Elastica

For those of us in the U.S., the '90s Britpop explosion often felt less like a singular, landscaping-smoldering burst, and more like a series of protracted aftershocks: Big U.K. releases could take months to arrive stateside, which meant it was possible to read about songs long before actually hearing them. But London's Elastica made its presence known immediately, thanks to "Connection," an undodgeable come-on buoyed by a cannonball-shot bassline and a new-wave riff lovingly (and litigiously) copped from an old Wire record. The video was similarly beguiling, with singer-guitarist Justine Frischman and her bandmates looking sleek and bored — art-school pranksters who'd figured out the joke before the first day of class.

"Connection" garnered instant radio play in America, and while nothing on Elastica would prove as big, the album's full of crisp immediacy, from the lightspeed guitars and impotence put-downs of "Stutter" to the slinky minimalism of "2:1." Few tracks break the three-minute mark here; Elastica is a steadfastly economical record, with little patience for guitar solos or padded-out choruses. But when the group does go long — as on the jagged tale-of-excess "S.O.F.T." — it's clear that Elastica could have been as big as any of its arena-conquering Britpop… read more »