13 years before King Gizzard’s existence), but it’s also absolutely gorgeous and consistently surprising. Euros Childs and James Lawrence’s harmonies are wonderful, the melodies memorable, and the performances impressive from singles “Patio Song” and “Diamond Dew” to delightful deep cuts “Starmoonsun,” “Sometimes the Father is the Son,” and “Better Rooms.” This Record Store Day release gave Barafundle its first-ever US vinyl release and it sounds great. The band’s catalog, across a 15-year career, is deep and rewarding and Barafundle is the perfect place to start.

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Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

Check out more of BrooklynVegan’s Best of 2025 coverage.

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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.