Welcome to my longest newsletter ever. Inspired by the cynical cash grab that is the Oasis reunion, I’ve decided to look back on the last great decade of UK rock/indie rock music in order to try to narrow down the more than two dozen quality bands from that era to a top ten that I would recommend to younger music fans. This is also an attempt to rank these artists based on what has held up best for me the over the decades, not what I loved the most at the time.
Let’s start with a nice, even list of 20 bands from that era that I like or love, in alphabetical order, and then we can analyze from there:
The Auteurs
Belle & Sebastian
Blur
The Boo Radleys
Catherine Wheel
The Charlatans UK
The La’s
Manic Street Preachers
Oasis
Ocean Colour Scene
Pulp
Radiohead
Ride
Spiritualized
Suede (aka the London Suede)
Super Furry Animals
Supergrass
Teenage Fanclub
Tindersticks
Verve
The only rule I used to exclude certain bands is that their debut album had to come out in the 90s: my sincerest apologies to My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, and Happy Mondays (I like Primal Scream the best of these in case you were wondering). And by restricting the list to 20, I ended up having to cut a few bands I genuinely like including Cast and Cornershop. I tried hard with Swervedriver during the pandemic after one of my trusted musical confederates raved to me about them, but couldn’t quite get there. This may be a moral failing on my part. Last and least, I never cared about Inspiral Carpets, Lush, or Curve and still don’t.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s begin, shall we? The first band from this list that I know isn’t top ten for me (and would in fact rank 20th) is Manic Street Preachers. Massively successful in the UK, having sold over 10 million albums, these Welsh rockers were also critics darlings (their “best of” is called National Treasures), but they never made it in the U.S. And I think I know why: they were a political band whose political grievances only made sense in a UK context. My favorite album of theirs is 1996’s Everything Must Go (the one after their lyricist/guitarist Richey James literally disappeared, never to be found). And I like another 8-10 of their songs. But if I’m being honest, I probably prefer both Cast and Cornershop.
Next on the chopping block is Catherine Wheel, whose song “Black Metallic” was everywhere in 1992. But that’s not what made a fan out of me: it was seeing them play live at the Virgin Megastore on Sunset here in Los Angeles to promote their mostly excellent 1997 album Adam & Eve. While this remains the only album of theirs I care about, I’ve found that most people don’t know it. If that includes you, I highly recommend checking it out. You’ll thank me.
The only other band on this list that it’s easy for me to eliminate as a top ten contender is Ride. The primary reason is that I don’t love any of their albums. But I do love an album’s worth of songs scattered across their first three albums.
The next band I will sadly have to eliminate is the La’s for never following up their perfect eponymous 1990 debut album. Unforgivable. They could have been one of the great UK bands not just of the 90s, but ever. Singer/songwriter Lee Mavers turned out to be a nutter (as they say in the UK). I was very lucky to get to see them perform live at Tower Records on Sunset. I felt like I was seeing the Beatles at the Cavern Club in Liverpool in 1962-3. They were that good. I got so carried away I ended up smoking a joint with them in the stock room after the show and getting Mavers to sign my t-shirt, which I still have 34 years later.
Okay, that leaves 16 UK bands from the 90s competing for ten slots, and then I’ll try to rank them in order of preference from 10-1. Spoiler: Radiohead will be #1.
The Charlatans (who had to call themselves the Charlatans UK in the U.S. because of a pre-existing band with that name) and Ocean Colour Scene are tied for 15-16. The former released six albums in the 90s (the first in 1990, the last in 1999, making them a truly 90s band). Their debut non-LP single, “The Only One I Know,” is such a stunning imitation of the Stone Roses’ masterpiece debut album from the year before that I sometimes forget it’s not the Stone Roses. After several more memorable singles brought diminishing returns, their keyboardist died in 1996, and they reinvented themselves as a Dylan/Stones pastiche-y band on their 1997 classic Tellin’ Stories, even cheekily writing their own song called “You’re a Big Girl Now.” For me, they peaked with their next album, 1999’s Us and Us Only. And then they faded into obscurity in the 2000s, though their 2001 album, Wonderland, is definitely worth hearing.
Ocean Colour Scene is more of a pastiche of the Beatles and the Who, and their one-two punch, Mosely Shoals (1996) and One from the Modern (1999), are a knockout.
The remaining 14 bands on the list is where it gets tough for me, but I’ll start with The Verve. Urban Hymns (1997) brought them fame and fortune, and deservedly so, but it also brought a lawsuit from the Rolling Stones, for “borrowing” the string arrangement on “Bittersweet Symphony” which they lost and which broke up the band. The album before, A Northern Soul (1995) is where it began for me. Good band with an insanely charismatic lead singer, Richard Ashcroft, who went on to enjoy limited solo success.
Now, this is where it gets fun for me, because I’m here to tell you that Oasis are the 13th best UK band of the 90s, albeit the most famous and best selling by far. Their music has not held up that well for me. Other than “Live Forever” off their first album and “Don’t Look Back in Anger” off their massive second album, I’m not sure I love any of their songs. And they are more famously derivative of the Beatles than probably any other band. Don’t get me wrong: I like most of the songs on those first two albums, but don’t love them, and their third album, Be Here Now, is a cocaine-drenched, headache inducing nightmare. The first three songs on that album are terrible. Oddly, the b-sides, “Stay Young,” “The Fame,” and “Flashbax” are better than anything on the album (with the possible exception of “Stand by Me” and “Don’t Go Away”). I would ask, “what happened?”, but I’ve already answered my own question: no, not “Cigarettes & Alcohol,” more like hookers and blow. And then it’s all down hill from there until the 2005 album. Bottom line: Oasis are the most overrated UK band of the 90s by a lot. I am willing to die on this hill.
I love the last 12 bands on the list without qualification. Which is to say, incredibly, there were 12 truly excellent UK bands in the 90s. There haven’t been half that many in the last two decades.
So please understand these next two “eliminations” in that context. I loved the first three Supergrasss albums (released from 1995-99) at the time. And I would still recommend all three to just about any rock/pop fan. The debut, I Should Coco, may be the best record ever made by teenagers. And the second, In it For the Money, was a quantum leap forward. And if you’ve never heard “Jesus Came From Outer Space” from their eponymous third, you must. Both thrilling and hilarious. A rare combo. But I haven’t listened to these album (or their other three from the 2000s) as much as certain albums by any of the bands that follow.
I decided to rate Suede (aka the London Suede) one micro-dose higher than Supergrass, because Suede recorded four albums in the 90s, and I love them all. Okay, I only love half of the second album, Dog Man Star (1994), but let’s keep that between us. Suede’s eponymous debut album was insanely over-hyped and yet somehow equal to the hype. A 90s glam rock masterpiece. But the unlikely surprise were the two insanely addictive albums that followed the first two, after Brett Anderson (vocals) and Bernard Butler (guitar) split: Coming Up (1997) and Head Music (1999). In some ways, Brett Anderson became the new Morrissey.
Okay, enough foreplay: following are the top ten UK bands of the 90s according to moi:
(10) Tindersticks: this Labor Day weekend extravaganza of a Substack was worth doing if only to highlight the excellence of this band, who are little known in the U.S. Like Spiritualized (see below), they owe a debt to the Velvet Underground, but this is their only common ancestor. They are otherwise very different bands. Tindersticks released four albums in the 90s. I was completely obsessed with all of them at the time and still think the first two, both eponymous, are sui generis and bonafide masterworks. These albums are not for everyone, not because they’re difficult, but because they’re sophisticated like Love’s Forever Changes (an unfair comp) and Scott Walker (a closer comp). But everyone needs to hear their duet with Carla Torgerson from the Walkabouts called “Travelling Light” from the second album. Moves me to tears. Top ten duet of all time.
(9) The Boo Radleys: first, how cool that a UK band named themselves after a character from To Kill a Mockingbird? Second, have you heard Giant Steps? No? Then you haven’t heard the best UK album of 1993. The Cure meets Brian Wilson meets shoegaze meets noise pop. Heavenly. I also love their most commercial album, Wake Up! (1995) that followed at the height of Britpop-mania. But I seem to be alone in my affection for their last album, Kingsize (1998). I think tracks 2, 5, and 6-14 are all very high level pop songs. However, “Free Huey” (the single) did not do them any favors. And I say last album, even though there have been two new Boo Radleys albums this decade, because those are fake Boo Radleys albums. Martin Carr was the songwriting genius who wrote all the songs on their first five albums in the 90s, and he had nothing whatsoever to do with the new albums. So don’t believe the hype!
(8) The Auteurs: four damn near perfect records from singer/songwriter Luke Haines and his gang. Their debut, New Wave, is the third best UK album of 1993 (behind only Giant Steps and the first Tindersticks). But over the years, I’ve decided their third, After Murder Park, is probably the one I love best. Brilliant, sometimes morbid lyrics over highly melodic guitar pop. The dark, even gothic end of the Britpop spectrum.
(7) Spiritualized rose like a phoenix from the ashes of Jason Pierce’s (aka Jason Spaceman’s) first band, Spaceman 3 (w/Pete Kember aka Sonic), a Velvet Underground-influenced UK psych rock band from the late 80s. And while I can definitely hear the seeds of Spiritualized on Pierce’s gems from those albums like “So Hot” from Playing With Fire (1989), nothing could prepare me for Spiritualized’s Lazer Guided Melodies (1992). A top 10 Velvet Underground album not recorded by the Velvets, it may also be the #1 headphones album of all time not recorded by Pink Floyd. If you’ve never heard this album, I recommend deleting the instrumental drone “Symphony Space” and then getting lost in the rest of it forever and never coming back.
The follow-up Pure Phase (1995) is more difficult. But the first two songs, “Medication” and “Slide Song,” and the equally remarkable “Let it Flow” and “Lay Back in the Sun,” expand on the sound of Lazer… in such an exciting way (gospel, horns, and everything else that would come to define the Spiritualized sound) that you ignore this album at your peril.
But it was their third album, Ladies and Gentlemen we are floating in space (1997) that guaranteed Spiritualized a place in the top tier of all UK bands, at least critically. It’s also Pierce’s first album that sold over 100,000 copies after a decade recording albums with two different bands in relative obscurity. And they’ve released six more often mind blowing albums in the 21st century as well. I know many people who would rate Spiritualized the best UK band of the last 30 years. I think the only reason I don’t love them that much is I find most of their albums inconsistently brilliant, and I give extra credit for consistency.
(6) Pulp: some of you will know that this is a huge cheat on my part, because Pulp released two terrible albums in the 80s (zero good songs). But no one knew them in the 80s, and you can’t do a survey of UK bands of the 90s and not include Pulp. Also, Pulp didn’t truly find their sound until their major label debut, 1994’s His n’ Hers, which allmusic calls “their de facto debut.” Even that is only half great. So why on earth do I rate them sixth? Because their next album, Different Class, is a stone cold classic by any measure. There are 4-5 songs most bands would kill for that didn’t even make the album. Download the deluxe edition if you haven’t already, and you’ll hear for yourself. And then the follow up, 1998s This is Hardcore, 13 songs in 65 minutes, squandered all the good will from the previous album by being overlong and about death (see “The Fear” and “Help the Aged”), but I loved it anyway. Also, because Pulp’s best of, Hits, is impossible not to love. Last, because Jarvis Cocker, Pulp’s legendary singer/lyricist, released two shockingly great solo albums in the 2000s, Jarvis (2006) and Further Complications (2009), both top 10 UK albums of the 2000s for me. And he wrote all the songs. He was really “the new Morrissey,” not Brett Anderson of Suede.
THE TOP 5 UK BANDS OF THE 90s ARE AS FOLLOWS:
(5) Belle & Sebastian: In some ways, these practitioners of clever, baroque indie pop win the second half of the 90s for me, because their first three albums, Tigermilk (1996), If You’re Feeling Sinister (1997), and The Boy With the Arab Strap (1998), combined with their collection of EPs, non-LP singles, and b-sides (mostly from that era), Push Barman to Open Old Wounds, have a staggering number of very fine songs on them. And they also released two of my favorite UK albums in the 2000s, Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003) and The Life Pursuit (2006). They are my second favorite Scottish band of the 90s (and perhaps ever).
(4) Super Furry Animals: If you don’t know this Welsh psych-pop band, they also came on strong in the back half of the 90s with their first three albums : Fuzzy Logic, Radiator, and Guerrilla. While 2001’s Rings Around the World is their masterpiece, the 20 best songs from these first three albums have kept me coming back year after year. And their singer and primary songwriter Gruff Rhys has released six consistently brilliant solo albums in the last 17 years (plus one in Welsh), including this year’s Sadness Sets Me Free. I am so blown away by his oeuvre that Rhys ranks in the top tier of all songwriters in the last 30 years for me. Which has probably distorted my ranking of his/SFA’s 90s work. Their compilation, Zoom! The Best of (1995-2016) may be the best way for you to dip your toe in the water.
(3) Teenage Fanclub: see my substack from last year, “The Best Ever Band from Scotland.” They are also my all-time favorite power pop band, ahead of even Big Star.
(2) Blur: in the war between Blur and Oasis, there is no contest. The depth and breadth of Blur’s work, musically and lyrically, blows Oasis away. This was true in the 90s (when four of their six albums were better than any Oasis album) and even more true now, as Blur’s two comeback albums (in 2015 and 2023) were both among the best albums released in those years. This is another hill I’d be happy to die on.
(1) Radiohead: there’s nothing I can say about Radiohead that hasn’t already been said. I loved them then; I still love them now. Top 10 UK band ever. Beatles/Kinks/Stones/Who/Zepp/Roxy Music/Echo & the Bunnymen/the Cure/the Smiths/Radiohead. I love New Order/Blur/Teenage Fanclub as much or more than some of those bands depending on the day.
Eager to hear everyone’s thoughts on what I got right, what I got wrong, and any great UK bands from the 90s I may have forgotten.
Don’t drink and drive this Labor Day!
I’m a big fan of the first (and third) Portishead and one of the Massive Attack albums, but I limited myself to rock and indie rock bands.
Or anything about the Bristol music scene?? Massive attack. Portishead? Big gaping hole here in your list.