My 200 Favourite British Songs June 1993-June 1998

I often return to this era. I can't help it. I'm not the only one who returns to it. There are no shortage of regular, quasi-revisionist retrospectives of Britpop, or Cool Britannia, or whatever thy call it, but I do feel they all tap the same cliches and fail to do justice to the music. They always ask the people who were close to the action, who were too invested, or scarred, who have an angle, a point to prove, a distance to keep.

They don't seem to ask people who were just simple, as-yet-undamaged fans, unless it's fans of Oasis saying it was one big moment of history, man.

There's a point to be made. Just that it was good, actually, the music, whatever it was. Not bad. What's the best way to really say the music was, whatever the limitations history and context puts on it, good? And no more limited, no more inbred, really, than any specific moment in time.

I thought, initially, I'd make a list of favourite albums of the era, because albums are a good way to show depth in strength. But I, obviously, just wouldn't be able to justice to a lot of artists. I didn't buy many albums then, in truth. Couldn't afford to. I bought compilations, made my own tapes, listened to the radio, read NME, listened to NME comps, borrowed from friends, watched music TV, and bought what I thought was the cream of the crop. That's how it worked back then. Now I listen to so many more albums than I did then, but I don't think I really know the music of now anywhere near as well.

For those years, I really know the songs but not the albums, so songs it will be. I'm calling it my 200 favourites, though there'll be a bit more sculpting to it than that. If it were really my 200 favourites of that five year period, there'd be 25 Blur songs and 20 Super Furry Animals songs. And it would probably look as mundane and narrow as most people think the era is anyway.

So I'll pick carefully. Firstly, there'll be a maximum five by any artist. And there'll be a place for songs I loved then, now and every year in between, a place for pop songs I scorned at the time, for cool stuff I didn't really understand, and for overtly of-its-time stuff I'd left behind which, when I think of it, gives me a bit of a heady rush.

These are the years when I'm 15 to 20, you know what I mean. There'll be some average music that really strikes the secret chord, and I'll not hide from it here. Even at the time, I thought I was too cool for the ersatz nostalgia of The Day We Caught the Train by Ocean Colour Scene, but it turns out I wasn't. It turns out it was talking about me, taking the Piccadilly line home from school on one of the last days of school in summer 1996.

That's why the list needs to be 200, to include specific stuff but make it clear I've got, you know, discernment. At 153 - it's Female of the Species by Space. But at 3, it's ... you know ... something a bit better.

What do they say about the B*****p era anyway? That's it's a monoculture, a misogynistic, jingoistic, unimaginative monoculture. And that's what everyone who was a part of it now says. Oh, we hated it, they say. We felt so uncomfortable with it, our sold out tours, our top 20 singles. 

They don't get to not be a part of it, because they were a part of my experience if it, just another boy reading the NME, ready to be into music. 

It fell into my lap - I, a limited, overly serious teenager, who liked, or thought I might like, Madness, The Jam, The Beatles, Blondie, Queen, Bob Dylan and Bowie.  Apart from Queen, those artists were all writ large over the time, they were all completely welcome and intrinsic. Of course I was going to like it.

There was a boy at school I'd talk with about music, a boy who was genuinely musical, and cool in his way, and had a femininity to him I was nowhere near, and he was into Portishead, Tricky, Bjork, Garbage, Madonna, and he'd indulgently tell me if he happened to quite like a Blur single. and maybe, if I'd been five years older, that's the stuff I'd have been into, but because I wasn't at the time, I find it hard to retrospectively go back to it and love it. I love the 2002 Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man album, but somehow the business of not being into Portishead at the time stays with me. There we go.

So, where do we begin? Well, five years is a nice round time period, being the centre of the decade depending on how you look at it. We're missing the first Suede album, we're actually missing Modern Life is Rubbish, just about (which is handy for narrowing down the Blur selections, because, jesus, Blur were good then, as we'll get to). 

I wanted to make sure Weller's Wild Wood was within the time period, because that's a very significant album for my joining things up, and there were quite a few things in the first half of 1998 I also wanted to make sure were in.

So, this is the era and it will contain everything. It will contain some oddities. Common People usually tops these lists, but it will be nowhere near the top of mine. I'm no nearer to loving it than 27 years ago. Nor the Spice Girls. Still won't admit that.

I will, of course, have missed plenty. The odd classic unsung single and many great album tracks. It's British, so no Nirvana obviously, also no Cave or Imbruglia, no U2 or Air, but yes to Ash and the Divine Comedy. I've been through plenty of lists, been through the Now albums, and the Top 10 singles. This is my truth. Don't tell me yours. That came out in September 98, so too late, anyway. 

I'll write little explanations here and there, when the mood takes me.

200. Free As a Bird - The Beatles

Cracking little Britpop band, the Beatles. Funny production, mind. Couple of hits and then what happened to them ...

199. Heather - Slushfund

Not the Beatles. The band I went to see when I was at school. Friends with the drummer. Couple of pretty good songs, actually.

198. Back for Good - Take That

What an enormous deal this was! I mean, wasn't it?

197. Walk Like a Champion - Kaliphz ft Prince Naseem Hamed

I think I could find 198 songs I like better than this if I was being wholly serious, but there we go. This is Prince Naseem Hamed, when he was still a walking legend. Didn't crack the Top 20, mind.

196. No God Only Religion - Spiritualized

195. Everyone Says You're So Fragile - Idlewild

Just to show that the era extends to early Idlewild. Idlewild would become very good, I think.

194. Black White - Asian Dub Foundation

This was great. I only remember hearing it in snatches, in passing, and thinking "This is great!"

193. Things Can Only Get Better - D.Ream

Or, on the other hand, can they get worse?

192. Dream on Dreamer - Brand New Heavies

191. Tubthumping - Chumbawamba

I mean, to be honest, I hate this, there's no way I like it more than any Idlewild song, but I just feel it's a bit obligatory.

190. Rocks - Primal Scream

189. Just a Step from Heaven - Eternal

I find I've quite a soft spot for quite a few Eternal singles.

188. Line Up - Elastica

187. A Girl Like You - Edwyn Collins

I love Edwyn Collins in general but, funnily enough, I never really loved this song. Certainly evocative, though.

186. Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve

Another big Number 2.

185, Meet Ze Monsta - PJ Harvey

It happens to be the fact that my favourite songs by this great artist fall either before or after this time period.

184. Patio Song - Gorky's Zygnotic Mynci

183. Setting Sun - Chemical Brothers ft Noel Gallagher

182. Love City Groove - Love City Groove

This was a terrible song, but it plays around in my head, so it's here.

181. Your Woman - White Town

This was a cool song to go to Number 1 really. 

180. Smile - The Supernaturals

One of those slightly insufferable post-Britpop songs which is, you know, quite fun really.

179. Sorted for Es and Whizz - Pulp

178. Candy Pop - Bis

177. Weak - Skunk Anansie

176. Karmacoma - Massive Attack

175. Lucky You - Lightning Seeds

174. You Gotta Be - Des'ree

Quite nice, the Des'ree songs, weren't they?

173. Ten Storey Love Song - The Stone Roses

172. One Night in Heaven - M People

171. In the Meantime - Spacehog

170. Dreams - Gabrielle

169. One Night Stand - The Aloof

168. Tattva - Kula Shaker

I can't conceive of hearing this song in any but one month of my life, but it exists and there's, I suppose, an alternative world where it didn't seem instantly ridiculous.

167. Strangers When We Meet - David Bowie

Bowie did weird stuff in the 90s and this was a nice song.

166. Insomnia - Faithless

165. Dog's Got a Bone - The Beta Band

An early highlight on their inevitable, unsabotageable path to global superstardom.

164. What Do I Do Now? - Sleeper

163. Tricky Kid - Tricky

162. Female of the Species - Space

161. The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind) - Bucketheads

Before they were Lords.

160. Wonderwall - Oasis

Fuck it, I could have put this at Number 1. Doesn't really matter, does it?

159. Missing - Everything But the Girl

158. She Cries Your Name - Beth Orton

157. Beautiful Night - Paul McCartney

156. Not so Manic Now - Dubstar

155. Staying Out for the Summer - Dodgy

Dodgy's reputation did not endure, but this has a wistful sweetness to it. And Dodgy, describing East 17's 'Stay Another Day' in their guest appearance on the Time Out singles reviews, introduced me to the phrase "sappy cack" so I've always had a soft spot for them.

154. Don't Be a Stranger - Dina Carroll

153. For Whom the Bell Tolls - The Bee Gees

152. Se a Vida e - Pet Shop Boys

151. Travelling Light - Tindersticks

150. Don't Come Home Too Soon - Del Amitri

One of the better football songs of the era.

149. Open Up - Leftfield

148. Boom Shack-a-Lak - Apache Indian

147. Upfield - Billy Bragg

146. A Thousand Trees - Stereophonics

Beloved of Bob Dylan, the Stereophonics. Have never really understand how their early songs were poignant and promising and everything thereafter just seemed so blunt. But I genuinely liked this.

145. Heroes - Roni Size and Reprazent

144. Looking for Love - Alison Limerick

143. 12 Reasons Why I Love Her - My Life Story

142. 7 Seconds - Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour

Cos there's a miiiiilion voices ...

141. Marblehead Johnson - The Bluetones

I always thought this was a very good, somewhat overlooked, song.

140. Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out - Freak Power

Bit of fun, after all.

139. History - The Verve

Bit overrated this, but it's ok.

138. Remember Me - Blueboy

137. I Was Born on Christmas Day - St Etienne ft Tim Burgess

136. Just Looking - ~The Charlatans

135.Wandering Star - Portishead

134. Trouble - Shampoo

133. Kiss from a Rose - Seal

It was either this or Over My Shoulder by Mike and the Mechanics, you know. 

132. Untouchable - Rialto

Rialto were one of those "oh, this is good" bands for whom nothing really took off.

131. Alright - Supergrass

I have a renewed fondness for this. It has a timelessness not all the big songs of the era have.

130. Roy - Animals that Swim

"That Presley was the dumbest shit I ever met"

129. No one Speaks - Geneva

128. Independent Love Song - Scarlet

127. Fine Time - Cast

126. The Rockefeller Skank - Fatboy Slim

125. Just When You're Thinking Things Over - The Charlatans

There are a lot of Charlatans songs that are as good as each other, but I always rather loved this one.

124. Local Boy in the Photograph - Stereophonics

123. Common People - Pulp

Well, there we are, sorry.

122. Sweetness - Michelle Gayle

It is officially established now that Sweetness by Michelle Gayle is a better song of the Britpop era than Common People by Pulp.

121. Round Are Way - Oasis

120. Reverend Black Grape - Black Grape

119. Down that Road - Shara Nelson

118. I'm Not Alone - Bernard Butler

117. Firestarter - The Prodigy

116. Three Lions - Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds

115. Save Our Love - Eternal

114. Broken Heart - Spiritualized

There's a lot from this phenomenal album I can't quite detach from itself, but I do love a bit of Broken Heart.

113. She's the One for Me - The Beta Band

112. Slam Dunk (Da Funk) - 5ive

I don't think I'm serious, but I do just love the title of this song, at the very least.

111. Kings of the Kerb - Echobelly

110. Lift - Radiohead

109. Teardrop - Massive Attack

108. Connection - Elastica

107. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead

106. Sometimes - James

105. Milk- Garbage

104. Let's Get Ready to Rhumble - PJ & Duncan

103. Wake Up Boo - The Boo Radleys

102. Wild Wood - Paul Weller

101. Jesus to a Child - George Michael

100. Babe - Take That

Getting to the serious stuff, now.

99. You've Got a Lot to Answer For - Catatonia

98. Return of the Mack - Mark Morrison

He's back. The Mack! He's back! As if he never went away, he's back, he's back, he's back today, the Mack.

97. You Do - McAlmont and Butler

Remember the name!

96. Lost Myself - The Longpigs

95. Caught by the Fuzz - Supergrass

94. Fireworks - Embrace

Ok, brace yourselves, we're entering post-britpop dadrock central.

93. The Day We Caught the Train - Ocean Colour Scene

I don't know why the decision was made that Ocean Colour Scene were beyond the pale, but it was. 

92. The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get - Morrissey

This fucking guy. I'd say this title has turned out not to be true.

91. Going Out - Supergrass

90. Inbetweener - Sleeper

I rewatched the rather stilted 'Britpop Now' special from 1995, and it was a little uninspiring, but it certainly struck me that this stood out as a tune.

89. Creep - Radiohead

It kind of doesn't fall within the time frame, but just about does.

88. A Little Soul - Pulp

87. Sour Times - Portishead

86. Space Cowboy - Jamiroquai

85. Born Slippy - Underworld

84. For Now and Ever - Super Furry Animals

83. Road Rage - Catatonia

82. Come Out 2Nite - Kenickie

81. Time Passes - Paul Weller

80. Stay Together - Suede

79. Fighting Fit - Gene

78. Shine - Aswad

The crowd is roaring, Ian Wright's scoring.

77. Funky Days are Back Again - Cornershop

76. Ladykillers - Lush

75. You Made Me Forget My Dreams - Belle and Sebastian

They just poured out of him back then.

74. Summertime - The Sundays

73. Even After All - Finley Quaye

When I think of this, it seems to have a huge sadness to it.

72. Pull the Wires from the Wall - The Delgados

Some of their best work was still to come. The Delgados were so good, but really they're Scotland 96-01, not Britain 93-98.

71. Don't Look Back - Teenage Fanclub

This is a great album. You could pick 5 or 6 from it.

70. Never Ever - All Saints

I remember this was on the radio the day Michael Hutchence died. I was in a car from Edinburgh to Derbyshire. I said to myself "one day, I'm going to call this my 70th favourite song of the half-decade which is drawing to a close".

69. Waking Up - Elastica

68. El President - Drugstore

67. Renegade Master - Wildchild

66. Girl from Mars - Ash

65. Walkaway - Cast

Again, just an inexplicable soft spot for this one.

64. Faster - Manic Street Preachers

63. Lazarus - Boo Radleys

62. Protection - Massive Attack

61. Beetlebum - Blur

60. Slight Return - The Bluetones

59. Stay Young - Oasis

This was the b-side to a much worse song and the last good Oasis song.

58. Karma Police - Radiohead

57. It's Alright - East 17

This is just joy isn't it? Just silly silly joy.

56. Speak To Me, Someone - Gene

55. Always - Erasure

This song reminds me of a Wednesday night, watching Sportsnight, seeing highlights of Jason McAteer scoring a hat-trick for Bolton.

54. She's Got Spies - Super Furry Animals

I don't know what to do with the Furries, really. Like I said, if I was really choosing my actual 200 favourite songs of the era, then every single song from Fuzzy Logic and Radiator, and a bit extra, would be there. I'm not really sure if I mean She's Got Spies. it could be Hometown Unicorn, or Mountain People, or any of them.

53. A Life Less Ordinary - Ash

Ash had such a rollercoaster, so quickly. I don't even know if this song was part of their first up or their first down.

52. Monday Morning, 5.19 - Rialto

51. Sunflower - Paul Weller

There used to be a way I'd say "Wild Wood is a really good album" which I could tell, even then, was marking me out as a bore for decades to come.

50. Glory Box - Portishead

49. This is Yesterday - Manic Street Preachers

48. Sun Hits the Sky - Supergrass

I remember a lovely little NME article in the summer of 1997 saying that if Supergrass were bad, like Oasis, not good, like Supergrass, the lyric to this would be "Sun hits the sky and I don't know why".

47. Still Life - Suede

46. This is a Low - Blur

45. Ocean Drive - The Lighthouse Family

Honestly, I don't care. I'd have Stars by Simply Red if I could.

44. Life Becoming a Landslide - Manic Street Preachers

Loved this, loved it, for a while.

43. Lazy Line Painter Jane - Belle and Sebastian

42. For the Dead - Gene

I warn that things are now going to stop being a little bit eclectic and fun and tail towards a certain kind of thing I like. It was fun while it lasted though I guess.

41. No Surprises - Radiohead

No surprises.

40. Give Me a Little More Time - Gabrielle

Ha ha! Except this one!

39. Live Forever - Oasis

38. Nothing Lasts Forever - Echo and the Bunnymen

37. Everybody Knows That I Love You - The Divine Comedy

36. Bluetonic - The Bluetones

Perhaps this is the "ultimate" "Britpop" "song" for all the good and bad that implies.

35. He Thought of Cars - Blur

34. Demons - Super Furry Animals

33. Yes - Manic Street Preachers.

Yes way.

32. Something Changed - Pulp

I just love this song. In that this is my favourite Pulp song by a large mile, I think you can tell that I am not a cool, quirky fun guy.

31. The Wild Ones - Suede

30. The Man Don't Give a Fuck - Super Furry Animals

29. The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve

The Verve were such a big deal for a wee while. They emerged from a brief hiatus like they were already the biggest band, and everyone fell for it. The album Urban Hymns was a huge seller. I found it pretty boring really, but this song still works, just seems to have a real empathy to it.

28. The Deal - Stephen Duffy

27. Sweeping the Nation - Spearmint

26. Verisimilitude - Teenage Fanclub

25. Punka - Kenickie

Kenickie seemed like they were so close to being massive. Perhaps the world is a better place for that not happening, but this song is such fun. How can you top this?

24. Kung Fu - Ash

Or this?

23. All This Useless Beauty - Elvis Costello

One for the dads.

22. Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying - Belle and Sebastian

21. My Wandering Days Are Over - Belle and Sebastian

This may be the most perfect B and S song.

20. Ain't that Enough - Teenage Fanclub

Some of this music is, for me, so precisely placed. This is East Sands in St Andrews, autumn 97, bit of sun.

19. Best Days - Blur

It's weird that I've got two songs from The Great Escape and neither of them is The Universal (in truth, I had the universal at about 80 but had to shunt it out cos that was too much blur). The Great Escape is the only one of Blur's run of four albums in less than four years from 93 to 97 which is not perfectly realised, the one which is self-evidently faulty. But it has some great, great songs on it. Blur were just really an excellent band then.

18. Faded Glamour - Animals that Swim

17. Olympian - Gene

16. End of a Century - Blur

End of a Century is, in a way, the start of it all for me, when I knew that the modern music would be a good fit for me.

15. La Tristesse Durere - Manic Street Preachers

14. On and On - The Longpigs

13. Brickbat - Billy Bragg

12. Slide Away - Oasis

Although it is convenient to remember Oasis as having been bad, in fact, Oasis did Slide Away, and were not bad.

11. The First Big Weekend - Arab Strap

10. Tiny Tears - Tindersticks

TOP TEN TINY TEARS TINDERSTICKS, POP PINDERSTICKERS

9. Lucky - Radiohead

8. The State I Am In - Belle and Sebastian

It is weird that, after Radiohead, it's Belle and Sebastian that may just be the most influential of all these bands. I mean, probably not, but maybe.

7. I Would Fix You - Kenickie

6. Dry the Rain - The Beta Band

All these last six are, if you will, "epics". All of them have just been central to my life at a certain point.

5. Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space - Spiritualized

4. A Design for Life - Manic Street Preachers

I'd take this over any of the songs on The Holy Bible - I understand why others wouldn't, but this song just never loses its power with me.

3. A Brimful of Asha - Cornershop

The Norman Cook remix of this song is good. It doesn't bastardise it or destroy it, it just streamlines it, turns it into the kind of thing that could bedeck the top of the hit parade. So I suppose not that many people checked out the original. But for me, the original, unmixed Brimful of Asha, is a magical, precious thing, joyful, educational and epic.

2. Ice Hockey Hair - Super Furry Animals

From the middle of 1998. hardly part of the era at all, but I couldn't not include it. This is the true history. This is the perfect moment it was all leading to.

1. Yes - McAlmont and Butler

Really, I belong to this generation, Generation Yes by McAlmont and Butler.

So there we are. I started and then stopped compiling this a few weeks ago when I realised that, of course, it would end up being completely pointless, that it would all end up being obvious and unrevelatory, that it would not, nor could not, ever persuade anybody that the era wasn't exactly what they thought it was.

But then I started again, because fuck it. There's my Top 10 and what does it matter? Well it slightly matters that most (most not all) of the artists are sui generis and not archetypally laddish, albeit they are mostly lads, I know.

It matters that these are grand, grand songs, and life is richer for them.