We officially bid adieu to summer this weekend but it already feels like fall, and not just with the leaves turning oranged and temperatures dropping into the 50s. Big tours are rolling through seemingly every day and this week I’ve got nine new releases I’m reviewing: The WAEVE (Blur‘s Graham Coxon and former Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall), Pearl & The Oysters, Katy J Pearson, Joan as Police Woman, the return of Manu Chao, and a new Galaxie 500 rarities comp, plus promising new NYC band Starcleaner Reunion, NZ’s Office Dog, and chillwaver-turned-shoegazer Tanukichan.

This week’s Indie Basement Classic comes from The Babies, the early 2010s band led by Kevin Morby and Cassie Ramone who are back for a few shows after 11 years.

Notable Releases this week has a lineup that could’ve easily been Indie Basement material as Andrew reviews new albums from Thurston Moore, Sunset Rubdown, Jamie xx, and more.

In other Basement-related news, we’re all waiting for official news on new album from The Cure and Pulp, which is a sentence I don’t think I would’ve written three weeks ago.

See you in the fall. Head below for this week’s reviews.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: The WAEVE – City Lights (Transgressive)
Blur’s Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougall make beautiful music together on their second album together

UK indie power couple Graham Coxon (Blur) and Rose Elinor Dougall (Pipettes) compliment each other whether at home, in the studio or on stage. The WAEVE lets them stretch their musical wings as well. Did you know Coxon blows a mean sax? It’s all over their second album, which like their debut was made with producer James Ford (who also worked on Blur’s The Ballad of Darren and Fontaines D.C.’s ROMANCE, and many Arctic Monkeys albums). “On our first album, we created this world to dwell in and to express ourselves,” Graham Coxon told us. “This album is more about taking more of an outward look.”

There’s no better place to start than City Lights‘ title track which is the poppiest thing The WAEVE have done to date. A lot of that comes from the bassline which is straight out of a Four Tops song but is also pretty Blur-y, with Coxon’s guitar hook gnawing at the back of your head. Then here comes the chorus and Dougall’s voice, which is as cinematic as it gets, and then that sax solo blows in straight out of 1985. By the end Coxon is trading licks with himself on both instruments. It’s fantastic.

The WAEVE is a true collaboration and you can feel Dougall and Coxon’s presence — musically, vocally, lyrically — across these 10 songs, whether it’s an ethereal, flute-laden ode to new motherhood (“Simple Days”), skronky/glammy Berlin Bowie new wave (“Moth to the Flame”), motorik postpunk rippers (“Broken Boys”), windswept, string-laden baroque (“Song for Eliza May”), or wildly romantic balladry (“I Belong To”). Ford’s production gives everything the scope it needs; City Lights is a big ambitious record that, while familiar, sounds like nothing else either have done, or nothing that anybody else has done either.

City Lights by The WAEVE

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EP OF THE WEEK: Starcleaner Reunion – Café Life (self-released)
Third EP from this very promising Brooklyn band sounds like a cross between Stereolab and The Cardigans

Brooklyn quintet Starcleaner Reunion are a pretty new band, formed in 2022, but have stayed busy, releasing two EPs in 2023 and now another, Café Life. The band cite “a lot of downtempo music and free software” as their current influences, and you can hear everything from Stereolab to The Cardigans in their jazzy, nimble grooves, ethereal harmonies and occasional noisy freakouts. The midpoint between those two band references might be another New York group, Ivy, and that’s what first came to mind with the EP’s opener, “The Hand That I Put Down,” which is just a terrific pop song, perfectly executed, zippy, and full of unexpected flourishes. The other three songs are just as good — inventive dreampop that doesn’t just copy current shoegaze or lo-fi trends. Starcleaner Reunion are doing their own thing and Café Life is the perfect snack with four good songs and no filler. Keep these EPs coming.

Café Life by Starcleaner Reunion

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Galaxie 500 – Uncollected Noise New York ’88-’90 (Silver Current Records)
New compilation gathers up rarities and unreleased recordings from one of the best underground rock bands of the late ’80s 

Iconic late-’80s indie rock trio Galaxie 500 were only together for a few years but their music has gone on to inspire a lot of current in-fashion genres (shoegaze, slowcore, post-rock). Detractors accused them of just aping The Velvet Underground, but Dean Wareham, Naomi Yang and Damon Krukowski pulled influence from a lot of different sources, including UK groups like New Order and Young Marble Giants, both of whom they covered. Listening now, they just sound like Galaxie 500.

During their short run, which included three great albums, they recorded a lot of non-album material, including singles, b-sides, radio sessions, compilation/tribute album songs and more. This new double LP collects most of them as well as recordings that have never seen the light of day before. (Many were on the bonus disc of Ryko’s 1996 CD box set but there’s a good 10 that are previously unheard.) There are alternate versions of songs you know from their albums (“Oblivious,” “King of Spain,” “Fourth of July,” the single version of “Blue Thunder” with sax), some great covers (New Order/Joy Division’s “Ceremony,” The Rutles’ “Cheese & Onions,” Buffy Sainte Marie’s “Moonshot,” Young Marble Giants’ “Final Day”), songs that would become other songs (“See Through Glasses” turned into their rock band take on Jonathan Richman’s acapella “Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste”), and more.  ​”I can see why we left some of these songs in the vaults, but there is pleasure in hearing them today,” says Wareham in the liner notes. “They sound very alive, like Galaxie 500 playing in the brick-walled room that was [producer Kramer’s studio] Noise New York.”

Uncollected Noise New York ’88-’90 by Galaxie 500

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Pearl & The Oysters – Planet Pearl (Stones Throw)
This duo’s breezy new album is a sonic frozen drink with cocktail umbrella, perfect for getting stranded to

I came to duo Pearl & The Oysters through Dent May — singer Juliette Pearl dueted with Dent on his song “Time Flies When You’re Having Fun” on this year’s What’s for Breakfast? — and both artists inhabit a similarly breezy, playful sonic universe that mixes up yacht rock, ’70s orch pop, and a dash of tropicalia. Pearl and Joachim Polack also have serious chops and jazzy grooves, making them right at home on Stones Throw. Made with producer Teo Halm (Rosalía, J Balvin), Planet Pearl is apparently a sci-fi concept album “written from the perspective of castaway space explorers marooned on Earth” but “marooned” may be the key word here; everything sounds like a cocktail served with an umbrella. Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier guests on album highlight “Read the Room,” while other songs have arrangements that veer toward High Llamas, so much so that I checked the credits to see if Sean O’Hagan was involved. (No, but Alex Bettin of Mild High Club is, and I’d bet he’s heard Cold & Bouncy.) If I got stuck on an uncharted desert isle (or planet), this album would get me through, at least till things turned Lord of the Flies.

Planet Pearl by Pearl & The Oysters

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Katy J Pearson – Someday, Now (Heavenly)
Katy J Pearson comes into her own on her wonderful third album

After two solo albums where she worked with big name indie producers (Dan Carey, Ali Chant), as well as collaborations with Yard Act, Metronomy and others, Katy J Pearson was ready to take the reins on her third album. “I knew exactly who I wanted to work with, I knew exactly who my session band were going to be, I knew where I wanted to record,” she says. “It felt like I was finally calling the shots for myself, and that was so empowering.” Someday, Now was made at the famed Rockfield Studios in Wales and her session band included notable musicians Huw Evans (H Hawkline), Davey Newington (Boy Azooga) and Joel Burton (Naima Bock), along with behind-the-boards help from Nathan Jenkins, aka Bullion (Nilüfer Yanya, Carly Rae Jepsen). Pearson has such a distinct sound, these songs could be full-on country if she wanted to go that way, but the production and arrangements skew idiosyncratic, with synthesizers given just as much space as acoustic instruments. It’s both modern and timeless. Katy’s songs and voice are the real stars, though, and songs like “Maybe” soar with their own unique sparkle and shine.

Someday, Now by Katy J Pearson

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Manu Chao – Viva Tu (Radio Bemba)
First album in 17 years from the former Mano Negra frontman picks right up where he left off; plus a Willie Nelson duet

Do you ever have a song stuck in your head, where you don’t know any of the words, just vibe and a sound, and you can’t for the life of you remember who it is as a little loop plays over and over in your subconscious for, like, years? That was me with a little piece of music that was powered by, what I recalled as, a cheap drum machine bossa nova preset and a distinctive “ping!” every measure. I was in a club in Knoxville, TN during Big Ears in March when the familiar backing came over the PA. There was too much talking to Shazam, so I went up to the mixing booth and asked what it was. “Manu Chao,” the guy told me. Oh yeah! The Mano Negra frontman’s debut solo single, “Bongo Bong!” What a relief. Then a few months later, Manu Chao announced Viva Tu, which turned out to be his first album in 17 years. It’s all part of the cosmic unconsciousness. I do not know where he’s been for nearly two decades, but he doesn’t sound any worse for wear here, with that same low-key but infectious lo-fi, folk-pop, groovy sound. In fact, lead single “São Paulo Motoboy,” a tribute to the motorbike couriers in Brazil, feels like a direct sequel to to “Bongo Bong.” The whole album is a treat, aloft with flamenco guitars, whistling, cheap keyboards, bongos and Manu Chao’s distinctive spirit whether he’s singing in Portuguese, English, Spanish or French, or duetting with Willie Nelson on “Heaven’s Bad Day.” Welcome back, Manu! Don’t wait so long to make another.

Viva Tu by Manu Chao

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Joan As Police Woman – Lemons, Limes and Orchids (PIAS)
Joan Wasser gets a lot of big name talent to help her on her sultry seventh album, but her powerful voice is the star

“I was ready to make an album that truly featured my voice,” Joan Wasser says of her 10th album. For it she enlisted a band of ringers including Meshell Ndegeocello on bass, Chris Bruce (Seal, Trevor Horn, Alanis Morissette) on guitar, Daniel Mintseris (St. Vincent, David Byrne) on keys, and drummers Parker Kindred (Jeff Buckley, Liam Gallagher) and Otto Hauser. “The basics were recorded like they used to be – with me singing live along with the band,” says Joan. “My good friend told me this is the sexiest album I’ve ever made. Honestly, I think she’s right.” It’s hard to argue with that assessment: Wasser’s voice is ethereal and soulful and works with a variety of styles found on Lemons, Limes and Orchids: “The Dream” feels inspired by Can’s “Vitamin C,” while “Full Time Heist” and the wonderful “Long for Ruin” are sultry and smokey a la Everything But the Girl or even Sade. The album falters a little the more standard the arrangements get — Joan is best when there’s at least a little quirk in the mix — but for the most part this is a terrific showcase for her many talents and yes that powerful, unmistakable voice.

Lemons, Limes and Orchids by Joan As Police Woman

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Office Dog – Doggerland (New West / Flying Nun)
New EP from New Zealand indie rock combo led by Kane Strang

New West rereleased the debut album from Office Dog, the band led by New Zealand singer-songwriter Kane Strang, earlier this year and now the band are back with this EP. (The group are signed in Strang’s home country to legendary indie Flying Nun.) They’ve got a tour with Nada Surf coming up but this isn’t one of those thrown-together releases of album outtakes just to put the name back out there. These are new songs, and good ones too. “Doggerland is the name of a place in the northern hemisphere that was once inhabited by people and then completely submerged by the sea,” Kane says. “Since themes of water, surfacing, and things like that were naturally appearing in my lyrics as we worked on these songs in late 2023, we named the EP after it. I’m glad we did because I feel like this word not only hints at the lyrical themes this time around but also at how these tracks are different sonically from Spiel and other songs we’ve done – they’re definitely softer, more fluid and spontaneous.” Strang is clearly from the Flying Nun lineage of The Clean and The Verlaines, but Office Dog have carved out a style distinguished by droney guitars that offer a touch of acid to these catchy pop songs.

Doggerland by Office Dog

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Tanukichan – Circles (Carpark)
This former chillwaver tries on shoegaze and it’s a pretty good fit, with help from Wisp

Up until this point, the music Hannah van Loon made as Tanukichan was on the chillwave tip, which was maybe not surprising given she was signed to Toro Y Moi’s label and had her records produced by TyM’s Chas Bear. Now signed to Carpark, Hannah is staying chill but now has layers of hazy guitar behind her influenced by My Bloody Valentine and Lush. Opening track “City Bus” is especially absorbing, all bashing drums set against a mellow-ish acoustic guitar arrangement where van Loon’s ethereal vocals are nestled. There are also a few classic loud-quiet-loud moments, and she also keeps just a little of that electronic edge which makes these songs stand out. Hannah also scored a sweet collab, working with viral shoegaze phenom Wisp on “It Gets Easier.” Some might see this as hopping on a new bandwagon, and she could use some more memorable songs, but for Tanukichan, shoegaze is a natural fit.

Circles by Tanukichan

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: The Babies – Our House on the Hill (Woodsist, 2012)
Kevin Morby & Cassie Ramone’s early-2010s band are back together for a few shows which is a good excuse to talk about their great second album

Kevin Morby is a well established solo artist with songs in car commercials and eight very good albums under his belt but back in 2010 he was the bassist for Woods who formed a band with Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls. The Babies had “side project” written all over it but it turned out there was real chemistry between Kevin and Cassie, and I might argue that this was the best group either have been involved in, and their second album is the high point of either’s discography. You can hear the more accomplished song craftsman Morby would soon become on Our House on the Hill, but here it’s in a more unfussy Americana indie rock setting; alongside Cassie, their songs and harmonies on “Mess Me Around,” “Moonlight Mile” and “Alligator” have the kind of unmistakable spark that comes from musicians feeding off each other. It’s an organic thing that can’t be reproduced in a lab or with an algorithm. The Babies broke up not long after the tour for Our House on the Hill, but they’re back together to play a few shows in LA and NYC this month. I’m personally hoping the magic is still there and it sparks a third album.

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Creation Records’ 21 Best Records

21. Biff Bang Pow! – Oblivion (1987)

Alan McGee wasn’t just the head of Creation Records, he was also one its musical artists, involved in a few projects over the years, including Laughing Apple, Revolving Paint Dream and his longest-running group, Biff Bang Pow! that also featured, at various points, label co-founders Dick Green and Joe Foster, as well as Primal Scream’s Andrew Innes. Oblivion, the second of two albums Biff Bang Pow! released in 1987, is the group’s best record, full of the sort of jangly pastiche psychedelia you’d expect from a band that, like his label, were named after ’60s beat group The Creation. McGee’s a better songwriter than he is a singer but his fey vocal style works just fine on terrifically titled tracks like “A Girl Called Destruction,” “The Only Colour in the World is Love” and “She’s Got Diamonds in Her Hair.” The band’s other 1987 album, The Girl Who Runs the Beat Hotel, is worth checking out too and contains the band’s best-ever single, the Andrew Innes-sung “Someone Stole My Wheels.”

20. Various Artists – Creation Soup Vol 1-5 (1990)

Most people associate Creation Records with their ’90s heyday of Oasis, Primal Scream, Ride, Super Furry Animals and My Bloody Valentine, but the label’s first five years were full of singles from jangly, ’60s-inspired bands who most people have probably never heard of, most of which were only released on 7″. In 1990 Creation gathered them all up for a five volume CD set. McGee notes that “The first twenty came in hand folded sleeves which Joe Foster and I used to stay up and fold all night four or five times a week.” They include great early singles by Primal Scream, Felt, The Loft, The Weather Prophets, The Jasmine Minks, The Pastels, House of Love, Biff Bang Pow!, The Bodines, and more. Noticeably absent from these, though, is the label’s breakthrough — The Jesus & Mary Chain’s 1984 debut single “Upside Down” (due to rights issues). Creation Soup is still a fascinating look at the formative years of a label that would become an indie powerhouse.

19. The Jesus & Mary Chain – Munki (1998)

The Jesus and Mary Chain’s 1984 debut single, “Upside Down,” turned the UK indie scene upside down with its then-novel approach of taking a Phil Spector-eque pop song and wrapping it in pummeling noise and feedback. It also put Creation Records on the map, paving the way for House of Love, My Bloody Valentine, Ride and many more of the label’s most famous groups. JAMC made the leap to Warner Bros immediately after this single but Creation founder Alan McGee stayed the band’s manager, and JAMC quickly became alt-rock stars. By the late-’90s, though, Jim and William Reid felt chewed up and spit out by the music industry and weren’t getting along with each other so well, either. If Warner had lost interest in the band after five albums, McGee had not, and welcomed the Reids back to Creation with open arms. Bookended by the supercatchy “I Love Rock N’ Roll” and tinnitus-inducing “I Hate Rock N’ Roll,” the sprawling, 17-track Munki plays like a career retrospective, including buzzsaw pop, semi-acoustic numbers, duets with Hope Sandoval, and dissonant noise jams. Munki served as a great final word on the JAMC…till they reformed and made a new album 19 years later.

18. The Loft – One Round the Fair (1989) / The Weather Prophets – Diesel River (1988)

You can’t really tell the story of Creation Records without including Peter Astor, the label’s first shining star, who wrote charming, literate songs with his Television/VU-esque bands The Loft and The Weather Prophets. (The Loft’s original name was The Living Room, which was also the name of Alan McGee’s pre-Creation London club night; Astor changed it to avoid confusion.) Astor also had a face meant for magazine covers, as well as a fine if not exceptional Tom Verlaine-esque voice that probably kept his groups from crossing over into more mainstream success. Not that Creation Records’ Alan McGee didn’t try. The Loft broke up before making a full length record but their excellent singles “Why Does the Rain” (which Astor recorded with The Weather Prophets, too) and “Up the Hill and Down the Slope” are among Creation’s best early singles and, along with the b-sides, make up compilation Once Round The Fair. Astor and Loft bandmate Dave Morgan formed The Weather Prophets who continued in much the same direction, releasing three albums that never quite captured the magic of the band’s Creation singles, most of which are collected on Diesel River (though your best bet is 2004 best-of comp Blue Skies & Free-Rides).

17. Adorable – Against Perfection (1993)

Making their debut with the undeniable “Sunshine Smile,” Adorable were initially lumped in with the shoegaze scene, because almost everything on Creation in 1992 was kinda shoegaze, but the band were closer in spirit to House of Love’s textured, romantic pop than My Bloody Valentine or Swervedriver. They owed a lot to the Pixies and The Wedding Present, too, held Echo & The Bunnymen in the highest regard, and Fijalkowski had no shortage of big hooks and mile-wide choruses in his arsenal. Their debut album, Against Perfection, is one of the great, underrated UK indie records of the early ’90s, jam-packed with memorable melodies, roaring/chiming guitars, clever/heartfelt lyrics and lots of swagger. The American release, via SBK records, betters the UK version by adding “Sunshine Smile” and another early single, “I’ll Be Your Saint,” alongside killer album cuts like “A to Fade In,” “Homeboy,” “Favorite Fallen Idol” and “Still Life.”

16. The Jazz Butcher – Fishcotheque (1988)

With the Jazz Butcher’s mid-’80s albums for Glass Records, which featured a band that included bassist (and ex Bauhaus member) David J, The Jazz Butcher (Pat Fish) had gained the reputation for whimsical indie a la Robyn Hitchcock. Signing to Creation, Pat started a new version of the group with collaborator Kizzy O’Callahan, intent on changing his image. That makeover began with 1988’s Fishcotheque, one of his best albums that showed a new, more serious side to The Jazz Butcher. “I was keen to get as far away from all those ‘w, words that had followed my group around,” Fish wrote later of the album, “to make it as clear as I could that this was a rock & roll thing, not some ‘eccentricity.’ I had my shades and I had my fringed suede jacket and I had the Weather Prophets rhythm section.” Witty without being wacky, Fishcotheque is loaded with great songs, including the punky “Looking for Lot 49,” the wistful “Swell” and “The Next Move Sideways,” terrific pop number “Let’s Get it Wrong,” and one of his best-ever songs, “Susie,” which features Sonic Boom on feedback. Pat didn’t entirely abandon his “w” side, though, which rears its head on “Living in a Village” and vegan rap song “The Best Way” (which isn’t as kooky as it may seem).

15. Momus – The Tender Pervert (1988)

Named after the Greek god of satire and mockery, Momus (aka Scottish artist Nic Currie) was Creation’s most idiosyncratic artist on record*, writing almost exclusively about sex and death but in a high-minded style that was likely to quote the bible or ancient literature, and playing in a style somewhere between Donovan and Jacques Brel. (Most eccentric in real life: Felt’s Lawrence.) As the ’80s went on, Currie would incorporate Pet Shop Boys-style synthpop into the Momus sound. The Tender Pervert was his first real flirtation with drum machines, and was a deeply twisted, angry record fueled by disgust with Margaret Thatcher’s response to the AIDS crisis. “I’m so furious about this that I decide that, if gay people are not only dying but being gagged by the government while dying, it’s up to straight people to promote homosexuality in their place,” Currie wrote reflecting on the record. Momus is at the height of his witty, erudite powers here on tracks like “The Angels Are Voyeurs,” “The Homosexual,” “A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy (Parts 17-24)” and the elegant, complex “Bishonen.” Currie is not wrong when he writes that The Tender Pervert is “my best and most definitive album” — it’s also the best place to start for this artist who is definitely an acquired taste.

14. Swervedriver – Ejector Seat Reservation (1995)

Swervedriver were one of the best groups of the original shoegaze era, but by 1995 interest in the genre in their home country (and label, Creation) had fully moved on to Britpop. Unlike some bands (Ride, Lush), Swervedriver stuck to their guitar pedals while trying to expand upon their sound with their third album, Ejector Seat Reservation. It was still heavy, but there was an equal emphasis on melody and maelstrom, adding elements of Bowie and Bolan to the mix, not to mention a string and horn section. It’s Swervedriver’s best album and loaded with memorable songs, including pile-driver “Bring Me the Head of the Fortune Teller,” the poppy/heavy “The Other Jesus,” elegant first single “Last Day on Earth,” and soaring closing cut “To the Birds.” Unfortunately there was no time to celebrate: Creation Records dropped Swervedriver the week after Ejector Seat Reservation was released and deleted the album from their catalog, making it for years the band’s hardest-to-find album.

13. Saint Etienne – Good Humor (1997)

Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs formed Saint Etienne in 1990 as a way to mix their obsession with ’60s and ’70s pop, R&B, soul and reggae with the indie dance and rave culture that had taken over the UK at the time. They originally envisioned the group as having a different vocalist for every single, but that changed when they met Sarah Cracknell, and Saint Etienne became a trio. After three albums of sample-based dance pop, Saint Etienne changed course, and decamped to Malmo, Sweden to make a full-band album with Cardigans producer Tore Johannsen at his famed Tambourine Studios. Armed with a group of crack session musicians, Good Humor is unlike any other record in Saint Etienne’s catalog before or since, working in elements of exotica, acid jazz and Beach Boys/Phil Spector wall of sound pop. While Saint Etienne’s previous albums had been released by Heavenly Recordings through Creation, Good Humor was the first — and last — to be released by Creation proper. Singles “Sylvie” and “The Bad Photographer” were both Top 30 UK hits and Good Humor remains Saint Etienne’s biggest seller in the US (where it was released by Sub Pop).

12. The Boo Radleys – Giant Steps (1993)

Liverpool band The Boo Radleys began as one of the noisiest of the ’90s shoegazers, with some songs on their 1991 Creation debut, Everything’s Alright Forever, sounding like a garbage truck in a rockslide. But deep down, guitarist Martin Carr was a lover of the classics — The Beatles, Kinks and other late-’60s psychedelic pop — and that side of him was ready to emerge. The watershed moment was the title track of 1992’s Lazarus EP which took a roaring, anthemic melody and built it up slowly with an extended, dubbed-out intro. It’s one of their best-ever tracks. “Lazarus” turned out to be the first taste of what would be their magnum opus — the boundary pushing, Coltrane-referencing, appropriately named third album, Giant Steps. Noise and hazy effects still rang through songs like “I Hang Suspended,” “Butterfly McQueen,” “Rodney King – Song for Lenny Bruce” and “Take the Time Around,” but nothing was obscuring the massive hooks Carr loaded the songs with. There were also just straight-up pop songs like “Wishin’ I Was Skinny,” “Barney and Me,” and “If You Want it, Take It.” It’s a record that, in its own way, is every bit as ambitious as Screamadelica or Loveless, and one that opened Creation’s door for Britpop’s coming surge. “I felt that everything was moving towards this big pop thing,” Carr says in David Cavanagh’s The Creation Records Story. “Loads of bands — young bands with guitars — were getting into the charts. Blur were getting there. Suede were having hits. We didn’t sell that many records with Giant Steps but everyone was dying to see what we were going to do next.” Next would net them a massive UK hit single — 1995’s “Wake Up Boo!” — but Giant Steps is still their finest hour.

11. Super Furry Animals – Radiator (1997)

Oasis may have been Creation’s biggest selling act of the ’90s (by a mile) but, pound for pound, Super Furry Animals were probably the best. The band were proudly Welsh, not afraid to sing in their native tongue, and wildly creative, with a wide anarchic streak. Their terrific 1996 debut album, Fuzzy Logic, paid tribute to Welsh drug smuggler (and national hero) Howard Marks both on the cover art and on song “Hanging With Howard Marks,” and the same year they released single “The Man Don’t Give a Fuck” which sampled Steely Dan and held the record, at 50 utterances, for most “fucks” given in a song (till Insane Clown Posse’s “Fuck the World” beat it in 1999). Just a year later, SFA were back with Radiator, a record that was leaps and bounds better than their debut, and where they went from being a lot of fun to one of the more consistently great, wildly creative bands of the era. (They still are.) Radiator incorporates Madchester-y shuffle (“Play it Cool,” “The Placid Casual”), Bowie-style spacerock (“Demons,” “Bass tuned to DEAD”), punk, and mutant pop (“Herman Loves Pauline”) into a style that became distinctly their own.

10. Slowdive – Souvlaki (1993)

Influenced by the Cocteau Twins‘ ethereal style, not to mention The Jesus and Mary Chain and probably a fair amount of goth, Pink Floyd and prog, Slowdive didn’t really sound like any other group from the original shoegaze era, riding a massive wave of shimmering guitars that were at times so transformed by effects pedals, they resembled synthesizers. Like their early EPs, the band’s debut album, Just for a Day, was hypnotic and sensuous, wrapping listeners in layer upon layer of gorgeous haze, but it was maybe a little lacking in focus and A-level material. Not a problem with their sophomore album that nestles memorable songs and a stronger rhythmic backbone into their signature aural cloudwork. Their best album to date, Souvlaki features some of their catchiest songs (“Alison,” “When the Sun Hits,” “40 Days”) with muscular material like “Machine Gun,” vivid trip-out “Yellow Melon” and two songs ( “Sing,” “Here She Comes”) featuring keyboards and treatments by Brian Eno. Best of all, though, is “Souvlaki Space Station” which takes their spiraling sound deep into dub territory. Never as popular at the time as their shoegaze contemporaries Ride or Lush, Slowdive’s records have aged better than most things from the ’90s, and the group have led one of the most satisfying second acts in recent memory.

9. Teenage Fanclub – Grand Prix (1995)

Teenage Fanclub’s third album, Bandwagonesque, is one of the three pillars in Creation’s 1991 crown (the other two are slightly higher up on this list), and an album that, along with Ride’s Nowhere, helped the label realize its place as a home for classic guitar pop done in new and exciting ways, or at least by new and exciting groups. What Teenage Fanclub did wasn’t exactly new — they drank deep from the well of Big Star and Dinosaur Jr. — but they did it very well and had three three talented singer-songwriters who had yet to reach their creative potential. That hit with 1995’s Grand Prix that, to carry on the Formula One racing theme, had Norman Blake, Gerrard Love and Raymond McGinley firing on all cylinders, with such instant earworms as “Sparky’s Dream,” “Neil Jung,” “Mellow Doubt,” “Verisimilitude,” and “Don’t Look Back.” The album was also released at the height of Britpop and pulled the Fannies into that orbit, even though they were never really part of that scene. While they may not equal Oasis in the ambition and swagger department, Grand Prix delivers just as many classics as (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, just in a more humble way.

8. Sugar – Copper Blue (1992)

Spoiler alert: this is the only American-made album on this list. Creation did release a few records by U.S. acts (Medicine, Guided by Voices, The Cramps) but not many, and most were more licensing deals than actual signings. But Bob Mould put together separate deals with Creation in the UK and Rykodisc in North America for his new band Sugar who rivaled MBV for being loudest-ever group on the label. With their roaring, punk-injected guitar pop sound, the trio (Mould, bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis) were definitely a more natural fit with a label of noisemakers like Creation than Rykodisc (who were mainly known for being the first CD-only label). In any case, Sugar’s classic debut album is one of 1992’s best, and one of the greatest albums Creation Records released, with Mould’s signature mix of rippers (“Changes,” “A Good Idea”) and pop songs (“Helpless,” “If I Can’t Change Your Mind”) and even a little prog (“Hoover Dam”). Copper Blue was actually more of a hit across the pond first, reaching #10 in the UK album charts and with NME naming it the Best Album of 1992; the record really caught on with American alt-rock radio and MTV in 1993. Sugar burned bright and hot, releasing Beaster a mere six months later, yet flamed out during sessions for their second album. Still, Copper Blue remains one of Mould’s best collection of songs.

7. Felt – Forever Breathes the Lonely Word (1986)

Led by the decidedly eccentric but frequently brilliant Lawrence Hayward who was prone to 2 AM vacuuming and still only goes by his first name, Felt set out to release 10 albums and 10 singles in 10 years — “In and out in a decade,” he put it. He accomplished his goal, making crystalline guitar pop that owed much to Tom Verlaine (and just a little to Bob Dylan) with two sharply defined eras of the band. Felt’s first four albums were on Cherry Red and featured guitarist Maurice Deebank’s distinctive arpeggiated guitar style; the second began with the group’s move to Creation, with Deebank out and keyboardist Martin Duffy in, adding wonderful, rich organ to the band’s sound. Forever Breathes the Lonely Word was Felt’s first album for Creation and is Felt’s masterwork, with shimmering production, Lawrence at his most lyrically romantic, and Duffy’s brilliant playing all over it. It’s just great song after great song, including “Rain of Crystal Spires,” “Down But Not Out,” “All The People I Like And Those That Are Dead,” and “A Wave Crashed on the Rocks,” being particular highlights. Creation’s first great album.

6. Ride – Nowhere (1990)

Oxford’s Ride released their debut album in 1990 and perfectly split Creation Records’ two decades in existence down the middle. The band were clearly a product of the student indie scene that Creation was at the center of, owing much to House of Love, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus & Mary Chain and early Primal Scream, but they were a half step generation younger, savvy, and ambitious. You could easily imagine songs like “Seagull” and “Kaleidoscope” being released with thinner production by the label just a couple years earlier, but Ride were not a group who just wanted to play to 150 people the rest of their lives. While undeniably part of the psychedelic shoegaze scene — they remain of the genre’s most iconic bands — Andy Bell and Mark Gardner were great songwriters, too, and underneath Nowhere‘s beautiful murk, haze and feedback is some serious musicianship and craft. Nowhere owes as much to The Byrds as it does MBV and is loaded with great tunes, as can be heard on the undeniable classic “Vapour Trail” — perhaps the greatest song to come out on Creation Records and not get released as a single. Ride would get more ambitious (and pop-savvy) on 1992’s excellent Going Blank Again, and would make a grab for the Britpop ring on 1994’s Carnival of Light, but Nowhere is the sound of a scene and a label at the dawn of the ’90s.

5. House of Love – House of Love (1988)

While The Jesus & Mary Chain’s “Upside Down” put Creation Records on the map, The House of Love’s debut album was the first album released by the label that really registered shockwaves beyond the indie charts. Led by Guy Chadwick, whose deep voice matched his high cheekbones, House of Love had some of JAMC’s squall but fed it through Chadwick’s graceful songwriting and guitarist Terry Bickers’ inventive playing. Opening salvo “Christine” is such a stunner, from the roaring guitars to the “Bah bah be dah dah” hook, if the rest of the album had been a dud it still might’ve made this list. But House of Love is all hits, from the dark, sexy cool of “Road” and “Hope” to the riff-heavy “Sulfur” and “Salome” to the ethereal grandeur of “Man to Child,” and the album’s second best song, “Love in a Car.” The album was also as big an influence on the burgeoning shoegaze scene as My Bloody Valentine’s Isn’t Anything, and it’s hard to imagine groups like Ride and Catherine Wheel existing without House of Love.

4. Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)

As Andy Bell of Ride, who would end up joining Oasis by the end of the ’90s, told us, Oasis “were the band Creation had been waiting for, and I think the label was also exactly what the band needed.” Oasis fit Creation head Alan McGee’s rock n’ roll ethos, ticking every box possible with a cup-runneth-over mix of attitude, razor-sharp wit, hedonistic joie-de-vivre and arrogance. It might’ve all been too much if Noel Gallagher wasn’t a one-man hit factory, losing songs in the couch that were better than many bands wrote in their whole career. They were definitely the guitar band McGee had always wanted, turning out singles like his ’60s and ’70s heroes, but putting a fresh face on them just in time to lead in the new Britpop movement that pushed grunge out of the country much like the USA had done to the King’s army some 200+ years before. While 1994’s Definitely Maybe was a fantastic debut, Oasis managed to follow it up just a year later with an even better album, one of the best of 1995 and without a doubt the peak of Gallaghers’ powers. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? even managed to be a hit in America, something a British rock band hadn’t done in years. The album is filthy with classics, from singles like “Wonderwall,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” “Champagne Supernova,” and “Roll With It” to deep cuts like “Cast No Shadow,” and “She’s Electric.” While Oasis stayed popular throughout their existence, creatively, it was diminishing returns after this — but in 1995 the band could do no wrong.

3. My Bloody Valentine – Isn’t Anything (1988)

If Loveless was the sound of “how’d they do that?,” Isn’t Anything was the sound of “I wanna do that!” It’s hard to imagine Ride, Swervedriver, The Boo Radleys or any of the rest of the soon-to-erupt shoegaze scene — or half the indie rock of the ’90s — happening the way it did without the visceral impact of My Bloody Valentine’s first album for Creation. Songs like “(When You Wake (You’re Still in a Dream,” “Feed Me With Your Kiss” and “Sueisfine” hit like a brick and sound like you’ve already been knocked senseless. Kevin Shield’s glide guitar sound — a unique mix of tuning and playing style — was mysterious, instantly distinctive and deceptively attainable. The band used less effects pedals than most people thought. “The sound is purely physical,” MBV Svengali Kevin Shields said at the time. “It’s movement, a manual moving of the string: the short travel of he Jazzmaster and Jaguar tremolo that gives it that characteristic sort of upwards drone to the chord.” My Bloody Valentine even managed to make acoustic guitars seem heavy (“Come Cupid”) and the band’s more ethereal tracks like “Lose My Breath” were aptly named. The album has a reputation for thin, tinny sonics, but Kevin Shields’ all-analog 2018 remastered edition really shows what a gorgeous monster it is.

2. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991)

A record so monumentally important to popular music it’s all but impossible to overstate its importance, Loveless is a bonafide classic. It’s also a record that took forever and somewhere around £250,000 to complete, that nearly bankrupted Creation, forcing the label to drop the band shortly after Loveless‘ release, and sell 49% of its stake to Sony Music. (“Overdue” and “over budget,” meanwhile, are words associated with the band to this day.) Even though countless artists have stolen from Kevin Shields’ signature “glide guitar” style, what the band get from their instruments on Loveless still sounds like nothing else. The four dry snare hits that open the album do not prepare you for the sludgy, white-dwarf heavy riff of opener “Only Shallow,” or when the song shifts into pure beauty and back again. Moments like that happen throughout Loveless, from the ethereal slipstream of “To Here Knows When” to the poppy indie rock of “When You Sleep,” to the dreamy, danceable perfection of “Soon.” So many rock critic cliches and adjectives were created — and wore out their welcome — with folks trying to describe Loveless, yet you can’t not be in awe 30 years on. It nearly destroyed the label but has always stood as one of its finest moments.

1. Primal Scream – Screamadelica (1991)

Led by gangly, cocksure Bobby Gillespie (who was The Jesus & Mary Chain’s original drummer and grew up with Creation boss Alan McGee), Primal Scream were Creation Records’ longest-running band, having released their debut single, “All Fall Down” on the label in 1985, and XTRMNTR in 2000, the last album released by the label before it dissolved. Like McGee, Gillespie seemed to live and breathe rock n’ roll and he and his bandmates, including the invaluable Andrew Innes, at times managed to stay cool purely on attitude while releasing less-than-stellar early records. Things for them changed, though, when they gave their lackluster, Stonesy single “I’m Losing More Than I Ever Had” to DJ Andrew Weatherall to remix. He took out almost all the vocals, threw a beat under it and added a sample of Peter Fonda From The Wild Angels yelling “We wanna be free to do what we wanna do! We wanna get loaded and we wanna have a good time!” Released in February 1990, “Loaded” was one of the cornerstones of the acid house/Madchester scene and forever changed Primal Scream’s trajectory. They spent nearly two years on one continuous party, working with Weatherall, Jah Wobble, Stones producer Jimmy Miller — whatever suited their fancy and vibe — and releasing singles along the way which would eventually be collected as the era-defining Screamadelica. It shouldn’t have worked, but that sense of freedom made it come together beautifully. “Instead of having two guitars, bass, drums, vocals… we destroyed that,” Gillespie said in The Creation Records Story. “It was anything goes – synth, tabla, drum machine, no vocals, instrumentals, gospel singers, sitars. The whole range of anything goes noises and suddenly the band were freed. It was a much looser approach to making music. And then getting people like Andy and Hugo, and Alex Patterson and Thrash from The Orb, Jimmy Miller, Wobble, you know – these people, Messing with our music, taking it somewhere else, making it more interstellar, as far out as… It was incredible. The greatest time.” You still feel that listening to Screamadelica, too.

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