Happy mid-May to everyone. There’s no shortage of worthy new albums this week and I review seven of them, including underrated UK singer-songwriter Billy Nomates, strident Irish trio M(h)aol, The Gotobeds (first album in six years), Ezra Furman, Grails, post-punks Artificial Go, and new Swiss duo Try Harder which includes one half of Indie Basement all-stars Klaus Johann Grobe. This week’s Indie Basement Classic is my favorite New Order album (that turned 40 this week).

For more record reviews, check out Notable Releases where Andrew spins the latest from Friendship, Arm’s Length, The Callous Daoboys, Lido Pimienta and more.

Amongst this week’s news: former Savages frontperson Jehnny Beth announced her second solo album; No Joy have a new record on the way; and The Chameleons’ first album in 21 years will be out in August.

Plus: Supergrass’ debut album turned 30 this week. To misquote one of their songs, We are old!

Head below for this week’s reviews.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: Billy Nomates – Metalhorse (Invada)
Tor Maries goes full-band on her wonderful third Billy Nomates album

Tor Maries found her life in tummolt following the release of, CACTI, her second album as Billy Nomates. She was receiving critical accolades, her creativity was still on the ascent but her personal life was getting more complicated, including caring for her father who was in the late stages of crippling Parkinson’s Disease. “From the second I started working on this album,” Tor says of her third album, “every other month has brought this massive life shift that has either been weirdly magical and brilliant, or quite the opposite.” She sought balance through music and poured the highs and lows into Metalhorse, her third album, which expands on her unique, signature mix of new wave, post-punk, and pop country. A few things changed this time around, most notably she used her band — bassist Mandy Clarke (KT Tunstall, The Go! Team) and drummer Liam Chapman (Rozi Plain, BMX Bandits) — in the studio for the first time, which makes these songs fuller, sharper, and hit harder.

It also takes her melodic style, centered around her rich voice and distinctive twangy harmonies, even further into folk/country territory. It’s a definite step up for her most confident, personal batch of songs yet which are framed around Metalhorse, a fictional amusement park where the rollercoaster of life is writ large in thrill rides. “If you want to jump out of the merry-go-round,” Tor sings on Metalhorse‘s title track, “there’s a way to go about it without tumbling down.” Piano and keyboards take more of a front seat here, giving “The Test” and “Life’s Unfair” more percussive oomph. She’s still writing the kind of immediately satisfying, belt-it-out earworms that you could imagine being hits for Shania Twain or LeAnn Rimes in the late-’90s — check out “Override” and “Plans” — which she imbues with her own mid-’80s production aesthetic that is reminiscent of Prefab Sprout or Strangeways-era Smiths. In that regard, don’t miss atmospheric, synthy ballad “My Darkhorse Friend,” which features former Stranglers frontman Hugh Cornwell’s signature baritone. Tor really feels like she’s come into her own with Metalhorse — she’s starting to use her own name more, professionally, too — as she white-knuckles one hairpin curve after another. “Some rides are nice to get on and some rides aren’t,” Maries says. “That’s how life felt for a minute, and it still feels like that a bit now.”

Metalhorse by Billy Nomates / Tor

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: M(h)aol – Something Soft (Merge)
There’s not much “soft” heard on this Dublin post-punk trio’s sharp-as-hell second album 

If you like your post-punk spare, disaffected, darkly funny, socially conscious and sharp as hell, few are doing it better in 2025 than Dublin trio M(h)aol. Their second album is an eviscerating slice to the gut, carved with smile while looking you in the eyes. The production, courtesy the band’s Jamie Hyland, is perfectly blown-out with lots of fantastic touches, from the vintage touch-tone-phone hook on “1-800-Call-Me-Back” to the atmospheric miasma of noise enveloping the brooding “Clementine” and the machine gun staccato effects on “I Miss My Dog” that Model/Actress would be envious of. The driving rhythm section’s clockwork precision is perfectly recorded, blown-out in all the right ways, and dares you not to dance. While much of the album is cut with humor, don’t think for a second M(h)aol aren’t serious about their causes, as the dread-filled playing of some songs make apparent. “Pursuit” is a harrowing yet compelling portrait of either an abusive relationship or a fraught late night walk home alone and “DM:AM” addresses unwanted attention of social media. Then there’s “Snare” that looks at subtle misogyny in the music industry and give the album its title. “Why not play something soft like piano or violin?” a man asks at the merch table. “I know now what I didn’t know at nine / You’re talking shit and you’re wasting your own time.” Soft doesn’t suit M(h)aol. “It’s meant to sound like that!”

Something Soft by M(h)aol

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Artificial Go – Musical Chairs (Feel It Records)
No this is not a lost gem from the original post-punk era, but a new record from Cincinnati

Artificial Go are the finest late-’70s Scandinavian post-punk band to ever come out of 2020s Cincinnati. Angie Willcutt’s accent drifts across Europe, the UK, New York and Southern California, sometimes even within a single song, like “Circles,” which sounds like a gene-splicing of Liliput, The Waitresses and Moon Unit Zappa. Before I go on to reference more vintage obscure bands, I will just say I think Musical Chairs, a title that perhaps references the many styles on display here, is awesome. You will too if you dig that era of music and/or are a regular reader of this column. The album sounds like an unearthed cassette from 1980, the lost debut of a band who disappeared in the Swiss Alps under mysterious circumstances, and people who remember them cannot be sure now if they actually existed. Songs are, at turns, jangly, jagged, stiffly funky, manic, twitchy, and very catchy. Other touchpoints; The Feelies, Suburban Lawns, Grauzone, Delta Five, The Monochrome Set. Only a lyrical reference to a Labradoodle gives Musical Chairs away as an ingenious, very entertaining fake.

Musical Chairs by Artificial Go

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Ezra Furman – Goodbye Small Head (Bella Union)
Furman’s “orchestral emo prog-rock record sprinkled with samples” is one of her best.

Ezra Furman notes that her new album Goodbye Small Head was written with William Wordsworth’s famous proclamation that “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility” in mind. “I can agree with that, except for the tranquility part,” Eza says. “This poetry, my poetry, arrived in the midst of the storm.” In whatever circumstances these songs burst out and were caught by microphones and recording equipment, it captures Ezra and her band at their most ambitious and creative; a genre-spanning concept album that works whether you realize it’s that or not thanks to fantastic songwriting, performances and modern arrangements. “If I were a music journalist, I would call this an orchestral emo prog-rock record sprinkled with samples,” Ezra writes in the album’s press notes. “Thank goodness I’m not a music journalist!” I dunno, Ezra, I think you do pretty well in that regard. The samples on Goodbye Small Head (the title is a Sleater-Kinney reference) pull things out of the millenium era into now without ever calling attention to themselves. It’s just really well produced, never lacking in guts or heart as Ezra weighs in on life, death, love, strengths and weaknesses, and all the other Big Stuff. Heavy and joyous all at the same time, Goodbye Small Head is one of Ezra’s best.

Goodbye Small Head by Ezra Furman

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The Gotobeds – Masterclass (12XU)
The first album in six years from these Pittsburgh punk smartasses is their best in a decade.

When last we heard from Pittsburgh smartasses The Gotobeds, 2019, they had just delivered their second album for Sub Pop, Debt Begins at 30, which was loaded with cool guests including members of Pavement and Protomartyr. I’m not sure it was loaded with their best songs, though. The band’s tenure on Sub Pop never quite worked; they seemed like an ’80s punk band who reluctantly signed to a major and spent the whole time proving they were still the same band they were before. I don’t dislike either album they made for Sub Pop (the first being 2016’s Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic) but both were notably missing the bratty exuberance and constant barrage of hooky, snotty songs found on 2014’s awesome Poor People Are Revolting. They have now parted ways with Sub Pop and are back on 12XU, the label run by Matador cofounder Gerard Cosloy who put out PPAR. Also back, I’m happy to report: the magic. Masterclass is ripper after ripper that mix post-punk, post-hardcore, pure punk, Pittsburgh and other P words with big hooks, unfakeable energy, and attitude that compliments, not overpowers, what’s on tape. Sporting a new lineup of the band, The Gotobeds sound invigorated and alive, like someone who’s finally out of a bad relationship and are finally unleashing all the good stuff — and anger — they’ve been keeping inside. Sonics are thick and noisy, with lots of sludge, ragged solos and snot. Welcome back, boys.

Masterclass by The Gotobeds

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Grails – Miracle Music (Temporary Residence Ltd)
Ninth album from Emil Amos and Alex Hall’s long-running experimental group is another satisfying cinematic head trip

Over the last 25 years, Portland’s Grails have transformed from a rock band with experimental, avant-garde and cinematic ambitions into something much more wide-ranging and hard to pin down. They’re still led by Emil Amos and Alex Hall but Miracle Music, their ninth album, owes as much to Boards of Canada and Ulrich Schnauss as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Earth. This is as lush, dark and mysterious as the deepest parts of a vast Pacific Northwest forest, thick with atmospheric sound design where shards of light only occasionally reach the mossy floor. Sonically, this is an impressive achievement with dazzlingly layered arrangements of electronic wizardry and organic instrumentation (including gorgeous horn parts courtesy Kelly Pratt). When the album crescendos with the magisterial “Strange Paradise,” you’ve cleared the trees, are passing through the stratosphere and heading out to other worlds. Is there a Dolby Atmos mix of this album? There should be – this is planetarium trip-out music of the highest order.

Miracle Music by Grails

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Try & Harder – Try Harder EP (Too Much Fun Records)
Debut EP from this Swiss duo including Klaus Johann Grobe’s Sevi Landolt is overflowing with good vibes and great basslines

Basel, Switzerland’s Try & Harder is the new duo of Sevi Landolt (Klaus Johann Grobe) and Nicolas Büttiker (Delorian Cloud Fire, Amuse Bouche) and if you’re familiar with their other groups you will probably not be surprised that they make dreamy and very groovy pop. Sevi brings the killer basslines, while Nicolas brings his vibraphone. Add in some Jaki Liebezeit-style drumming, lounge-disco rhythm guitar and spaced-out analog synths and you’ve got something I am going to love. Bliss out on these three tracks’ warm vibes.

Try & Harder by Try & Harder

INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: New Order – Low-Life (Factory / Qwest, 1985)
‘Power, Corruption & Lies’ may be New Order’s most iconic album but this is, song-for-song, their best. 

I’ll let you in on a secret: I’m a huge New Order fan. Just a couple weeks ago I included their groundbreaking second album, Power, Corruption & Lies, as an Indie Basement Classic and I’m already back doing the same for it’s follow-up which turned 40 this week. Here’s a bit of my retrospective review:

What is the best New Order album? Consensus generally goes with 1983’s Power, Corruption & Lies, and it’s hard to argue with that. The dust had settled, Bernard Sumner had officially become the group’s lead vocalist, and their sound started to solidify. Peter Hook’s unusual bass style — played high on the neck, often mistaken for guitar — intertwined with Sumner’s snaky leads, while Morris kept the beat with a mix of disco and krautrock, all played with a watchmaker’s precision. Gilbert filled things out with atmospheric keyboards and guitar. Add to that their rapidly growing skill with technology — not to mention amazing songs like “Age of Consent,” “The Village,” “Your Silent Face,” and “Leave Me Alone” — and PC&L was such a level-up that it’s hard to deny its place at the top of the rankings.

But Low-Life, which came almost exactly a year later, is just as good—and in many ways, better. No other New Order album blends both sides of their sound — electronic and rock — with one eye on their beginnings and the rest of the body aimed at the future. While the albums that followed would more often than not have songs that were either “rock” or “synth,” Low-Life let things intermingle in wonderful and surprising ways. They were an unstoppable creative force, and the album features some of their best-known songs, but also some of their finest deep cuts, making for what is arguably the most richly satisfying album of their career — one that can still surprise you 40 years later.

Read the whole feature here.

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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.