Best Of 90's Britpop - Part IV

Well, I did say that this was going to get interesting, the further along we get. In case, you are just tuning in, this series is taken from Mojo Magazine's Classic Edition - Britpop, featuring sixty Greatest 90's Britpop Albums.

This post represents the half-way point in this series. With this post, I have covered thirty two out of the sixty albums. And, I will say that there are some bands/albums on this post that I was not at all familiar with. Namely, The Auteurs, Dodgy, Nick Heyward (solo) and Paul Weller (solo). For some reason, these albums escaped me during my catch-up time with 90's Britpop.

Sure, I am familiar with Nick Heyward and his work in the band Haircut 100. And, regarding Paul Weller, I am also familiar with his work in the bands The Jam and Style Council. But, their solo releases were not at all familiar to me.

Also, in my opinion, The La's S/T 1990 album set the starting mark for 90's Britpop. It is a classic album and one you should have in your collection. To quote Mojo Mag - "The La's album moved Noel Gallagher (Oasis) to say his plan was to 'finish what the La's had started'." That statement definitely shows the strong influence the La's had on this decade of music.

Other very strong albums, at the beginning of the decade, were Saint Etienne's - Foxbase Alpha and The Auteurs - New Wave. These albums also set high standards for the rest of the decade. New Wave charted at #22 and missed out on winning the '93 Mercury Prize by one vote. And Saint Etienne's Jon Savage wrote on the LP's sleeve notes - "Go with the flow, find what has been forgotten, put it together in a new way". Which they did so nicely with Foxbase Alpha.

And, other things to note are that after over eleven years from their start, Pulp hit pop gold with His 'n' Hers. Dodgy's Homegrown produced three top 40 hits. And Elastica's S/T debut was an angular punk pop album featuring founder Suede member Justine Frischmann.

Well, that wraps up part IV. Please feel free to let me know if you are enjoying this series. There are some fairly unknown treasures left to explore on the rest of the series. So, please stay tuned in. I, truly can say, that I have learned a lot about 90's Britpop by doing these posts. It's been an enlightening exercise. You may want to collect all these tracks and make a CD compilation out of it. At the end, I will post an Excel file with artist/album/track information. I've been keeping a running tab and it is good to have.

Enjoy!!


mp3 London Belongs To Me

Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha (1991)



mp3 Starstruck

The Auteurs - New Wave (1993)



mp3 Looking Glass

The La's - The La's (1990)



mp3 Caravan

Nick Heyward - From Monday to Sunday (1993)



mp3 Sunflower

Paul Weller - Wild Wood (1993)



mp3 Lipgloss

Pulp - His 'n' Hers (1994)



mp3 So Let Me Go Far

Dodgy - Homegrown (1994)



mp3 Stutter

Elastica - Elastica (1995)