#468: Supergrass - I Should Coco (1995)

Zack: As we’ve said many times before, there are way too many Britpop albums on this damn list. I Should Coco is yet another one, but it is one that I actually enjoyed. It actually bounced around in terms of tempo and sound. Some songs were almost punkish while others were all jingly and kind of modernized Kinks-esque. Many of the other Britpop bands just kind of made the same song over and over again, so it was great to get something that took the best parts of that genre and incorporated them into a broader array of sounds.

Favorite Tracks: Strange Ones; I’d Like to Know; Sofa (Of My Lethargy)

Emily: As I was listening to this album, I figured it would be another Britpop album that never made its way over the States. Perfectly pleasant, an opening act you'd be happy to see but not a band you'd ever go out of your way to hear. But then, a few songs in, a familiar tune started playing - the song Alright, which I instantly recognized from a commercial (though I couldn't remember which one - turns out it was for Frosted Mini-Wheats). It's a bouncy track, seemingly tailor-made for selling cereal. So it turns out that Supergrass is a fairly anonymous, pretty good '90s Britpop band getting that Kellogg's money. Good for them.
Favorite Tracks: I'd Like to Know; Strange Ones; Sofa (Of My Lethargy)

#446: Suede - Dog Man Star (1994)

Zack: I don’t really have much to say about this album, so I’m mostly just going to list facts and random thoughts. Suede are a 90s Britpop band. They were considered part of the “Big 4” Britpop bands, along with Oasis, Blur, and Pulp. Those four bands have 9 combined albums on the list, with Blur at 3 and everyone else with 2 each. We’ve now reviewed one albums by each, and none have really stood out. Of those four bands, Suede is the only one that I had never heard of before. So I think that makes Blur the Kevin Durant of this Big 4, Oasis the Steph Curry, Suede the Klay Thompson, and Pulp the Draymond Green. I just came up with that comparison on the fly and with very little thought, but I am not prepared to defend it with my life. Next time I see Emily’s friend Matt, I’m going to ask him his thoughts on the band Suede because I already am sure he has very strong opinions on this matter. Anyway, considering how often I have bemoaned the gross overrepresentation of Britpop on the list and considering I’d never even heard of the band, I found this album to be not terrible. It was kind of a fun listen, which is good enough to make it one of the least egregious Britpop album inclusions. So I guess I’m going to have to hammer Pulp whenever we get around back around to them to even things out a bit.

Favorite Tracks: The Asphalt World; The Wild Ones; This Hollywood Life

Emily: Once again, I don't understand why the creators of this list love mid-'90s Britpop so much. I had never heard of Suede before today, but apparently they were important enough to merit two albums on this list. Dog Man Star, the first Suede album we've tackled, was fine. A bit too long, but melodious and varied enough to hold my attention for the almost hour-long runtime. I sincerely doubt that this album will stick in mind, though, much past the time I hit "Publish" on this post. Perhaps I'll come back to this review when we encounter the next Suede album in a few hundred entries, but until then, Dog Man Star will be but a wisp in my memory.

Favorite Tracks: Still Life; The Wild Ones; New Generation

#396: Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)

Emily: Oasis songs are a staple of both alt-rock radio and mixtapes (or mix CDs) (or mix playlists? is that a thing?). Having never listened to this album in full before today, I nevertheless felt that most of the songs were familiar. The singles are played all the time on my favorite Philly radio station, even though at this point they're over 20 years old, so I know all the words by osmosis. And I definitely put Wonderwall on at least one mix CD in high school in order to "educate" a boyfriend about music - even though I only really liked that song and didn't care much about Oasis at all. So having made it this long without delving into a whole Oasis album, I don't really think I missed much. I will always love Wonderwall, and Champagne Supernova, Don't Look Back in Anger, and Some Might Say are very good/great Brit-pop-revival songs in their own right. I will continue to listen to those songs every time they come up on the radio, but that's really all of the Oasis I need.
Favorite Tracks: Wonderwall; Don't Look Back in Anger; Champagne Supernova

Zack: Sometime in high school, I decided I should try and get into Oasis. Wonderwall is an objectively perfect song, so I figured the rest of their catalogue was probably strong as well. So I checked a bunch of their CDs out from the library (seriously) and gave them a listen. One of them was (What’s the Story) Morning Glory. I found all of those CDs, this one included, consistently underwhelming. There would be a number of really strong songs – usually the singles – sandwiched between stuff that just smelled of filler. Like a few pieces of meat and cheese around just way too much lettuce. I gave them a fair number of listens, but I honestly have not listened to any full Oasis album since like freshman or sophomore year of college. Oasis albums are just kind of boring. My opinion has not fundamentally changed with the years either. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? is just as I remember it. There are a handful of awesome songs – Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova, and Don’t Look Back in Anger are the standouts in my opinion – with a bunch of fluff around them. Hell, even the rest of the singles, especially Roll with It, are pretty middling. What’s interesting is that my apathy toward Oasis isn’t necessarily a statement on Britpop in general either. I’m pretty fond of Blur and The Verve, for example. And this album was a big enough deal that I have no qualms about it being included here. I thought this album mattered enough to listen to it around the same time that I was getting super into Hendrix, the Who, and the Rolling Stones, and that probably means that it had a really powerful moment in the cultural sun. But, man. Oasis is just way overvalued and overrated. This album especially.

Favorite Tracks: Wonderwall; Champagne Supernova; Don’t Look Back in Anger

#351: The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps (1993)

Zack: The Boo Radleys have one thing going for them for sure: the greatest band name in the history of forever. No one is topping that. Beyond that, they also now bare the distinction of being my favorite shoegaze band, a distinction they earned mostly by just not being My Bloody Valentine (we’ll get to them in due time, but seriously I do not like My Bloody Valentine or 90% of the shoegaze music I’ve come across). Giant Steps was, in my opinion, a pretty good album, but I didn’t think it went much beyond that. Almost every song rests upon a foundation of light, jingling acoustic guitar. Sometimes, this foundation is pierced by a powerful electric guitar. That’s when The Boo Radleys hit their stride. Whenever that guitar is absent, Giant Steps become too complacent. It becomes too shoegaze. It’s a fine line, but that was the main difference between me vocally loathing this album and me appreciating it. That, and that killer name.

Favorite Tracks: Leaves and Sand; Upon 9^th and Fairchild; Barney (…And Me)

Emily: I actually listened to this album about a week ago. I've been walking to my summer job in DC every day, so I have 20 minutes or so each way to get some music in. Well, except when it's raining, or I'm carrying coffee, or if I don't have a pocket, or if I walk with my roommate... Okay, there's a lot of times when I haven't been listening to music on my walks, and that explains why it took me about 3 days to actually finish listening to Giant Steps. It's a long album, for one, and various walk interruptions just got in the way. And it wasn't like I was clamoring to keep listening to it. I kinda just didn't get the appeal of this album. It felt like it was supposed to be a concept album, but the concept just didn't come through. The best moments were those that borrowed more from rock and pop, and steered away from the kinda boring shoegaze sound. Here's hoping, though, that my next few walking soundtracks are a bit more interesting than the multiple days I spent with the Boo Radleys.

Favorite Tracks: If You Want It, Take It; Lazarus; Butterfly McQueen

#321: Super Furry Animals - Fuzzy Logic (1996)

Zack: The first time I listened to this album was on my final night in my old apartment, sometime between the hours of “shit there’s no way I’m going to finish packing tonight” and “fuck, fuck, fuck.” With all the running around I was doing at the time, I didn’t really have a chance to formulate a good opinion on this album, so I put off writing my review for another day. That day just so happened to be on my first day of class for the spring semester. More specifically, it was on my walk to school, in the snow, at 8 a.m., while barely awake, and I think uphill both ways on this one-way journey. One thing I picked up on was that the album felt very psychedelic and sunshine-y as I initially left, which was right in tune with my naïve optimism about the start of the semester. As I neared my office, and I began to get colder and colder, the music seemed to take a more morose turn. I may be doing a bit of projecting, though. In general, after two – perhaps unfair – listens, I came away with the distinct impression that this is another one of those British albums that is just fine I guess but doesn’t really make sense for inclusion on this list. Fuzzy Logic is a good album. If I was hanging out with some people and someone played this, I would certainly not be upset. And it’s certainly worth checking out if you’re particularly into Britpop. But being unoffensive and vaguely cool isn’t the same as being one of the (1001) best albums, and I’m straining to see the logic of including it here. Hopefully their other album on this list changes my mind.
Favorite Tracks: Something for the Weekend; Hangin’ With Howard Marks; If You Don’t Want Me to Destroy You

Emily: Although I didn't listen to this album in the cold or while packing but rather while working on an edit from the warm comfort of the law review office, I tend to agree with Zack about this album. It is a bright and fun pop-psychedelic album, but wasn't anything special much beyond that. It sounded like an opening-act band, or an early-afternoon-on-a-secondary-stage festival band. You listen to it because it's there, and you tap your toes and wiggle your hips a little, but you're not about to buy a CD or a ticket to see them headline a too-small club show. Fuzzy Logic is a fun diversion, well-suited to the band's cuddly moniker, but not something I'll remember all that well.

Favorite Tracks: God! Show Me Magic; Bad Behaviour; Long Gone

#276: The Verve - Urban Hymns (1997)

Zack: Emily and I have a disagreement over whether or not The Verve are a one-hit wonder, a disagreement that may stem from the fact that she has worshipped at the gospel of Vh1 too long or because I severely overrate the quality of Love Is Noise. It went to No. 1…in Ireland. Okay, point taken. But the real point is that Bitter Sweet Symphony is a bitchin song and they went ahead and put that first, daring you to try and listen to the other 11 without doubling back and listen to those strings in the world’s most brass- and woodwind-less symphony. If you can get past that, it’s totally worth doing so. Not every song on this album is a winner, but there are plenty that can jump out at you during even a casual listen.

Favorite Tracks: Bitter Sweet Symphony; Weeping Willow; One Day

Emily: I was surprised to learn that The Verve, like many others on this list, have a whole album that's more than just the famous single over and over again. However, I think an album of Bitter Sweet Symphony played 12 times in a row would be preferably to the rest of Urban Hymns. It wasn't a bad album, just dull. Bitter Sweet Symphony starts it out on a high note with its iconic strings and hummable melody. From there, though, I just got bored. A few songs briefly picked up my interest, but they all seemed to blend together after a while. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood for an evening of Urban Hymns, but I think The Verve should've just stuck with their one-hit strategy.

Favorite Tracks: Bitter Sweet Symphony; Space and Time; Velvet Morning

#134: The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (1989)

Zack: I didn’t expect this album to sound so…British. I mean, yeah I knew it was a bunch of Brits playing, but it just sounded like an American stereotype of a British person playing music. You know, Big Ben, bad teeth, jolly good and whatnot. This album was so British it spells color with a “u.” I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. The rampant UK-centrism displayed by the list has been well discussed and, if memory serves, well documented. If not, then I’m documenting it here. This list is rampantly UK-centric. Happy Mondays, Supergrass, and The Verve each have two albums. Each! Can anyone even name two songs by any of those bands? Let’s see…Bittersweet Symphony and…and….uh….. Yeah, I thought so. But anyway, back to The Stoune Roses (note: I would have done that with Roses but it would have just made Rouses which is an actual word, unlike that fake Britishy word). It was certainly good. I like it enough and I will probably relisten in the near future. I’ve even listened to a few of the tracks I especially liked again already. But it sort of felt like a simple mash-up of British Invasion along with the soon-to-be created Britpop. Apparently, that’s called Madchester, a reflection of how much the British love their clever wordplay. And it’s pretty cool, I guess. Once I understood how Britishy it was, I immediately put on a kettle to make some English Breakfast tea, assuming that it would be necessary to truly unlock the layers of awesomeness that I had been led to believe was this album. I didn’t feel like it enhanced it all that much. Maybe it’s because drinking English breakfast tea while listening to a Britishy album is a superficial enhancement and does not alter the music or the mood you are in while listening to it in any way. Or maybe it’s because there wasn’t anything to really unlock. It is what it is. And that is a heaping plate of audial fish and chips.

Favorite Tracks: Made of Stone; I Am the Resurrection; She Bangs the Drums

Emily: I thought I was really going to love The Stone Roses. The album came highly recommended from more than one musical authority. Okay, just from a couple friends whose musical tastes I admire. And, of course, from Wikipedia, an ever-important guide on our musical mission. The Stone Roses were critically acclaimed pretty much right from the start, with some critics even calling their self-titled debut “the greatest British album of all time.” Now, there’s no way I could ever agree with that statement, but praise that high certainly gave me some high hopes. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. That’s not to say it’s not a good album. It definitely is, and I enjoyed listening to it. However, I kept waiting for the music to blow me away with fantasticness, and that just didn’t happen. It was much more understated and nuanced than I expected, so maybe the supposed greatness of The Stone Roses just doesn’t come through upon one listen. Maybe I bought too much into the hype, but I enjoyed the music enough to give it another shot – and perhaps then I’ll find greatness.

Favorite Tracks: She Bangs the Drums; Bye Bye Badman; Made of Stone