Britpop : Time For Reevaluation?

I wrote this on the Worst Music Writing thread:

I love Taylor Parkes and agree that his article does not belong here, but at the same time his prose style remains so redolent of Melody Maker circa 1995 that it produces a weird sense of discombobulation. Every sentence makes me more nostalgic for Britpop (maybe even the experience of hating Britpop at the time) than most of the other shit I've read about it in these terrible weeks.

― Eyeball Kicks, Monday, April 28, 2014 9:52 PM

Some people above talk about Britpop being an early gateway to other kinds of music, and I relate to that. But I also remember the oppositional stance of certain music journalists - among them Taylor Parkes, Simon Price and Neil Kulkarni - being a greater influence on me at the time. Reading the music press encouraged this amazing dichotomy of fully felt youth: lapping it up while despising it.

really like the "we blew it" sentiment of the parkes article.

i do feel like other elements of 'britpop' have been airbrushed out in retrospect, but maybe that was the point all the time.

how was the relationship of pulp to britpop perceived at the time, and maybe more importantly, what did people make of the auteurs?

parkes essay makes me think of the mekons' journey to the end of the night. was it an album about that process?

i mean...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPQG_6EoyPI

Taylor Parkes and even Simon Price (in the early days at least) were quite vocal about liking Oasis

the auteurs were kind of outside Britpop a little bit except for that "Yanks Go Home" Select article, they werent really a Britpop band, they didnt feel like one either - they were constantly being compared to the go-betweens (i dont see it). the first album anyway

"the most disastrous misunderstanding of The Beatles since Charles Manson."

^ my fave description of oasis ever

Agreed

Melody Maker front cover from the week after Parklife came out

http://25.media.tumblr.com/38a287a23929ec55eccee0b3a1110f1b/tumblr_milfktUgUM1rba1qao1_400.jpg

Cranberries - Britpop's Biggest Export

CRANBERRIES BRITPOP'S BIGGEST EXPORT

Ultrasound were not a great band

To be honest, I had very little interest in Britpop at the time (with the exception of Blur), but it was all around me because I'd accidentally found myself living in the middle of it and knew loads of people involved with it in one way or another. I saw an early incarnation of Ultrasound a few times around 95/96 and they *were* very good live, but it was an eternity before their album came out and by then they'd somewhat lost focus and stretched every song out to 30 minutes at half-speed.

Cranberries werent Britpop. They were LimRock jeez

they lingered too long

Wonderwall I guess was the biggest actual US hit by a britpop band right? Blur werent making britpop by song 2

or maybe ONLY hit

I can see, if you wanted to make early connections, some shared sensibilities between Modern Life is Rubbish and the Auteurs' New Wave, of world weary youth playing with 'English' styles

Auteurs didnt sell many records did they so britpop didnt seem to care about them by the time it went mainstream. They did get 1 songon all the 90s indie comps though. Im guessing lenny valentino was popular in student discos

I seem to remember Luke Haines being crabby about everything to do with Britpop in interviews!

been meaning to read this. ive heard good things about it.

http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Vibes-Britpop-Part-Downfall/dp/0099522268

Im guessing lenny valentino was popular in student discos

too brief

and no Felix da Housecat remix

Song break: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZksFjV23qYw

Was this Britpop?

To be honest, I had very little interest in Britpop at the time (with the exception of Blur), but it was all around me because I'd accidentally found myself living in the middle of it and knew loads of people involved with it in one way or another. I saw an early incarnation of Ultrasound a few times around 95/96 and they *were* very good live, but it was an eternity before their album came out and by then they'd somewhat lost focus and stretched every song out to 30 minutes at half-speed.

― Turtleneck Work Solutions (Nasty, Brutish & Short)

I was a huge fan at the time and when I met Tiny at Leeds Festival 99 I could barely talk I was so starstruck. To me honest their album was never as good as I wanted it to be. They recorded some of their best songs so many times they ended up losing what made them special. Also they pissed away their best song and only potential hit (Kurt Russel) as a B-side to a limited edition single. I could make a great album out of their songs using the album and all the singles they put out. They were great live too.

no cuz they were influenced by sonic youth and pavement. i saw them at t in the park and they were very good.

A band who i saw at titp who i had never cared for but were really good and had been co-opted as britpop were the wannadies. They played just before teenage fanclub (who were magnificent)
xp

Auteurs had a pretty great career really. All four albums sound quite different and are all really solid. After Murder Park in particular is a brilliant album. I've been looking back at the NME and Melody Maker end of year lists a lot recently. I was surprised to see how well New Wave was received. Think the press had moved on by the second album though.

for those who want to check lists
http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/nmeindex.html

http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/select.html

http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/mmpage.html

BRITPOP
Frieze, December 1995

By Simon Reynolds

http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/britpop-dissected-2-1995-and-battle-of.html

I was 25% of the audience at a ocs gig in 2004

your dog escaped?

lol

1. Catatonia – International Velvet

yes thats when MM jumped the shark

Thanks to rave, the most vital sectors of '90's UK subculture are all about mixing it up: socially, racially, and musically (DJ cut'n'mix, remixology's deconstructive assault on the song). Returning to the 3 minute pop tune that the milkman can whistle, reinvoking a parochial England
with no black people, Britpop has turned its back defiantly to the future. Here's hoping the future will respond in kind, and remember Britpop only as an aberrant, anachronistic fad--like trad jazz, the early '60s student craze that resurrected the Dixieland sound of 30 years earlier. Perhaps
Oasis will one day seem as inexplicable as Humphrey Lyttleton!

How International Velvet managed to make #1 album of the year in MM in 1998, I'll never know. Sure, it delivered their two best known hit singles, but as an album it's quite weak. The follow-up, Equally Cursed & Blessed, is no better. It's a shame, because I still like their first album (Way Beyond Blue).

hated that band so much. road rage gave me rage all right and as for mulder and s arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

not to mention that song with space

'The Ballad Of Tom Jones'? Yeah, I hated that. But I thought Space were fucking terrible in general, anyway.

Caaaaalling all avenging angels, angels, kickass angels... arrrrgh!!!

this is truly the dark night of your souls huh

Looking at those lists it seems like Melody Maker were just a bit cooler for the first half of the 90s. They had Laughing Stock in their 91 list which somehow NME completely missed out. Same with Dubnobasswithmyheadman too. They had Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev albums in before Deserters Songs/Soft Bulletin. Dummy was their album of the year over NME going with Definitely Maybe. Having the first Tindersticks album as their album of the year was a really awesome move too. Indeed it didn't last when it got to having Catatonia at number one and Head Music the following year. I'm a huge Suede fan but even I knew that was nonsense at the time.

xpost:

and now it's the dark night of yours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E02YUPnEP00

Luke Haines's first book is a great read: funny, fast-paced, somewhat informative of the goings ons of that era. His follow-up is pretty terrible, though. I couldn't stand it. Maybe it's because he kind of stopped being interesting post-auteurs and can't really fathom why. I don't know what happened.

xpost Actually it might be the 97 list where things changed. NME had Spiritualized number one and Melody Maker went with The Verve. Also they found room for Be Here Now in their top ten. Hurricane #1 and Republica lower down on the list too. Having said that I forgive them everything for having Billy Mackenzie in there and Kenickie in the top ten (where they should be)

He's so intolerant of the music scene, and all he has to offer is warmed-over glam tunes that reveal he likes reading people's biographies .

Interesting Space fact. They just released an album last month. The album title, artwork and song titles are quite something.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_of_the_Mutant_50ft_Kebab

Space are so bad. I know someone who ranks them highly, and I don't get it. I heard a new song off the last album and it sounded like female of the species without the budget.

If we came up with a WORST Britpop Songs what would go on it?
One song per band so choose wisely

in no order

1) Oasis - Roll With It
2) Blur Country House
3) Ocean Colour Scene - Day We Caught The Train
4) Dodgy - Good Enough
5) Kula Shaker - Hey Dude
6) Cast - Live The Dream
7) Powder - Afrodisiac
8) Supernaturals- Smile
9) Catatonia - Mulder & Scully
10) Space Feat Cerys - The Ballad Of Tom Jones
11) The Divine Comedy - Something for the Weekend
12) My Life Story - 12 Reasons Why I Love Her
13) Sleeper - Inbetweener
14) Lightning Seeds - 3 Lions
15) Babybird - You’re Gorgeous.
16) Bluetones - Cut Some Rug

What else can we add to worst ever Britpop Compilation?

Poor Divine Comedy.

There's a thread for that. I think consensus was Reef - Place Your Hands.

Northern Uproar - Town

Oh yeah Reef were the worst.

Kitchen Person - Head Music was one of the biggest letdowns ever for me. Loved those 3 albums and bsides then that travesty. I sold it. Something I rarely did.

oh christ yeah reef

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScBuPPou5pE