Britpop era follow up to successful albums poll

A quick, closer look at some of these...

Blur - The Great Escape isn't actually all that bad - the main complaint that I have about the record is that it's too long, and about roughly a third or so of it is filler. It's best stuff is great, though.

Oasis - Be Here Now is pretty much the sonic equivalent of excrement. Under-written and over-inflated. The mixes are too loud, and everyone concerned sounds like they can't be arsed.

The Boo Radleys - C'mon Kids is a far more interesting record than its predecessor, but the band were completely kidding themselves if they thought they were going to be able to take all of the fans that fell in love with Wake Up! with them. It's definitely not a record for everyone.

Ocean Colour Scene - Marchin' Already - basically a facsimile of their previous record, but with slightly more of a folky feel and more of an emphasis on ballads. Also, the songs aren't as good as those on Moseley Shoals.

Paul Weller - Heavy Soul is the worst solo album Weller had put out at this point in his career. Sounds very underproduced and half-written in places. 'Driving Nowhere' and 'Friday Street' are the very definition of coasting.

Pulp - This Is Hardcore is absolutely fucking excellent, and has held up extremely well. If I'm ever going to listen to Pulp, this is the album I'll dig out.

Suede - Head Music - Brett Anderson discovers crack and smack, Richard Oakes discovers cider and pies and Neil Codling takes too much drugs and can't get out of bed. A lot was made of this album at the time being a departure from the 'usual' Suede sound, but really it just sounds like a bunch of heavily produced Suede-by-numbers tracks with synthesizers on them. And don't get me started on the half-arsed lyrics...

Kula Shaker - Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts - bit of a curious one this. 'Great Hosannah' and 'S.O.S.' stand out as great over the top moments, but there's loads of strange filler on this one. 'Radhe Radhe', 'I'm Still Here', 'Timeworm', 'Last Farewell'... 'Mystical Machine Gun' was a terrible single, and they could have written stuff like '108 Battles' and 'Golden Avatar' in their sleep. But fucking hell, it's very well produced. Bob Ezrin, I do believe.

Ash - Nu-Clear Sounds - Never had a problem with this record. 'Projects' and 'Wildsurf' being particular highlights. I find 'Folk Song' really beautiful also. I'd actually rather listen to this than 1977 or Free All Angels, thinking about it.

Supergrass - In It for the Money - The best record Supergrass ever made. Yes, even better than I Should Coco, in my opinion, which I've always found to be a touch overrated.

Manic Street Preachers - This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours - zzzzZZZZZzzzzZZZZzzzZZZZzzz...

The Bluetones - Return to the Last Chance Saloon - If it wasn't for the filler placed on the later half of the album, I'd actually consider this their best album. There's more variety on this record than on Expecting To Fly, and the material is better than what they did afterwards. Love the way 'Tone Blooze' segues into 'Unpainted Arizona', the Star Trek Red Alert sien on 'U.T.A.'... 'The Jub-Jub Bird' = great... '4-Day Weekend'... 'If...'. Very underrated record.

Gomez - Liquid Skin - I've always liked this one more than the overrated Bring It On. 'California', 'Devil Will Ride', 'Las Vegas Dealer'...

Shed Seven - Let It Ride - Dear god...

Catatonia - Equally Cursed & Blessed - the thing about this record is that it was an eagerly-awaited follow-up to a record that wasn't even that good. This band never improved on their debut, Way Beyond Blue, in my opinion. 'Londinium' is a 'Road Rage' re-write, 'Karaoke Queen' is embarrassing... 'Dead From The Waist Down' is corny as hell. I have a soft spot for 'Storm The Palace' and 'Bulimic Beats', mind.

Cast - Mother Nature Calls - Sorry, no. I'd rather have my teeth pulled or have a vasectomy with no anaesthetic than ever have to endure listening to 'Soul Tied' again. Some real crud on this disc. 'Guiding Star' is probably the highlight, with 'The Mad Hatter'/'Never Gonna Tell You What To Do'/'Dance Of The Stars' being okay, I guess. But, god, the hippie titles: 'Live The Dream', 'Free Me', 'She Sun Shines'...

This was a two-horse race for me between This Is Hardcore and In It For The Money, and after careful consideration I've went with This Is Hardcore.

Runners-up: The Great Escape, C'mon Kids, Nu-Clear Sounds, Return To The Last Chance Saloon, Liquid Skin.

Glumdalclitch: I still like plenty of individual songs, I just don't think any of their albums ever managed to be consistent or nail the sound that would make the most of them. A lot of bad, short-sighted decisions and over-thinking have blighted them since day one.

One omission that I could genuinely get behind: the Auteurs - After Murder Park

"successful albums" tho

like the one before maybe did OKish but most of the ppl above charted at number 1 or v close before whatever they have in this poll

voted Black Grape because lol

(though I do like "Marbles" more than anything on any of those other albums)

"The Great Escape" is the only example here of an album that was actually better than anything else they did.

The Supergrass one was also better than the one before it, but I also believe "In If For The Money" sold very well, didn't it? They would release two albums after that one that were even better and sold considerably less.

like the one before maybe did OKish but most of the ppl above charted at number 1 or v close before whatever they have in this poll

Yeah, you're quite right, I had forgotten those platinum sales figures for 3 Colours Red.

I like all of these but Supergrass gets my vote, it's one of my favourite albums of all time.

Elastica - The Menace
Blur - The Great Escape
The Boo Radleys - C'mon Kids
Pulp - This Is Hardcore

Voted Pulp.
The only thing worse that Brett on smack'n'crack was Brett cleaning up. 'Head Music' ("great big crack" indeed) is bad in places but 'A New Morning' is terrible.

And most of the other bands here were just wheeling out the same tired old shit. Oasis/OCS/Weller/Ash/MSP/Space/Reef/Lightning Seeds/Catatonia/Cast especially.

Charlatans' entry is the only one I like out of this list

im pretty sure 3 colours red outsold the Auteurs

It's true, they did have a smash hit #15 album at one point.

still better known to the general britpop buying public

but yeah just as shite as the Auteurs, i agree

Count me as another would be Six voter. I guess from this lot, as much as I like The Bluetones, it does have to be This is Hardcore.

Us And Us Only, easy.

Drawn from Memory is simply one of my favorites but will vote C'mon Kids as it has so many good parts. the album is a severely underrated jewel.

just under them is Us and Us Only, In It for the Money and of course This Is Hardcore.

also really liked at the time The Great Escape, Return to the Last Chance Saloon and This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours.

In It For The Money was the last Supergrass album I was really excited about. After that, the drummer's Moon-isms vanished, along with much of the rest of the band's sense of urgency. I bought and sold maybe the next two or three Supergrass records before throwing up my hands.

Heavy Soul had its moments, but I mostly remember it because that was the only time I saw Paul Weller. He played a lot of meandering, noodly jams, but redeemed his set with "Mermaids" for the encore.

jesus fucking christ nuke britain

let's get nukey on the uk

u & k

Can't disagree in fairness, but I'm having my say anyway. I think Blur, Manics and Supergrass are the only ones I'd've heard all the way through, and The Great Escape is definitely the best of these, even if it's far too long. I'm another one who'd'of went for Six though.

someone was busking playing 'walk away' the other day and i wanted to grab him and yell DON'T PLAY THAT SONG, GOD, WHY EVEN DEVOTE THE ENERGY TO REMEMBERING THAT SONG EXISTS, LET ALONE PLAYING IT AND MAKING OTHER PEOPLE REMEMBER IT EXISTED

Haha yeah. I don't mind that one actually. There are a handful of decent singles among these albums, though lord knows what the Echobelly deep cuts must be like.

Sneaking suspicion that the best 'pop' tune here might be Kula Shaker's 'Shower Your Love'.

was gonna launch into a more expansive rant but i'm reminding myself that, depressing as this is, it only represents a culture, a slice of the popular consciousness that still exists, that still dominates some media narratives, but that is far from being the only British music then or now. life is being lived a long way elsewhere.

come on. look. this was the worst music ever.

Wasn't there an even later wave of explicitly post-Oasis, sub-OCS britpop, sort of like Quo without the fancy licks? I'm thinking Heavy Stereo, there may have been others.

No no, don't spare us xp

and it's funny - altho i accept this might in part be exoticism speaking - that any single album from the "awful post-Grunge hangover" poll contains more imagination, more soul, and more actual fucking music than anything on here

Heavy Stereo and Northern Uproar and toss too toss to remember i guess, but in all honesty this list is only one point on the continuum where The View and the Kings of Leon and Kafuckingsafuckingbifuckingan still ride high in the good taste files of every post-uni 20/30 something holding down a steady office job today

manics really from another era/mentality altogether, but their album is the only one i care about on this list. amazing how completely wretched this whole era seems to me now. just a vast wasteland of derivative dreck.

i'd normally excuse the Manics from this but they're uglified by the company here

I kind of admire the Manics for managing to cash in on the era without, in retrospect, having to bend much to it in sound, theme or image. They were always trying to introduce stuff that never caught on at all, like political history, ice hockey, or the pseudo yacht rock on this album

Are The View the 'same jeans' lot? I heard a busker doing that this week, and not so long ago saw a bride & groom taking the floor to it at their wedding (not as first dance thankfully). Both times I felt soiled just knowing what it was.

Kafuckingsafuckingbifuckingan

I feel rather proud I have no idea who this is referring to.

Kasabian.

I don't think that I've met anyone that has still expressed a liking for The View in years now, though yes, plenty of people who rep for Kasabian and Kings of Leon.

Looool, I'd forgotten about most of this stuff. Think I'll have to jump on the This Is Hardcore bandwagon.

i keep thinking i've never heard the view but i probably have and just dont realise it

i don't think i've ever heard the view. the one thing that redeems that list of albums up there is the thought of what a landfill era equivalent would look like.

Man this was sort of my era but I guess I'd decided most of these bands sucked after all by then and didn't much care for the ones I bothered to hear. Supergrass, Boo Radleys = OK. The Pulp I've never heard, even though I like(d) Pulp and everyone says it's good, because I didn't like the singles.

Things I might have voted for had they been on the list: Radiator (but I still prefer Fuzzy Logic), Six (but I haven't listened to it in a decade). I guess nothing by Gorky's counts as a "successful album" enough for me to vote for the follow-up...

You know what follow-up to a very minor Britpop "success" I did hear is the second Silver Sun album which I got for a quid in a bargain bin and is really fucking terrible, and I say that as someone who actually still nurses some vaguely fond memories of the singles from the first album, which I figure are probably beyond the pale for the rest of ILX

a couple of irl ppl I know rep for Silver Sun on the basis of them being "classic powerpop" or something like that

not sure I'm behind that drive

Were Catherine Wheel and Swervedriver not included because they're not considered Britpop, or weren't popular? When I visited in Fall '97, "Bittersweet Symphony" was playing everywhere. EVERYWHERE!

Pulp will take and it gets my vote despite the album being too goddamn long. But The Menace is not bad at all and shorter than its competition.

It says a lot that length is a factor in this poll

In It For The Money was the last Supergrass album I was really excited about. After that, the drummer's Moon-isms vanished,

I don't pay attention to Britpop drummers. Period.

I always thought Goffey was great, but drum geeks seem to think he was all-over-the-place.

I still think Supergrass when better for each time until the fourth album. Then they started moving the wrong way again, but the debut remains their weakest to me, not really getting good until the tempo is being slowed down towards the end.

Silver Sun

first album is great, and the best nigel godrich production imo

second is dire, it was clear that dude had completely shot his songwriting wad by this point

pulp slightly over supergrass

Blur or Supergrass. Leaning toward Supergrass.

― EZ Snappin, Friday, May 4, 2012 9:10 AM (2 days ago)

I listened to both and went with Blur.

disappointed DG didn't post here, it's his fave era of music.