Britpop era follow up to successful albums poll

it's not like the guy has an inflated sense of his lyrical talent or anything

OMG someone please buy this for me, it would be like having a Tommy Wiseau signed copy of The Room.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The Menace

head music is better than coming up imo. actually some of the remixes on the head music singles are among my favourite suede tracks (partic the lironi version of she's in fashion)

my mate saw suede on the head music tour and said it was great and that the songs were really good live and that it was the production on the album that was really bad (despite the melody maker review praising it). The album after was just pure shite though.

― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 18:07 (Yesterday) Permalink

I saw Suede at V Festival in 1999... I don't think Head Music had been out for very long, and I do remember the songs coming across much, much better live. From what I can glean from the Suede book 'Love And Poison', the album was pretty much created from samples of the band as opposed to any kind of live playing. It's a very sterile sounding record. Production aside, there are some shockingly bad songs on the record, and the lyrics have to easily rank as some of Brett Anderson's worst. He always did have his lyrical crutches, but on Head Music he pretty much leans every single last one of them. You can tell his mind was elsewhere.

*leans ON

Really odd to think Melody Maker made Head Music their album of the year in 1999. I think it has some good moments, Electricty, Everything Will Flow, Asbestos and Hi-Fi are all good songs but of course its not in the same league as the first three albums. A New Morning is just rubbish. Obsessions and You Belong to me are the only keepers. The best tracks from that period were B-sides or bonus tracks (Simon, Cheap and Oceans) I remember in the NME they did a review of a live show they did in Iceland late 2000 prasing the new material. I was really excited to hear those new songs, but another two years went by and everyone had just moved on. Instead of following the original plan of doing an album of acoustic ballads they tossed off songs like Street Life and Your Beautiful Loser, thinking that's what the fans wanted.

I totally agree with Turrican about the first three albums being solid plus Sci-Fi Lullabies which is essentialy a great double album. That's a lot of great songs in just over five years.

its all you need really. MM started to lose me when they made Catatonia AOY but when they gave Head Music it too that was it for me. Couldn't trust them no more! Same went for Suede.

I'd have to listen to it a second time to be sure, but from what I remember, The Menace was easily the biggest drop-off and disappointment on this list.

Also:
Nirvana paid Nirvana off

But did they pay the other Nirvana off?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbcHYzKHgq0

yeah, i love the elastica debut but if any band didn't need to make a second album...

the elastica album isn't great, but if it (a) had come out after 18 months rather than 5 years and didn't have almost the entire preceding EP on it (i.e. that EP was never released) it would be more fondly remembered

should have been a (b) in there

i properly loved Elastica MK1 and still have the setlist from their 5th ever gig just after signing a deal, but this is a very under-rated track off the second album and one of my faves. the ultimate post-Britpop-comedown song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jug2yCNVG40

its all you need really. MM started to lose me when they made Catatonia AOY but when they gave Head Music it too that was it for me. Couldn't trust them no more! Same went for Suede.

― it looks like something rupert the bear would wear (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, May 10, 2012 12:59 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I keep forgetting that International Velvet was so highly praised! Even at the time I thought that was a very patchy album, and a massive, MASSIVE step down from Way Beyond Blue. Equally Cursed & Blessed was even patchier, and the other one after (the name of which I can't recall) isn't even worth talking about.

I find it funny that Dafydd Ieuan, the drummer of Super Furry Animals, was once a member of Catatonia. In fact, he plays drums on quite a great deal of Way Beyond Blue, but left to help get Super Furry Animals off the ground. It's funny because International Velvet was arguably more of a commercial success than any Super Furry Animals album, and 'Mulder And Scully' and 'Road Rage' were much bigger hits than pretty much every single that Super Furry Animals released. Now, Catatonia are seen as somewhat of a joke, and Super Furry Animals seem to still be very much respected.

Fwiw, I actually like Way Beyond Blue...

Way Beyond Blue wasn't a great album but it was by far the strongest of the first three (never heard the fourth) Bleed is an excellent single.

The Menace was a complete mess but I still really enjoy most of it. My Sex is indeed one of the higlights. The debut is probably one of my top five albums of the 90's.

since this is still up and i have a history with a bunch of these album i will expand on my post:

Elastica - The Menace – I own this album and really haven’t played it much at all, it just seemed like such a let down compared to their debut.

Blur - The Great Escape – I own this album. All my friends seemed to like Blur more than me so I never really warmed up to them as much as I think I should have. This album I rarely played, it was probably too British for me.

Oasis - Be Here Now I own this album. There has been enough ink spilled on this album. I personally don’t think it’s a bad as people say but it not that good either.

The Boo Radleys - C'mon Kids – I own this album. The best album here, I really don’t think enough people listened to this album. It really is a stunning piece of work by Martin and the boys.

Ocean Colour Scene - Marchin' Already – I own this album. This album is actually really good but won’t talk about OCS on ILM.

Paul Weller - Heavy Soul – I own this album. I bought it because of Noel from Oasis love for the guy but didn’t do much for me at all.

Pulp - This Is Hardcore – I own this album. Such a great album, probably have played this more times than any other album on here.

Suede - Head Music – I own this album. This album made me miss Bernard Butler even more. It didn’t have that same feeling that past Suede albums had.

Kula Shaker - Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts – I own this album. Crap, how did I ever think anything good about this band?

Ash - Nu-Clear Sounds – I own this album. This album is OK, I liked the singles but the other songs just didn’t have any weight to them.

Charlatans - Us and Us Only – I own this album. Great, great album played this album a bunch of times. This album is just pure fun at the time and the songs are good. I should dig this out; I know I will still like it.

Supergrass - In It for the Money – I own this album. This album is great. I was going on a trip to Europe for a month, around this time, and took on of my friends to their show in San Francisco. He loved them asked me about them, brought this album on our trip and listened to it quite a bit on that vacation.

Manic Street Preachers - This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. I own this album. I knew of this band but never listened to them. So this was my first exposure and even though this is light rock I really liked it. I do wondered what I would think of it if I listened to it today.

Space - Tin Planet – I own this album. I loved the singles, never really gave this album a chance. It wasn’t good.

The Bluetones - Return to the Last Chance Saloon – I own this album. Love, love, love this album. I think with the Bluetones you either like them or not but they really are not a bad band at all. In fact I still think they are going today.

Echobelly – Lustra – never heard this.

Embrace - Drawn from Memory – I own this album. I was in London and took a chance on this band as I was buying some albums. Somehow someway this album really resonated with me. I just seemed to hit all the right buttons that I wanted from music at the time. I’m not embarrassed about this as it’s still a solid album though only Nick and I will agree with that statement.

3 Colours Red – Revolt – I own this album. This album is loud and young and really not bad at all. Would actually like to listen to it again, soon.

Gomez - Liquid Skin – I own this album. This album is good, there are not really any flaws on it. They have three singers doing their own entire thing on each of their songs and kind of works. Gomez gets an unfair wrap.

Black Grape - Stupid, Stupid, Stupid – I was done with the Happy Mondays kind of stuff by the time this came out.

Shed Seven – Let It Ride, Reef – Rides, Lightning Seeds- Tilt, Sleeper – Pleased to Meet You and Catatonia – Equally Cursed & Blessed – I have no idea what any of these sound like.

Cast - Mother Nature Calls – I own this album. Crap, can’t believe that I was hoping for the new La’s with these guys.

The Bluetones - Return to the Last Chance Saloon – I own this album. Love, love, love this album. I think with the Bluetones you either like them or not but they really are not a bad band at all. In fact I still think they are going today.

They broke up last year.

Ash - Nu-Clear Sounds – I own this album. This album is OK, I liked the singles but the other songs just didn’t have any weight to them.

I listened to this just the other day, and really really enjoyed it from start to finish.

cast were a fine live band but crap on record. the 1st Black Grape album was one of the best albums of the time but this one was shit.

i still play that 1st black grape album from time to time and its a really good funky album that had fuck all to do with any of the britpop made at the time. Great live band too. They were better than Oasis at Loch Lomond.

i like that ash record a lot but 'free all angels' was their classic imo.

Free All Angels is much more of a 'produced' record than Nu-Clear Sounds, I think. The best songs on Free All Angels beat the best songs on Nu-Clear Sounds hands down, but I think the worst songs on Nu-Clear Sounds far outstrip the worst songs on Free All Angels. Free All Angels seems to me to be more of a peaks'n'troughs record, whereas Nu-Clear Sounds is more consistent.

I like "This Is Hardcore" but I'd rather listen to "In It For the Money."

"The Menace" and "The Great Escape" weren't bad. The rest of these records suck.

Shed Seven – Let It Ride, Reef – Rides, Lightning Seeds- Tilt, Sleeper – Pleased to Meet You and Catatonia – Equally Cursed & Blessed – I have no idea what any of these sound like.

I think I could take a pretty good guess.

We own 9 of them between us.

In It For The Money is a great album, I can't say that about any of the others here although the Blur, Pulp and Boo Radleys ones definitely have their moments. I bought the Manics and Suede when they came out (and the albums after!) but they're long gone from my CD shelves.

I bet every major UK city has at least one charity shop containing every single one of these albums.

I doubt even they have "Lustra"

Head Music was almost a great album, the title track and Elephant Man are dreadful and Savoir Faire was always going to take some stick. Even with the sterile sound, it was really just 2 or 3 clunkers that brought the album down.

I wonder if living in the States made it easier for me to enjoy Be Here Now. It's not as good as Morning Glory, but even that album isn't great, and it doesn't feel like that big of a qualitative drop to me. Oasis does big, dumb rock songs, and those first three albums seem of a piece inasmuch as they were Oasis making the most of their v. limited range.

In it for the money

I've been listening to this all week. This album reminds me of the onset of summer, somehow.

I was forced to listen to the whole of Morning Glory in the car the other day and I have to say it's one of the blandest hit records in the world. Everything about it points to the middle and the lyrics are just...

"Tomorrow never knows what it doesn't know real soon"

Makes you think...

Oh, Oasis lyrics are inarguably the worst perversion of the English language ever. I basically have to pretend they're sing in Cocteau-speak or another language altogether.

"You see me, I've got my magic pie."

"they're singing"

That post would be the second-worst perversion of the English language ever.

The thing is, it's like savant babel English - absolutely anyone of a certain age can pretty much sing along to the whole record without questioning what the words mean. The words just roll (with it) off the tongue so easily. It's genius in a way. Walking slowly down the hall, faster than a cannonball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVc7ZB9DPGA

Between Blur and Elastica for me and I went for Elastica because The Menace doesn't get nearly enough love. Neither does The Great Escape for that matter but The Menace seemed the more urgent case.

Walking slowly down the hall, faster than a cannonball.

GHarrison's famous 'first acid experience' had him and Lennon driving at some slow speed and thinking they was going at 100mph. So, maybe not that one.

The rest, yeah.

xpost yeah, I voted that one.

What caused the arguable drop in quality between the Britpop 94-95 era and 96-98? Is it a matter that these bands had always been rubbish and that it was all hype? Or was there something else going on that made so many bands release lacklustre follow ups at this time?

drugs.

Mark G otm. Heroin and cocaine, specifically.

Suede, Elastica and Blur all did their fair share of both smack and coke. Oasis were notorious cokeheads. Members of Pulp and Ocean Colour Scene and one particular member of Supergrass liked a bit of the devil's dandruff. Paul Weller dabbled in coke alongside his Britpop mates in the '90s. Cast and Gomez were more stoners. The Boo Radleys were more into acid.

The cleanest band on the list above, funnily enough, is probably the Manics. And James Dean Bradfield was quite a heavy drinker. Even Sleeper were snorting lines in the toilets of The Good Mixer...

Oh yeah, Catatonia: Cerys Matthews ended up on heroin by the end of that. So many examples.

also you have a bunch of indiekids in adidas tops suddenly becoming popstars and then trying to / being asked to write records for the Smash Hits and Top Of The Pops crowd.
i think the records that survive are : the rock records that weren't ever part of the lurch from indie to mainstream; blur & supergrass who were always pop bands anyway, until later on at least; pulp & boos because those records are a conscious back-turning on the previous HITS!

Never really realised the extent of the coke and horse thing, but it totally makes sense. I remember that era of Britpop feeling so bloated and self-important.

Embrace are pretty much clean.

For horse tails of latterday Britpop, look no further than Marion. Fucking hellfire.

Oh god, yeah, Marion. It's incredible, because I saw them circa 1996 and they were very much 'together' onstage!

Britpop always felt like it was its own worst enemy to me. Cool Brittania and all that, believing in themselves and their time in the sun and then going on to do some self-indulgent, bloated, overwrought turd w/no sense of fun. The first albums tended to be really cute at least, if not actually great, and by their third, unless they had basically reconfigured everything, they were unlistenable.

'Cool Britannia' had fuck-all to do with the people making the music, and everything to do with the people writing about it. It went down better with some bands than with others. You'd be surprised at how many bands at the time hated terms like 'Britpop', 'Cool Britannia', 'Dadrock' and 'Noelrock', or just plain weren't arsed about being part of anything. Oasis took it to the other extreme, they literally lapped everything up, until they fell off the rails sometime post-Knebworth.