September is nonstop with new albums and shows! To quote Doug Martsch, if I don’t die or worse, I’m gonna need a nap. But no sleep till…well hopefully this weekend. Today we’ve got some great new records, including ones from two Indie Basement all-stars, Baxter Dury and Gruff Rhys. Plus: The first Chameleons‘ album in 24 years, and new ones from Guerilla Toss (produced by Stephen Malkmus), Working Men’s Club‘s Sydney Minski Sargeant, and the first album in nine years from The Hidden Cameras (who have gone technopop).

This week’s Indie Basement Classic is a lost janglepop gem from 2000.

Over in Notable Releases, Andrew reviews new ones from Maruja, Die Spitz, Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell, Algernon Cadwallader, and more.

This week I interviewed Saint Etienne and Suede bassist Mat Osman for episodes of BrooklynVegan’s interview podcast.

Only 10 days of summer left. Head below for this week’s reviews…

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: Baxter Dury – Allbarone (Heavenly)
Baxter Dury dives headfirst into dance with Paul Epworth at the controls

After dipping a toe or two into dance music over the last 10 years, including his B.E.D. album with Etienne de Crecy/Delilah Holiday and a collab single with Fred Again, Baxter Dury has dove headfirst into dance music on his eighth album. To help him achieve the “mature art school rave” sound he was aiming for, Dury enlisted producer Paul Epworth, whom he met at Glastonbury 2024 where they made the kind of plans one does in “foggy, heady festival fields and may say things they don’t mean.” But Epworth was serious, and Baxter soon found himself in the Adele and Florence producer’s very fancy studio. Epworth got his start on records by Bloc Party and The Futureheads, so it’s not that crazy that he chose to take his first producer job in five years with a much-loved cult indie artist.

Dury and Epworth make for a terrific combination, resulting in Baxter’s best album since Prince of Tears (my favorite album of 2017). His shabby-chic, marble-mouth style—full of stream-of-conscious creative swearing and poppy choruses sung by a rotating cast of female vocalists (with various accents)—can actually take quite a glow-up without losing its charm, and they push it to the limit for much of Allbarone. “Alpha Dog,” “Return of the Sharpheads,” and “Hapsburg” in particular seem to answer the question: What if Daft Punk made an album with Serge Gainsbourg, except he’s English, not French, and from the gritty side of London? Does that sound appealing? It should.

As usual, we follow a cast of ne’er-do-wells, lotharios, and pathetic men, this time with most of the action happening around Allbarone, a heightened-reality version of UK pub chain All Bar One mispronounced to be something fancy. Baxter’s albums have always had great grooves (via Massive Attack drummer Damon Reece and Beak> bassist Billy Fuller), but they sound even better in these first-class confines, with layers of gleaming synths, vocoder, and other modern studio effects. It all works like gangbusters, and Dury is in fine, louche form throughout, dropping non sequiturs like “The international fuck omelette,” “Breakfast at the Berghain,” “Back flips on MDMA,” and “Big fat Olympic Ozempic hips.”

Allbarone peaks with “Mockingjay,” inspired by the Hunger Games sequel of the same name and about “delusional romantic revolutionaries” who campaign mainly on social media. “Lightweight preacher of nothing of significance,” he spews over backing that’s part Chic, part Can and, like everything he does, all Baxter Dury.

Allbarone by Baxter Dury

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: Gruff Rhys – Dim Probs (Rock Action)
The Super Furry Animals frontman’s ninth solo album is full of no probs, plenty of probs, and memorable songs

“I was in a particularly bleak place,” Gruff Rhys says of making his new album Dim Probs. “And it’s reflected on the record, and I don’t know why. Dim Probs is a kind of slang, Wenglish, you know, it’s not Welsh or English. ‘Dim’ means no, and probs is like, so it’s like ‘no probs,’ but obviously there’s plenty of probs to go around.”

Dim Probs is Rhys’ ninth solo album—that’s as many as he made with Super Furry Animals—and it’s easily the thematically darkest record he’s ever made. Often an abstract lyricist, this time it’s pretty clear he’s working through what a lot of us are currently feeling. It’s not so much heavy as ominous, surveying the state of things, the worst of times, in a near-constant fog of doom and gloom. You can feel it even if you don’t understand Welsh (most of us). “I went to wash in Nwygyfylchi,” he sings on “Dos Amdani” (“Go For It”). “Between the sea and the rotting swamp of saliva of the sheep that vomit the emptiness of life and over-complication.”

Gruff is a pop songwriter at heart, though, and he tempers the noirish mood with Brazilian chords, warm melodies, horns, and his signature harmonies. (Also lightening the mood: cover art by frequent collaborator Pete Fowler which is should really be made into a beach towel and available at Gruff’s merch table.) The push and pull is exemplified on “Taro #1 + #2,” Dim Probs‘ most immediate song, is about “accepting death as the end of the turn.” Meanwhile, old friends Cate Le Bon and H. Hawkline show up to sing backup on two of the album’s friendliest songs—“Pan ddaw’r haul i fore” (“When Sun Comes to the Morning”) and “Chwyn Chwyldroadol!” (“Revolutionary Weed!”)—which open both sides of the record, respectively.

The mix of dark and light, plus Gruff’s melodic skills and endless supply of empathy, make Dim Probs a deeply rewarding listen.

Dim Probs by Gruff Rhys

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The Chameleons – Arctic Moon (Metropolis Records)
The Chameleons return with their first album in 24 years, sporting a rock renovation to their signature sound

Post-punk greats The Chameleons never seemed to catch a break. They signed to major label Epic in the early ’80s and looked like real contenders to be the next U2, only to get dropped after their first single. Soon after, Big Country and Echo & The Bunnymen eclipsed them. After two great albums on tiny indie Statik, they signed to Geffen for their fantastic third record, 1986’s Strange Times, only to break up the next year following their manager’s death. The original lineup reformed in 2000, released the pretty good Why Call It Anything in 2001, and did some incredible tours (anybody catch them at Knitting Factory?), but old wounds never healed and they split again in 2003. Frontman/bassist Mark Burgess carried on as ChameleonsVOX, sometimes with powerhouse original drummer John Lever, who sadly died in 2017.

Burgess put together a new Chameleons lineup in 2021 with original guitarist Reg Smithies (a rift remains with other guitarist Dave Fielding), plus Stephen Rice on guitar and Todd Demma on drums. An album has been promised ever since, and here it is: Arctic Moon, their first in 24 years. Burgess says it signals a departure from the sound of earlier albums, and represents “a new chapter.” It’s not that much of a departure, though without Fielding distinctive, sharp rhythm guitar we don’t quite get that classic Chameleons sound. I appreciate that they didn’t just get someone to imitate his style, which they easily could have done.

The arrangements lean more “rock” this time, including an arm-swaying piano ballad (“Free of It”) complete with a traditional soaring guitar solo. Still, the melodies are distinctly Burgess’, as are his full-throated vocals. There are a few new classics for the canon: ripping opener “Where Are You?,” the ascending “Lady Strange” with its very Chameleons chorus and ringing guitars, and closer “Savoirs Are a Dangerous Thing,” which proves Burgess’ lyrical skills remain sharp. And like their other albums, Arctic Moon comes wrapped in Smithies’ distinctive, surreal cover art. It’s a worthy addition to The Chameleons’ legacy.

Arctic Moon by Chameleons

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Guerilla Toss – You’re Weird Now (Sub Pop)
Guerilla Toss were already weird but Stephen Malkmus and Trey Anastasio help Guerilla Toss get even stranger

Noted noodlers Stephen Malkmus and Trey Anastasio seemed destined to work together, but who’d have thought it would be on a single by Brooklyn DIY eccentrics Guerilla Toss? The Pavement frontman produced You’re Weird Now, the band’s second album for Sub Pop, which was recorded at the Phish frontman’s Vermont studio… and voilà!

The song in question, “Red Flag to Angry Bull,” is a pretty perfect place for them to link up, actually. The trippy opening riff could go anywhere, but when the rhythm section kicks in with a distinctly loping ’90s-style beat, we’ve got a song that would fit right in alongside Spacehog, Bran Van 3000, Len, and yes, Pavement.

Otherwise, Malkmus doesn’t seem to have altered Guerilla Toss’ already eclectic sound, which has always been some sort of manic hippie electro-punk new wave sugar-coated breakfast cereal. The ’90s groups they most resemble are the genre-blender acts that sprung up in the wake of the Chili Peppers, like Whale or Urban Dance Squad. (Thankfully, no slap bass.) It’s funky, it’s freaky, it’s fun. What is weird, anyway?

You’re Weird Now by Guerilla Toss

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Sydney Minsky Sargeant – Lunga (Domino)
Working Men’s Club frontman reveals his softer side on his folky solo debut

When we last heard from Manchester, UK’s Sydney Minsky Sargeant, he was leading clenched-jaw raver group Working Men’s Club. He still is, but he’s just released his first solo album, which showcases a gentler side. Not unlike the 2023 solo debut from Fontaines D.C.’s frontman Grian Chatten, Lunga reveals a folky, melodic streak you might not have expected.

“I’m trying to wear my heart on my sleeve a bit more; these songs come from a search for meaning and understanding,” he says. “I’m always trying to unpick myself and those around me, the ones I love and loved the most. There were thoughts and feelings that these songs helped me express, address, and make sense of.”

Made with producer Alex Greaves (Mandy Indiana, bdrmm), Lunga is largely acoustic, but layers of sound design add atmosphere to standouts like “A Million Flowers” and “Hazel Eyes.” He does get a little rowdy, too, on the bluesy “Chicken Wire” and the harmony-laden “Summer Song.” I hope we get more Working Men’s Club records—but more like this, too.

Lunga by Sydney Minsky Sargeant

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The Hidden Cameras – Bronto (Mixed Up Records)
The Hidden Cameras return after nine years with a Berlin techno makeover

Joel Gibb founded Toronto’s The Hidden Cameras in 2001, and at first they seemed like just another Canadian indie band with too many members. But one listen to the distinctive “gay folk church music” on their 2002 debut Ecco Homo made it clear they were doing their own thing, apart from Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, and the rest. Gibb perfected that style on 2003’s fantastic The Smell of Our Own and kept going strong for the next decade, but The Hidden Cameras appeared to shutter after 2016’s guest-filled Home on Native Land.

Since then, Gibb moved to Berlin and, as one does in the home of Berghain, fell hard for techno. BRONTO, the first Hidden Cameras album in nine years, was made by Gibb and Nicolas Sierig and is a full-on electronic record that sometimes plays like Rufus joining Orbital. He’s got bona fides, too: Vince Clarke and Pet Shop Boys have supplied remixes.

There’s one tie to the band’s past: original violinist Owen Pallett provides eerie disco string arrangements. Otherwise, this is a reinvention. Gibb’s voice and melodic instincts are still instantly recognizable, and they translate seamlessly into this new electronic form. On tracks like “How Do You Love?” and “Quantify,” Joel even evokes another famous Gibb.

Barry, you’ve now got competition.

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC OF THE WEEK: Cosmic Rough Riders – Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine (Poptones, 2000)
A lost janglepop gem from the dawn of the millenium

When Creation Records went belly-up in 1999, founder/svengali Alan McGee didn’t waste much time getting back on the horse and started Poptones Records in 2000. One of the label’s first releases was Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine by Glasgow’s Cosmic Rough Riders. The band had more than a little in common with fellow Glaswegians Teenage Fanclub, who McGee had signed to Creation a decade earlier: jangly power pop with classic melodies and three-part harmonies. Unlike the Fannies, though, there wasn’t a fuzzbox in sight on CRR’s pedalboard.

Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine was essentially a reissue of their self-released Panorama from earlier that same year, dropping four songs, adding two from their 1999 debut Deliverance, and three brand-new tracks. As so few people actually heard those first two albums, Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine plays like a perfectly constructed pop record—catchy, lightly psychedelic, and full of songs that sound like instant classics. “Sometime,” “Baby, You’re So Free,” “Glastonbury Revisited,” “Melanie,” and “Revolution (In the Summertime?)” are particularly tenacious earworms.

Cosmic Rough Riders would go on to make three more albums, but they never quite matched the magic of this lost gem from the dawn of the millennium. Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine still sounds as fresh as it did 25 years ago.

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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.