Remove this Banner Ad

Britpop

  • Thread starter Thread starter nicky
  • Start date Start date
  • Tagged users Tagged users None

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Although I haven't listened to nealy enough Blur I'd put Pulp at the top of this genre.

Songs like Something Changed, This is Hardcore and Mile End are some of my favorites from any band.
 
A good time to bump this...

Parklife turned 20 this week and Damon Albarn put out his first solo album today.

I got into Blur a fair bit lately and rinsed them solidly for about a month. Now venturing into Pulp territory. It's interesting hearing all these songs you grew up with (I was born when this was all kicking off and when grunge was tapering off; they're both seeped in but kind of not in my listening patterns).

What I genuinely love about Britpop is this celebration of the normal. I guess it's something I've recently (in the last two years) been enamoured by. I guess at a certain time you start thinking about your position and how you got there, and being able to see myself in art and music is something I just like. I have a chortle listening to Girls & Boys now because it rings true 20 years on: that gym culture here and in the UK is barely removed from what it was originally about. Common People is probably the most endearing song possible, even though it's not supposed to actually romanticise normality, it kind of does: as a public schooled, working-cum-middle class boy, it's something I can identify. As horribly self-conscious and wanky as that sounds. It's a nice thing to put pride in that.

What I genuinely don't get is people hating Jarvis Cocker in here. I don't get it! I really love the guy's output, but Albarn seemed the ultimate twat of all the lead singers. Jarvis Cocker toiled away for a long time as a musician with Pulp for pretty little gain, for the enjoyment, until they became massive after slugging out a few albums and too many pub gigs. I always thought he was the most authentic of the lot and a genuinely cool guy – like cool cool.
 
Silent Alarm said:
What I genuinely don't get is people hating Jarvis Cocker in here. I don't get it! I really love the guy's output, but Albarn seemed the ultimate twat of all the lead singers. Jarvis Cocker toiled away for a long time as a musician with Pulp for pretty little gain, for the enjoyment, until they became massive after slugging out a few albums and too many pub gigs. I always thought he was the most authentic of the lot and a genuinely cool guy – like cool cool.
Click to expand...

He was the most authentic and the best of the lot. So far ahead of the gallaghers and alban.

He was genius and still is.

Pretty sure "his and her" turned 20 recently as well.

I understand why some guys hate him if you listen to his lyrics.
 

Log in to remove this Banner Ad

i thought he was always highly rated.
richard ashcroft prob gets the most shit out of the britpop bunch haha.

he went quiet there for a good half decade but i really enjoyed this two solo albums and the pulp reform seemed to be a hit everywhere.. there is a cool clip knocking about with jarvis talking about the making of common people. i can't remember what show it was for. it was just jarvis and a casio keyboard, very interesting.

been enjoying the stereogum features on britpop
i liked all the comedown albums the most..

http://www.stereogum.com/1678193/th...hat-came-next/franchises/20-years-of-britpop/

so much good music
 
yaknow i still give some Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts a whirl sometimes
Kula Shaker were pretty damn good at what they did. they seemed to be left out of this looking back at britpop discussion thing.

its pretty overblown rock but it still feels great blasting Mystical Machine Gun when driving
guess they didnt have the sexy of suede or the straight up anthem style of oasis/verve. caught in the middle a bit
 
The Great Escape is probably my favourite Blur album, along with Parklife. 13s yet to hit me but it no doubt will, and Modern Life seems a bit two-tone for me. I think the songs on Think Tank like Good Song, Sweet Song, Battery in Your Leg, and On the Way to the Club are so interesting. It was pretty Gorillaz coloured but man, such a beautiful melody.

I always thought it was interesting how Damon Albarn wanted to get away from grunge and its self-loathing and angst. But his best songs from his entire cannon are mostly musically sad (The Universal) or genuinely just about loneliness, isolation, loss, and feeling disappointed with the world around you (everything else).
 
90's Britian produced some insanely good music whatever the genre

Aside from Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Radiohead, Supergrass, Stone Roses

Among my favourites were

Catherine Wheel - Ferment, Chrome
Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque, Grand Prix, Songs from Northern Britian, Howdy
The Verve - Storm in Heaven, A Northen Soul
Ride - Nowhere, Going Blank Again
Slowdive - Souvlaki

and this amazing little gem

adorable-against-perfection-400x400.jpg
 
Sarcoidevo said:
90's Britian produced some insanely good music whatever the genre

Aside from Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Radiohead, Supergrass, Stone Roses

Among my favourites were

Catherine Wheel - Ferment, Chrome
Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque, Grand Prix, Songs from Northern Britian, Howdy
The Verve - Storm in Heaven, A Northen Soul
Ride - Nowhere, Going Blank Again
Slowdive - Souvlaki

and this amazing little gem

adorable-against-perfection-400x400.jpg
Click to expand...
I don't think I've ever seen anyone else reference Adorable around here. I only got into them because a Pitchfork review once said they sounded like Bloc Party. They don't really, but I got a great band out of the ill-fitting comparison. Everyone says they weren't big because they were too late for shoegaze and too early britpop – I just don't think they had the pop makeup.

Everyone should give these guys a spin. Melodic post-punk with a few pedals from Kevin Shields' pedal board.



Homeboy is probably the most structurally curious song and one of my favourites. I can't get how this song can get so big in the chorus then revert to chugging nonchalance in the verse, but somehow it can use each chorus to just build up the next one. It feels like you're listening to the climax, it does down, then a bigger one just ends up coming. Amazing. I love the coda at the end... the way he just bumbles these random noises, like the drums, before that "you're my homeboy."



I like Crash Sight(/Site) a lot too. Really driven guitars. I like how he uses the same lyric in about three different places and just changes the meaning so much each time.





As for the other stuff, I wish I liked Slowdive and Ride so much more but the issue with shoegaze, to me, is that there's not a lot of room for you to show something: cleaner rock music can allow you to be technical, to experiment with structure, to focus on melody, to think about broader textures, to shift between the focal instrument... I feel like it just peaked at MBV as dumb, naive, and uninteresting that thought is. I don't mind them but I can never understand how they're called some of the best of the 1990s.
 
Silent Alarm said:
As for the other stuff, I wish I liked Slowdive and Ride so much more but the issue with shoegaze, to me, is that there's not a lot of room for you to show something: cleaner rock music can allow you to be technical, to experiment with structure, to focus on melody, to think about broader textures, to shift between the focal instrument... I feel like it just peaked at MBV as dumb, naive, and uninteresting that thought is. I don't mind them but I can never understand how they're called some of the best of the 1990s.
Click to expand...

Out of all of these Catherine Wheel stands at the top of the apex - loved Ferment but Chrome is a masterclass - melodic, powerful, swirling, aggressive and hauntingly ambient - the album absolutely kills ....... for me anyway ;)

If you havent heard both these albums I couldn't recommend them highly enough
 
Silent Alarm said:
I don't think I've ever seen anyone else reference Adorable around here. I only got into them because a Pitchfork review once said they sounded like Bloc Party. They don't really, but I got a great band out of the ill-fitting comparison. Everyone says they weren't big because they were too late for shoegaze and too early britpop – I just don't think they had the pop makeup.

Everyone should give these guys a spin. Melodic post-punk with a few pedals from Kevin Shields' pedal board.



Homeboy is probably the most structurally curious song and one of my favourites. I can't get how this song can get so big in the chorus then revert to chugging nonchalance in the verse, but somehow it can use each chorus to just build up the next one. It feels like you're listening to the climax, it does down, then a bigger one just ends up coming. Amazing. I love the coda at the end... the way he just bumbles these random noises, like the drums, before that "you're my homeboy."



I like Crash Sight(/Site) a lot too. Really driven guitars. I like how he uses the same lyric in about three different places and just changes the meaning so much each time.





As for the other stuff, I wish I liked Slowdive and Ride so much more but the issue with shoegaze, to me, is that there's not a lot of room for you to show something: cleaner rock music can allow you to be technical, to experiment with structure, to focus on melody, to think about broader textures, to shift between the focal instrument... I feel like it just peaked at MBV as dumb, naive, and uninteresting that thought is. I don't mind them but I can never understand how they're called some of the best of the 1990s.
Click to expand...

Adorable are one of my favourite bands. Discovered them on RRR way back in the 90s. Pretty much all of Against Perfection is awesome ( especially love Favourite Fallen Idol ). Sunshine Smile and Vendetta are great singles and Self Imperfectionist is one of my favourite b sides of all time. it's great to see others appreciate this great band.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

'Modern Life Is Rubbish', especially the first half, still gets a caning from me.

Graham Coxon delivers copious slabs of very tasty guitar across the whole platter :D
 
Sarcoidevo said:
90's Britian produced some insanely good music whatever the genre

Aside from Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Radiohead, Supergrass, Stone Roses

Among my favourites were

Catherine Wheel - Ferment, Chrome
Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque, Grand Prix, Songs from Northern Britian, Howdy
The Verve - Storm in Heaven, A Northen Soul
Ride - Nowhere, Going Blank Again
Slowdive - Souvlaki

and this amazing little gem

adorable-against-perfection-400x400.jpg
Click to expand...

Wouldn't put Catherine Wheel in with britpop really. But their first two albums are absolute crackers, and among the very best 'forgotten' albums of the 90's.
 
Plugger35 said:
Blur are still the best of the Britpop era.

Click to expand...

The more I listen to them the more I understand how diversely consistent they are. I still find Modern Life a bit boring, I haven't gotten it yet,


Then you've got something like this which was a real telltale for Demon Days in my opinion. For some reason it reminds me of a Mexican or southern US desert. In the most lonely was possible. It is so detached. The best, Jerry.

And then go to this


I always found it interesting how Damon Albarn reckoned britpop was this diversion from grunge, and that grunge sucked because it was about alienation and loneliness and anger and, basically, negativity. Yet the best things Blur did were mostly in spite or sadness: is Boys and Girls really happy? It's pretty vitriolic, about looking down on that herd mentality of the masses. Then things like Badhead and Clover and Dover are about that stage of loving someone that it kinds of hurts even if it's in a good place. I don't know.


I mean how can you write something with a structure that's essentially ..........!!!!!!!!!!.......!!!!!!!! and make it a pop song all the way through?

I also blame them for my intense melancholia as a person. Being reared on the Coffee & TV video by my parents and listening to Gorillaz as my first album at age 12 was only going to point me one way...
 
The more I think about it the more I realise Blur could vouch to be my favourite band.
 

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Blur is a band that grows on you with time and there was more to them and Damon Albarn than just Britpop.

They just happened to come to fame during the mid 90s Britpop era and they got lumped in with that lot along with the whole Oasis v Blur battle which was mostly fueled by the UK music press and the Gallagher brothers mouthing off to get attention. Damon Albarn never engaged in all that nonsense.

I thought Blur was just a mid 90s Britpop band that would just fade away like Oasis, Pulp, Supergrass etc but they weren't done with yet.

They reinvented themselves in the late 90s into a proper drug f***ed rock band.

This song was a killer track and made people realise that there was more to Blur than being Britpop poster boys.



They then went on to the chilled out heroin Beetlebum and Coffee & TV phase before they (ie. Albarn) reinvented themselves again with Think Tank in 2003.

This song is just brilliant, stops you in your tracks and makes you think, which is what music should do.



Damon Albarn then went on to reinvent himself yet again with the Gorillaz stuff, pretty talented dude, he's a modern day Bowie imo.
 
Last edited:
Stating that Damon Albarn is Bowie like in the way he has reinvented himself musically isn't a ludicrous claim.

Just because Damon Albarn hasn't put on glittery makeup and called himself Ziggy Stardust doesn't make it any more ludicrous either.
 
Plugger35 said:
Stating that Damon Albarn is Bowie like in the way he has reinvented himself musically isn't a ludicrous claim.

Just because Damon Albarn hasn't put on glittery makeup and called himself Ziggy Stardust doesn't make it any more ludicrous either.
Click to expand...

I think you're seriously underestimating Bowie, and seriously overstating the impact of Damon Albarn.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Remove this Banner Ad

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Back
Top Bottom