In the excellent review of (the) Verve’s compilation LP, there was a small sidebar over whether Bittersweet Symphony could be regarded as the best song of that era. Someone suggested Common People, another put forward Live Forever. And then someone else suggested the Manics and Radiohead…but they weren’t Britpop per se. I’d add Massive Attack and Prodigy to that also.
So I thought this was interesting enough to devote a thread to it. The rules are as follows :
The song you suggest doesn’t have to be a single, or even something that you could describe as “Britpop” at all. Just something excellent you remember being around at the time.
You don’t have to post a video – it’s OK if you want to. Its just that I’m more likely to get a hamper if the video clips are kept to a sensible number. If there’s a thread that has more than 50 posts and videos a-gogo, it stops working for me.
So, starting with the obvious ones and working down:
Common People – Pulp
Live Forever – Oasis
Bittersweet Symphony
Parklife – Blur
A Design for Life – Manics
Firestarter – Prodigy
Animal Nitrate – Suede
Yes – McAlmont & Butler
Tubthumping – Chumbawamba
It’s not an exact science, but let’s hear your poptasti. memories from that time.
What are we calling the Britpop Era? 1993-96?
I’m never really sold on Firestarter. It felt audacious in the moment, but the shock factor is long gone at this stage and it’s not a song I’d ever voluntarily listen to.
Always thought the Prodigy peaked the album before, so would nominate No Good (Start The Dance). That was the one that really seemed to unite the different tribes at school and sound like the future, and I do still listen to it today, along with Poison. That said, the band probably didn’t peak as a live act until later.
Reckon your list is pretty strong as is, in terms of the big heavy hitters, although I’ve never personally liked Parklife (preferred End Of A Century) or Tubthumping. Animal Nitrate, Design For Life and Yes are fantastic songs that have aged beautifully.
A few more obvious ones that sort of sum up the period, from bands who should probably be somewhere in the thread….
Caught By The Fuzz – Supergrass
Kung Fu – Ash
If You Don’t Want Me To Destroy You – SFA
Stutter – Elastica
I’d have it going a bit later, perhaps to the end of 1997ish. This was the last period of time I remember really drinking in the pop culture and enjoying what was happening. As I hit my early 30s and marriage and then children happened, the pop scene became less relevant to day to day life. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.
Protection – Massive Attack
Sun Hits the Sky – Supergrass
The Only One I Know – The Charlatans
Ladykillers – Lush
Sleazy Bed Track – The Bluetones
A Little Soul – Pulp
Paranoid Android – Radiohead
Nothing Lasts Forever – Echo and the Bunnymen
Some excellent choices.
The Only One I Know is spiritually a Britpop single but it was released in 1990. How about One To Another?
It is my strong contention that if Britpop wasn’t over by the time OK Computer was released, that album brought the guillotine down. It’s not a Britpop record, and neither is Be Here Now, come to think of it. They’re both far too earnest.
My list is basically British, even exclusively English bands I associate with that time and where I was living and socialising. Maybe not Britpop to the world but they’re all together on Planet Bamber.
👌
A great comeback from the Bunnymen. I even bought and enjoyed Evergreen.
Blur – Popscene
March 1992 is where Britpop started – thing is no-one really realised it at the time and had to wait a year for Suede to be on the cover of Select and Stuart Maconie to come up with the name
For consideration:
Paul Weller – The Changingman
Ocean Colour Scene – The Day We Caught The Train
Boo Radleys – Wake Up Boo
Cornershop – Brimful Of Asha
Echobelly – King Of The Kerb
Sleeper – What Do I Do Now
Underworld – Born Slippy
McAltmont & Butler – Yes
Shed Seven – Getting Better
Yes, King of the Kerb was a much better song than Great Things.
I really liked Shed Seven at the time and they produced some great tunes. Getting Better is amongst the best but I would also add:
Dolphin
Speakeasy
Going For Gold
Chasing Rainbows
Dolphin was truly excellent:
Yes yes yes to all of the above. Fine songs, but a bit of a rubbish name
Here’s Where the Story Ends – The Sundays
Torn – Natalie Imbruglia
Wannabe – Spice Girls
Hey Girl – Chemical Brothers
Connection – Elastica
Must have some Fannies. Not britpop as such but certainly adjacent.
The concept
What you do to me
Star Sign
Radio
Sparky’s Dream
Neil Jung
Ain’t that enough
I don’t want control of you
And so on…
Probably my favourite band of the Britpop era – and, as you say, not really Britpop.
Monaco – what do you want from me
My kind of thing. Music For Pleasure was the last great New Order album.
Lush – Ladykillers (because Britpop was about the unlikeliest acts – see also Boo Radleys) transforming themselves into something the milkman might whistle)
Dodgy – Staying Out For The Summer (because Britpop was a period when acts blossomed for a bit who disappeared when it was over)
The Auteurs – The Upper Classes (because Luke Haines would hate to be included)
Tricky – Ponderosa (because 1995 was the zenith of Britpop and Maxinquaye was the best British album of 1995)
Elastica – Stutter (because, even though their debut is a great album that, away from the context of the time, still sounds ace, they represent the tiny, incestuous “scene” between journalists and bands that was at the heart of Britpop)
Leftfield – Release The Pressure (because my experience of the Britpop period wasn’t all John Lennon glasses and recreating 60s vibes as much as a tremendously upful pop party – seriously, consider every year this century and think of how much more optimistic in every way the 90s were – and Leftfield, Underworld, The Prodje and The Chemical Brothers were right in it. The Trainspotting soundtrack encapsulates Britpop better than most other efforts at compiling the spirit of the time.)
Pulp – This Is Hardcore (because it’s the song I always finish my Britpop-era compilations with)
This Is Hardcore is my absolute favourite Pulp track, but it came out in 1998 and felt at the time like the band distancing themselves from Britpop. Such a great tune though, fit to grace any compilation.
Incidentally, the book Miranda Sawyer wrote last year on Britpop is worth a read. She picks a dozen or so tracks (including a number mentioned on this thread) and works through them. Runs out of steam a little, but some interesting observations.
Trainspotting – nail, meet head.
Spot on Mr Robot. The film and soundtrack is the zenith.
And staying on a film theme, Lock Stock And Teo Smoking Barells is the end point.
“The Trainspotting soundtrack encapsulates Britpop better than most other efforts at compiling the spirit of the time.)”
Couldn’t agree more. I remember being at a teen press screening for Trainspotting and all the Britpop luminaries were in attendance too – Damon and Justine etc.
Born Slippy is that era for me. Clubbing, boozing, hedonism. Britpop doesn’t convey clubbing. The best records of that era as I see ir now aren’t Britpop. The Bends makes those records look slight. 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins and St Etienne seem more appealing today. Grand Prix by Teenage Fanclub is a great album. Rialto 5:15, truly superb. It was great that it was a period when all these interesting singles got in the charts. It was a diverse time not conservative as it was painted.
Also the era of b-grade bands with one a-grade song
@moseleymoles
I was coming here to post that. Underrated band Marion, a bit more spiky than most of that era.
Exhibit b
Case closed
No.
Nice to see The Auteurs get a mention up there. My nomination by them would be Lenny Valentino- a brilliant tune. Others include:
Blur – This Is A Low, For Tomorrow
Suede – The Wild Ones
Radiohead – Let Down
Pulp – Something Changed
Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy
Supergrass – Going Out
Underworld – Dirty Epic
Shack – Comedy (though that’s probably a bit later than the period you’re thinking of)
Michael Head and The Strands – Something Like You (ditto)
I could go on for a while…..
Here ‘s Lenny Valentino, just in case you haven’t heard it.
Superb tune. I started listening to them around After Murder Park and worked backwards. I still keep an ear open for Luke Haines!
Brilliant video that, not seen it before. It really sums up their calculated, outsider, “we dare you to like us” vibe perfectly. Not once do you see anyone singing. Ace.
This has been the ringtone on my phone for many years
I haven’t heard that in years.
Sounds like a nice copy of mid 80s New Model Army.
We were arguing for The Drugs Don’t Work not Bittersweet Symphony! Much superior for me.
Apart from others me mentioned there from Pulp, Oasis then Moving Supergrass, Paranoid Android (could pick a dozen by non Britpop Radiohead), Faster or A Design for Life from Manics even if they were more cool Cymru than Britpop.
so this thread plays right into my favourite era but i will try to list just one song per artist otherwise there would just be a complete list from the first two My Life Story albums, here goes
12 Reasons Why – My Life Story
Back Together – Babybird
Black Steel – Tricky
Pimlico – David Devant & His Spirit Wife
Babies – Pulp
Daydreamer – Menswear
Rude Boy Rock – Lionrock
Fighting Fit – Gene
Race – Tiger
On A Rope – Rocket From the Crypt
Inbetweener – Sleeper
Show Girl – The Auteurs
Osmonds – Denim
Becoming More Like Alfie – The Divine Comedy
I Can Only Disappoint U – Mansun
Shark Attack – Posh
Lost Cat – Catatonia
Yes – McAlmont & Butler
Come Out 2Nite – Kenickie
To Earth With Love – Gay Dad
Kent – Salad
Motorcycle Emptiness – Manic Street Preachers
French Disko – Stereolab
Come Taste my Mind – Earl Brutus
London Girls – Stephen Duffy
tha’ts enough for tonight, I may have to post a further list later on
but if I had to choose a euphoric tune to be played loud and to fill a nineties dance floor it would be this one
Inbetweener is a good shout.
Possibly the first time anyone anywhere has mentioned David Devant & His Spirit Wife in 30 or so years. A band with a fine sense of humour, and a charismatic lead singer who looked like the bastard child of Prince and Kevin Rowland. Pimlico always felt like it was a bit of a novelty song even by their standards, but was a banger nonetheless.
I have always had soft spot this one, not being a red head myself, although on reflection they may be using the word in it’s Cockney rhyming slang context, which would make this a great LGBTQ rights song.
Perhaps unsurprisinlgy, I have this on CD single.
Cheers to ‘Race’. I thought I was the only person who remembered and liked Tiger.
And ‘French Disko’ too! Superb.
I have a number of Tiger CD singles, including Race, and an album (I think) all bought in bargain bins. They should have been bigger.
That video remains probably the single most exciting piece of music television I’ve ever seen. Love it.
I’ll add Cast and their gorgeous ‘Walkaway’ to the list.
Obligatory why didn’t I keep scrolling comment, but I have avidly read thru’ this, trying to understand the worth, point and purpose of this period of musical reductionism. Yes, buoyed along, I bought many the usual subjects, but, boy, haven’t they lasted poorly, the term now, to me, a shortcut to bland and simplistic guitar pop, played loud. The fact that many are anxiously shoe horning in so many other styles, hoping for a hint more relevance, is endearing but doomed. Britpop is union jacks, bucket hats, bad haircuts and too many people unable to feel the benefit, later, of taking their coats off indoors.
Even if a lot of decent and unrelated music was made in the same time period, crossing over into “sophistipop”(sic), the two are barely the same. Even if Paul Weller had a foot in both camps.
Both styles probably explain why I became a folkie in the end.
I agree with this (up to a point, Lord Copper…)
…of course, I didn’t go off and be a folkie…🙃
Well, you did ask for songs that I liked from that period…
I started to rack my brains and Britpop turned out to be pretty conspicuous by its absence.
But I did remember some great tracks!
Beth Orton – She cries your name
Terry Callier – Lazarus man
Brand New Heavies – Dream come true
Galliano – Prince of Peace
Ron Sexsmith – Secret Heart
Massive Attack – Protection
Portishead – Glory Box
The Walkabouts – The light will stay on
Morcheeba – The Sea
Jackie Leven – Stranger in the Square
Vic Chestnutt – Gravity of the Situation
Tricky – Black Steel
I intended to mention that Beth Orton one. Thanks for doing it for me.
I loved that first album. She’s still popular here in Sweden.
Time for a little nostalgia..
You make my point sweeter and more succinctly, @kaisfatdad. Loads of good music, just very little retrospectively memorable within the 2D of Britpop.
I’d include the Raggle Taggle era Waterboys, the much maligned Levellers, Oysterband, Chumbawamba, Tindersticks, the Barely Works, EII, Alias Ron Kavana, Gregson& Collister.
Good times!
Tindersticks! Now we’re talking! So far removed from the lumpen britpop that I’d genuinely forgotten where they came in the chronology.
Other than Blur and Oasis, very few of the Britpop bands made much impact here in Sweden.
You are right, @retropath2. There was lots of excellent music in the 90s. Several names on your list are new to me.
May I join fitterstoke in thanking you for mentioning the wonderful Tindersticks!
And here’s a twofer featuring Tindersticks *and* a Walkabout…
If we were talking international, the Walkabouts would be one of my toppermost. Which reminds me, the new Chris Eckman dropped thru’ the letterbox an hour or so ago, with a post 2 degree swim nap taking initial precedence over listening.
I’m going to go wildly off piste now and post a track from the Walkabouts’ 1996 album, Devil’s Road.
When they played the (long-gone) Studion rock club in Stockholm they had a string quartet with them. It was magic.
Excellent!
I have a Walkabouts live album with strings called Bruxelles. It’s fab. PM me for ‘help’ if you can’t find it.
Nothing whatsoever to do with Britpop, but Terry Callier’s “Lazarus Man” is an absolute classic.
Ron a Brit? I think not
You touch on something that had occured to me also. I think any artist that was releasing quality stuff around that time should be included because it would have being woven into the pop music scene of the time. This was certainly a great period for Beck, for example.
Are Carter USM considered Britpop? Then an up to Rubbish.
Also Airhead and Funny How
Think they probably precede Britpop.
A Prince in Pauper’s Grave for me
Agree, pre-Britpop. Up vote for price In A Paupers Grave.
And several votes for the entire 30 Something album
(but it’s still not considered “Britpop”, even though it is Pop Music made by Brits)
Yes 30 Something is great. Falling On A Bruise for me.
None more of the time than this.
Great debut album.
At one point in the 90s, our covers band had a girl singer. We used to do THIS one –
Agreed – a fantastic album. And then just disappeared (almost) without a trace. An extremely poor second album, then not a word more. A shame.
The Stranglers rip-off
No more cover versions anymore!
…as opposed to the Wire rip-off – yes.
I always stick up for Elastica: I know the accusations of them being scenesters who nicked riffs and melodies from older bands, but that first album is a blast of power pop. And the lesson is (as always) never get into hard drugs.
Yes, indeed. I thought that album was great – still do, really.
Bjõrk came to the core during the Britpop era, starting with Human Behaviour and Venus As A Boy.
Open Up by Leftfield/Lydon is a brilliant 4 minute single, not so good when extended. Back then, I was still dancing and Sub Sub Ain’t No Love was a favourite and Chaka Demus & Pliers Tease Me, Dawn Penn You Don’t Love Me, TLC Waterfalls and Breathe Prodigy (much better than Firestarter).
Cyprus Hill were in my brain a lot, sending me delirious, as were Beastie Boys Sabotage & Root Down and Public Enemy’s Give It Up. I loved Reverend Black Grape. Have Portishead and Tricky been mentioned yet? PJ Harvey released her best album To Bring You My Love, hardly Britpop, though.
Best single of Britpop, no question, and probably of all time – Edwyn Collins A Girl Like You.
I love Edwin and OJ but for a long time I did not have any love for A Girl Like You. But then, at a rare foray into a nightclub, I heard it very loud and saw how much people were into it – and then I got it.
Delightful thread (like the epic best 90s albums thread of yore). I absorbed a lot of music then (many mentioned already) because I was at my most sociable
St. Etienne: Nothing Can Stop Us Now (Fox Base Alpha was the road not taken by official Britpop.)
Stereolab: Jenny Ondioline (love Stereolab and the lo-fi trance of the second album)
Tricky: Black Steel (“Ponderosa” is already taken; Maxinquaye is a masterpiece, as noted above)
Blur: Modern Life is Rubbish (my favourite album and their best single)
Portishead: Sour Times (I resisted them at first, but they won me over)
Pulp: Babies (my favourite Pulp song)
Cardigans: Love Fool (its not “British” pop, but it was all over the radio)
White Town: Your Woman (no shame in being a great one hit wonder)
LTJ Bukem: Music. I had the most fun in the 90s with dance music: clubbing, partying at houses, or raving somewhere in an East Sussex field, and never wanted to buy an Oasis record. Bukem is one of many such records.
Groove Armada: At The River (not necessarily a great single, but now feels like an end of the era)
BIG thumbs up for both Love Fool and At the River!
One of the few music mag free CDs we ended up playing regularly and still own was one Q produced at the end of 1994, Really Free, which had a stonking selection of Britpop and other music from that year – Slideaway by Oasis, Pink Glove by Pulp, Rocks by Primal Scream, Afternoons and Coffee Spoons by Crash Test Dummies, Dream on Dreamer by Brand New Heavies plus Counting Crows, Massive Attack, Cranberries, the Manics and more. The 90s were mainly a time of babies, young kids and growing job responsibilities for us so that CD was about as close as we got to actually experiencing the music of the era, and it did a good job.
Like mine, your babies are in their thirties. They will, no doubt, look back on the music of the twenties in the same way.
French Disko and Ping Pong by Stereolab is the correct answer to the thread
They’ll be reminiscing about Fontaines DC and Maggie Rogers and telling their kids that music isn’t what it used to be. Doubt they’ll have any magazine freebie CDs though.
A Girl Like You by Edwyn Collins was a slow burner, eventually reaching the top 10 in 1995. In the same week I bought that single, I also got Yes by McAlmont and Butler: not a bad couple of purchases.
I remember seeing Edwyn’s triumphant show at the Shepherds Bush Empire after this had been a proper hit. I’d seen him loads of times over the years and it was the first time he played Rip It Up live in all those gigs. Although he didn’t say it, I took it to be a sign that the “one hit wonder”, monkey was finally off his back.
As it turned out, the earnings from the hit funded the additional therapy he required in his recovery from his subsequent near death experience with a brain haemhorrage.
Rather pleasingly, it bought him his house.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/apr/27/popandrock1
He says that he didn’t like the macho punk of the Pistols but Paul Cook’s off beat shuffle is superb, giving it a Northern Soul/Rock hybrid feel. No wonder it’s always on the radio.
Almost all of my favourite music from the Britpop era could not be described as Britpop (which seems to be mainly power pop, a genre I particularly dislike).
Leftfield, Fluke, St Etienne, KLF, Spacemen 3 and its derivatives, Chumbawamba, Jah Wobble, The Moonflowers, The Grid, Ultramarine, Luna, The Orb, etc.
If I had to name one Britpop band I liked, it would be Sleeper – at least they had a sense of fun and wrote good songs that weren’t overplayed.
I saw Sleeper support my tall chum’s band at The Junction before their debut single (released November 1993) came out and they were fully-formed, so well before Britpop really became a thing. I remember being really impressed, and then slightly impatient for ages (Smart didn’t come out until Feb 1995).
I could find the exact date of the gig if I go through the archives, not that it really matters.
I checked – 12th July 1994, so around the time of their third single.
Middle-aged man can’t remember precise details from 30 years ago shocker!
I have trouble with 30 days … them Blogger Takeovers are becoming difficult
but middle aged man can remember Louise Wener …. saw Sleeper last year at the Minety festival and they were excellent but there were plenty of men of a certain age fawning over Louise (myself included)
They’re touring later this year.
https://sleeper.band/
with another band from the era Rialto as support, should be a cracking gig
I’m intending to go to Brighton, catching up with bands I missed first time around due to work, kids etc
Rialto were one of those “should have been bigger” bands.
I guess they never made that bridge to stardom.
Think I must’ve seen that tour, in Derby think. Monday Morning 5:19 was a great song. They had 2 drummers, you know.
At their best they were Untouchable…
I also saw The Sundays, Echobelly, Elastica, Salad, Maria McKee… is there a theme developing here? Where’s Moosey when you need him?
And, how could I forget? Curve. Toni. Sigh.
a theme i certainly endorse having met Sonya from Echobelly, Louise from Sleeper and Marijne from Salad they were all rather wonderful and are still brilliant now
i saw them for the first time last year & saw something that tickled me.
After the first song & as the applause died down, you got that brief second of silence that descends on the room… at this point you just heard an incredulous ‘She’s 58?!?!’ from a lady in the crowd that carried perfectly across the small venue. Louise did not look too bothered by this as I expect it is something she hears regularly!
They were a band that passed me by in the 90s, but i thought they were great. Nice Guy Eddie is a lovely song
Named after the Woody Allen film, (and also referencing a spy, an unexpected hit, etc.), I always associated the name with sleeper earrings , which seemed very appropriate, considering their songs.
Now I have another association – a band that comes up for greater appreciation decades after their initial appearance.
It must be no coincidence that Louise had a successful career as a novelist – many of their songs seem like short stories in their lovely attention to interesting detail.
The Baby It’s You E.P. by The Beatles.
Has an added attraction:
It will still be referenced in a hundred years time, as it’s by the biggest pop group before 1995, in 1995, and after 1995. Major result!
Was Britpop actually an Era?
My view is that it was too short-lived to be an Era. Only really lasted 3-4 years at most.
Maybe if you give it the short pronunciation (error), it works.
Is Lazarus by The Boo Radleys too early? Or Barney and Me? In fact the whole Giant Steps album….
I was 15 in 1998 so my formative music years were shaped quite significantly by ‘Britpop’, although i was just a tad too young to be at gigs during the good phase of it.
Some bands from that time that I still listen to today & adore are more of the fringe artists, some of whom are mentioned above.
A few choice tracks that still get an outing today are;
Babybird – Bad Old Man
Belle & Sebastian – Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying
The Chemical Brothers – Let Forever Be
The Divine Comedy – The Frog Princess
Dubstar – Just A Girl She Said
Faithless – Don’t Leave
Gene – Where Are They Now? (Probably my favourite song from this time)
Idlewild – Paint Nothing
James – Homeboy
Ocean Colour Scene – It’s My Shadow
Paul Weller – Sunflower
PJ Harvey – Meet Ze Monsta
Pulp – Do You Remember The First Time
Puressence – This Feeling
Spiritualized – Come Together
Super Furry Animals – It’s Not The End Of The World
Supergrass – Richard III
A shout out to Underworld who I really hated at the time, but when the penny dropped in the mid 2000s & I finally ‘got them’ & think they are a band who are still knocking out great albums.
I have likely posted this before, but there is a song that I associate with this time that is very far away from Britpop, but which I credit to changing my tastes quite significantly.
Oasis were on Jools Holland in 1995 & I remember a bit of a buzz about this as they were riding the wave at the time. Bowie was on the same episode who I very much enjoyed, but it was Roddy Frame doing On The Avenue which hit me most.
Fast forward 6 months & I was a Bob Dylan fanatic – I think the contrast between the stunning Roddy performance & the quite pompous, overblown & frankly boring Oasis one changed my course. Whenever I see a 40 something still wearing a parka & adopting the ‘Liam walk’ I am very grateful to Mr Frame.
He’s 61 today. My guitar hero and man-crush (according to my wife).
A quieter moment, but one of my favourites from that era: