Happy April, no foolin, and it’s another busy week in Indie Basement and I review seven new albums: Black Country New Road, DJ Koze, Miki Berenyi Trio (members of Lush & Moose), The Waterboys‘ rock opera about Dennis Hopper, the Mekons‘ 20th long player, Geman post-punk artist Anika, and NYC shoegaze vets Heaven. Plus: this week’s Indie Basement Classic is the underrated fifth album from Teenage Fanclub.

Of course that’s not everything that’s out this week. Over in Notable Releases, Andrew reviews eight, including new ones from Scowl, Panchiko and Craig Finn.

You can also check out the Indie Basement Best Albums of 2025 So Far list and BrooklynVegan’s 25 Great Albums From 1st Quarter 2025.

This week’s most exciting news for this column: Stereolab might be releasing a new album (their first in 15 years); Britpop vets Cast are playing their first US shows in nearly 30 years this fall; Sparks announced North American tour dates,; Yo La Tengo and Built to Spill are teaming up for a summer tour; The Pogues are touring this fall with a pretty stellar cast of guests; and Allo Darlin’ and Wet Leg are back.

Head below for this week’s reviews:

Black Country, New Road – Forever Howlong (Ninja Tune)
It’s a very different BCNR on the UK group’s first studio album since frontman Isaac Wood left the group in 2022

Black Country, New Road frontman Isaac Wood left the group just days before they released 2022’s Ants from Up There. Losing a key creative voice can cause a group to break up, but in this case they were overflowing with talented singers, songwriters, and performers. The six remaining members — May Kershaw, Tyler Hyde, Lewis Evans, Charlie Wayne, Luke Mark, and Georgia Ellery — carried on and for their Ants tour they ended up playing all new material which became the basis for album Live at Bush Hall. None of those songs ened up on Forever Howlong, their first studio album since Wood’s departure, which marks a radical departure in BCNR’s sound. Under Isaac Wood they were a prog rock band for all intents and purposes; they still are, but it’s more of the Kate Bush “Babooshka” variety, with all manner of baroque instrumentation and arrangements. Flutes and oboes flutter and voices soar, with Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery, and May Kershaw all writing songs and singing lead. (Production this time was handled by the very busy James Ford.) “It created a real through line for the album, having three girls singing,” says Ellery. “It’s definitely very different to Ants From Up There, because of the female perspective – and the music we’ve made also compliments that.” If you liked the more fanciful side of Ellery’s other band, Jockstrap, Forever Howlong is a lot like that except they’re played on traditional instruments. This may not be for everyone, including fans of their first two albums, but Black Country, New Road have paved a new path that is equally as surprising and enjoyable.

Forever Howlong by Black Country, New Road

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Miki Berenyi Trio – Tripla (Bella Union)
The former Lush singer/guitarist turns her band Piroshka into more of a solo project and it’s her best record since the ’90s

When Lush broke up in 1996, singer-guitarist Miki Berenyi all but gave up music, finding a second successful career in publishing. But the band’s short-lived 2015-2016 reunion rekindled her musical creative urges and she formed Piroshka with her partner KJ “Moose” McKillop of fellow original era shoegazers Moose and made two very good if underheard albums. So it makes sense that Berenyi refashioned Piroshka with McKillop and bandmate Oliver Cherer as the Miki Berenyi Trio, a name that old fans recognize and a sound that is more in line with her ’90s style. Tripla is her best post-Lush work yet, with Berenyi and Moose bringing the combined power of their guitar haze talents with electronic elements for a familiar but new sonic renovation. Part of its success may be that this time they’re doing it for the fun of it, recording and producing themselves with no music industry expectations. “There is something very ‘grassroots’ about what we’re doing,” Miki says. “There’s no point following the ‘announce the album, then tour, then record the next album’ route – we just want to wring as much enjoyment out of this as we can, and hope that it resonates somewhere!” With danceable grooves and those ethereal layers of cascading guitars, songs like “Kinch,” “Vertigo” and “Big Am I” feel very now and very in fashion.

Tripla by Miki Berenyi Trio

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The Waterboys – Life, Death And Dennis Hopper (Sun Records)
You’ve never heard a Waterboys album like this before, and not just because Bruce Springsteen and Fiona Apple are on it.

Known for celtic rock anthems like “The Whole of the Moon” and “Fisherman’s Blues,” The Waterboys have without a doubt made the most unusual, unexpected album of their career: a rock opera about iconoclast actor, writer, director and artist Dennis Hopper, released on legendary Memphis label Sun Records. The album traces Hopper’s life from his adolescence in Kansas, to moving to Hollywood in 1955, and his friendship with James Dean, through his counterculture hit Easy Rider, the ’70s when he lost the plot, his ’80s comeback which continued through the ’90s, and his death in 2010. “It’s not a tribute record,” Scott told The New York Times. “It’s an exploration. It’s not just Dennis’s story. It’s a story of the times.” Even musically these are not your typical Waterboys songs, instead matching each song’s music to the era it covers, including country, pre-rock pop, doo-wop, ultra-psychedelic rock, cabaret and a few anthems, with help along the way from Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple, and Steve Earle. Life, Death And Dennis Hopper is an hour-long but with most of the 25 songs under three minutes, the album really moves and if you know anything about Hopper, it’s a fun, compelling and tuneful work that’s as wild, wooly and clever as its subject.

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DJ Koze – Music Can Hear Us (Pampa)
The German DJ and producer chills out for his pleasingly placid, guest-filled fourth album

As DJ Koze, Stefan Kozalla can command a massive festival crowd but his records have gotten more relaxed and idiosyncratic over the years. He’s always made laid-back tracks, even when they sport four-on-the-floor beats, but on his first album in six years he’s made a record that feels best suited for a hammock strung up between two palm trees. Music Can Hear Us feels like a cousin to Hit Parade, the 2023 album Koze made with Róisín Murphy, with its swaying, tropical vibes and warm haze coating everything. He’s still digging deep in the crates for obscure sample gold and inviting lots of guests, but this is just-before-dawn comedown music. That, or for planetarium use, as the spacey soundbath elements are strong, from the celestial “Colours of Autumn” (ft Ada), to Damon Albarn collab “Pure Love,” the wow and flutter warped tape sounds of “The Talented Mr Tripley,” and the classical guitar infused “Der Fall” (one of two songs to feature Sophia Kennedy on vocals). My favorite songs involve collabs with fellow German artists: “Wie schön du bist” is a teutonic slow jam featuring Arnim Teutoburg-Weiss & Düsseldorf Düsterboys, and “What About Us” is with The Notwist’s Markus Archer. The pace does pick up in the final quarter of the album with a triplet of bangers — “Brushcutter,” “Buschtaxi” and “Aruna” — which would be an odd tracklist placement for anyone but him. DJ Koze, idiosyncratic to the end.

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Mekons – Horror (Fire)
The 20th album from the mighty Mekons finds them continuing to fight the good fight, with wit, anger and great tunes

Nearly 50 years into their career, the DIY punk greats Mekons are still doing what they do best — skewering the pompous and pios, offering social commentary with wit and an eye on history, and delivering rousing, beers-aloft anthems in the band’s signature globe-trotting style. Horror is Mekons’ 20th studio album and first for Fire Records, and it sounds like a sampler plate of everything they’ve ever done, from dub to country, celtic folk, janglepop, angular postpunk, and everything in between. Themes couldn’t be more 2025, though, as Jon Langford, Sally Timms and the rest of the band take stock of the mess that’s become of the world, placing much blame on British imperialism and touching on everything from the Irish Famine to the climate crisis, warmongering and profiteering. Many of their contemporaries are on their seventh album anniversary tour, but Mekons continue to fight the good fight and sound as alive and sharp as they did on “Never Been in a Riot.” Horror is also one of their best-sounding records, with great performances from the band and singers, but still keeping that three-pints-in wobbliness you want from them. The world may be going to shit, but it’s a better place with the Mekons in it.

Horror by Mekons

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Anika – Abyss (Sacred Bones)
Third solo album from this German post-punk artist is her darkest, heaviest yet

Anika has always danced in the shadows but her third solo album is her darkest and heaviest yet, from the title to the slashing guitars, blown-out levels, and lyrics/vocals dripping with contempt. “There’s so much going on in the world, and you have to sit there and watch it through a screen that you’ve allowed into your home, like a vampire who had been preying at your door, then immediately digest it, have an opinion, and publicly comment on it,” Anika says. “The state of the world just feels like an abyss right now.” The album rips hard, albeit in that chilly Anika way, with Abyss‘ caustic title track and the deceptively titled “Honey” (the album’s most crushing number) being powerful standouts.  While there is less hope here than on 2021’s Change, she is not defeated. “Abyss is like a call to action,” she says. “To come and figure it out together.”

Abyss by Anika

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Heaven – Dream Aloud (Little Cloud Records)
Long-running, underrated NYC shoegazey indie rockers are back with another fine album full of harmony and haze

NYC band Heaven have been were making shoegazey indie rock since 2010 — long before it became fashionable again — and before that frontman Matt Sumrow spent time in bands like The Comas, Dean & Britta, and Adam Franklin’s Bolts of of Melody. With Swervedriver drummer Mikey Jones behind the kit, Heaven are one of the city’s most underrated trad indie rock groups, putting melody and craft first while knowing how to deliver those pleasure center fuzz pedal sonics. Dream Aloud has many terrific moments, including the hazy, harmony-laden pop of the title track, the hopeful motorik swell of “I Need You More Somehow” and swaying “Sun Setting Skies.” If you love Teenage Fanclub, “Sometimes Always”-era JAMC, Luna, and Spiritualized at their most beatific, this is a Dream come true.

Dream Aloud by Heaven

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: Teenage Fanclub – Grand Prix (Creation/Columbia, 1995)
Bandwagonesque may be the Fannies’ classic, but this is where they really came into their own as songwriters

Listening to Heaven’s new album had me thinking especially of Teenage Fanclub and their mid-to-late-’90s run when they began mellowing out and getting sweeter with their three songwriters hitting the peak of their powers. That run began with 1995’s Grand Prix that, to carry on the Formula One racing theme, had Norman Blake, Gerrard Love and Raymond McGinley firing on all cylinders, with such instant earworms as “Sparky’s Dream,” “Neil Jung,” “Mellow Doubt,” “Verisimilitude,” and “Don’t Look Back.” The album was also released at the height of Britpop and pulled the Fannies into that orbit, even though they were never really part of that scene. While they may not equal Oasis in the ambition and swagger department, Grand Prix delivers just as many classics as (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, just in a more humble, if not hummable, way.

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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.