Mr Albarn's Farrago or That Whole Britpop Issue
I must make it clear. Britpop was my coming of age, so I have a rose-tinted view of it. Most Britpop to me sounds like my own personal soundtrack to The Wonder Years, sometimes even the shit, tail end of it.
Basically, Britpop falls under two categories: Crimplenism (as dubbed by Select Magazine), which is effete and effeminate and dreaming, marked *C; and Fred Perry, which is laddish and loudmouthed, marked *F.
We'll (or I'll) start with the titans first: Blur*F then Oasis*F.
Blur have made some good albums, and a couple of excellent ones. Thus, the following are allowed or not:
Oasis: only Definitely Maybe. Perhaps What's The Story Morning Glory? in my more charitable moods.
Onwards with the other notables.
Elastica*F - both studio albums and Peel Sessions (lots of non-album cuts). Great.
Pulp*C - His & Hers and A Different Class deserve ownership. PulpIntro: The Gift Recordings and This Is Hardcore are nice to have. Older stuff on Fire Records, and We Love Life are unnecessary, being patchy.
Saint Etienne*C - Everything up to but not including The Sound of Water is fabulous. The masterpieces are Fox Base Alpha and So Tough. The rest is merely OK. The remixes are quite fantastic.
Suede*C - Only the first two albums.
Supergrass*F - I Should Coco is all you really need, if that.
On the fringe:
The Auteurs*C are great; Gene are patchy and karaoke Smiths, neither *C nor *F; Powder - no (neither *C nor *F, just crap); Delicatessen*F - no; Laxton's Superb*F - Laxton's Shite; Menswear*C - no; Heavy Stereo*F -no; Northern Uproar*F - ha! no. Denim*C - a bit head up arse, but I don't mind. Sleeper*F - only Smart and The It Girl. Boo Radleys*F - Wake Up! and Giant Steps only if I were you.
Basically, Britpop falls under two categories: Crimplenism (as dubbed by Select Magazine), which is effete and effeminate and dreaming, marked *C; and Fred Perry, which is laddish and loudmouthed, marked *F.
We'll (or I'll) start with the titans first: Blur*F then Oasis*F.
Blur have made some good albums, and a couple of excellent ones. Thus, the following are allowed or not:
Leisure - no, because two good singles do not make a good album.
Modern Life Is Rubbish - essential, due to it being the audio equivalent of a British Rendering of Douglas Coupland's Generation X novel.
Parklife - yes; MLIR Part II. Not essential, but nice.
The Great Escape - yes; aside from the terrible "Country House" and "Charmless Man" singles, there are some ace tracks on here, especially "The Universal" and "He Thought Of Cars".
Blur - yes. In short, it's not as good as people say, 'but it is a good album'.
13 - as above. "Tender" is shite though.
Think Tank - no. Why? Over thought and overwrought with crap tunes and crap lyrics.
Graham Coxon solo albums - one as a curiosity.
Gorillaz - both main albums. Remix albums are a bit of a no no here.
Damon Albarn's African Music album, perhaps called Mali Music - no. Damon Albarn is not Paul Simon. And I am a believer in the Graceland-is-not-a-good-album theory.
Oasis: only Definitely Maybe. Perhaps What's The Story Morning Glory? in my more charitable moods.
Onwards with the other notables.
Elastica*F - both studio albums and Peel Sessions (lots of non-album cuts). Great.
Pulp*C - His & Hers and A Different Class deserve ownership. PulpIntro: The Gift Recordings and This Is Hardcore are nice to have. Older stuff on Fire Records, and We Love Life are unnecessary, being patchy.
Saint Etienne*C - Everything up to but not including The Sound of Water is fabulous. The masterpieces are Fox Base Alpha and So Tough. The rest is merely OK. The remixes are quite fantastic.
Suede*C - Only the first two albums.
Supergrass*F - I Should Coco is all you really need, if that.
On the fringe:
The Auteurs*C are great; Gene are patchy and karaoke Smiths, neither *C nor *F; Powder - no (neither *C nor *F, just crap); Delicatessen*F - no; Laxton's Superb*F - Laxton's Shite; Menswear*C - no; Heavy Stereo*F -no; Northern Uproar*F - ha! no. Denim*C - a bit head up arse, but I don't mind. Sleeper*F - only Smart and The It Girl. Boo Radleys*F - Wake Up! and Giant Steps only if I were you.
posted by Marc at
8:34 PM
2 Comments:
yeah look, no more than one oasis album please, either of the two mentioned and "oh but i LOVED wonderwall" is not an excuse for owning anything else.
blur: maximum two, preferably including the great escape, but let's face it: a lot of their music is shite.
i will allow a scattering of muse albums, especially the first, and a near-on back catalogue of radiohead, as long as you can prove you aren't obsessed and haven't adopted radioheadisms in other aspects of your life, especially that unthinking "oh i just LOVE radiohead, they are untouchable, the new pink floyd" thing that so many of their fans sadly seem to adopt.
you should not have the 2nd stone roses album.
stereo mcs are innocuous enough, so the usual rules apply.
the levellers: none, and there is a crispian mills equation that rules out ownership of almost anything he is involved in... kula shaker should only be on burnt compilation CDs, as there is no need for a full album to get the three good tracks they have, oh shower your love on me indeed.
two supergrass albums will be fine, thanks very much, and pulp, hmmmm, pulp, i think no more than two, and only one if the potential partner dresses even remotely like jarvis cocker.
this britpop issue is exhausting, and this list is far from exhaustive, but i have to go.
I agree that one Oasis album is sufficient and clearly that must be "Definitely Maybe".
Also agree that a couple of Blur albums is probably enough and they must be "modern life" and "park life", though at a push I could make room for "thirteen" too.
Three pulp albums "His n hers", "different class" and the vastly underrated "this is hardcore" are a must, however "we love life" should be given an extremely wide berth.
Famine is too good for the following bands, some of which I had joyfully managed to blot from memory until now, and most of which are long gone presumably with big pay offs from altruistic benefactors unknown: Marion, Powder, Kula Shaker, Heavy Stereo (except "sleep freak which I confess to finding humalongable", Northern Uproar (oh Christ - why?), Denim and Space.
supergrass I think two is enough and they're probably the first too.
I'm with me old mucka Marc on The Auteurs, you must own the whole damn lot.
Nobodys mentioned The Longpigs. One of the great underrated bands of all time. For me both of their albums are a must.
Of the remainder you could make a case for one of those god awful "Shine" compilations as long as it had the following great songs from less than great bands "Time for the rest of your life" - strangelove and "slight return" bluetones. Now was that shine 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.......
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