Time-Honored Britpop Tradition of Etc.

Bounce! Twirl! New answers.

I don't see how it's an exclusively "Britpop" tradition.

I would have said the same thing about Clinic that they say about LWB.

I think Internal Wrangler does a lot less, well, "internal" self-exhaustion than Any Other City does, if only in the sense that an quantitative analysis of sounds used and tempo variation and etc. would reveal something way less static than LWB offer. Which is not a knock on LWB, as Any Other City was one of my favorites of last year, but ... reports that the new Clinic already sounds tired make me wonder what, if anything, LWB could do to make a second record seem even halfway necessary.

But but but I'm wondering historically and not in solely this case.

I don't even see it as a UK-only phenomenon. The implicit assumption is 'UK = quick flash-in-pan; US = slow build of quality over time.' All you have to do is look at a slew of American hip-hop stars who made great/lauded debuts and then couldn't go any further after that -- and that's far from the only field here in the States that suffers.

I thought 'Mosaic' was equally as good as 'Points on the Curve', if not better

I was under the impression that this was more of a late-eighties hip-hop phenomenon, actually.

Well into the nineties too, I would think. Though there does seem to be a greater continuity these days. But going back to the early nineties, though, consider: Arrested Development, Digable Planets, the Pharcyde...I'm not saying groups like this didn't continue on, mind you.

the pharcyde?!?

I do think there's something about the British rock/pop scene, though -- and mind you, I think this is a good thing -- that leads to bands coming out of the gate with a seemingly "fresh" sound, look, and feel that -- even if their follow-up records are of similar quality -- just doesn't have the same appeal down the line.

The problem with discussing this here is that most of us don't find those bands any good to begin with. But if we set aside value- judging -- and leave aside pan-flashes like Salad, Republica, and the entire New Wave of New Wave -- I'd still have some tolerance for the idea that bands like Echobelly or Elastica or Sleeper were one-record bands, where 10 songs got across pretty clearly what their thing was and more isn't much necessary if they can't find a new "thing" to do. I sort of hope this doesn't end up being the case with LWB.

I think the thing is that the Big Britpop Era actually did put significant emphasis on mild innovation -- if only because there were so many bands competing for airtime in there -- and so along came all of these sort of stylized bands with either outright gimmicks or more often general aesthetic hooks. (The reason I mentioned geographical compression and the UK press is that both allow people to be much more clued in to mini-"scene" type things, ala N.W.O.N.W.) But while I think this sort of rock-with-a-tiny-slant thing is good and interesting, most of these bands didn't have "slants" substantial enough to be interesting for more than 40 minutes.

UK indie singles play into it too, I think. (a) Band comes out of the gate with a mildly-surprising "hey look, this is our little twist on things" single. (b) Music press is compressed and pulse-taking enough to say "ooo, look at this new exciting twist." (c) Band hasn't even finished recording full-length but is already sort of locked into a perceived trick, one which may have wowed on the single but very well may not support an entire career.

Possible case study with LWB: (single) "Dude, you have to hear this single -- check out how she coos and babbles!" (first record) "Yeah, wow, the record is great!" (second record) "Oh, right, it's just that band where the singer coos and babbles."

Hip-hop comparison is actually a great one, insofar as didn't that era's hip-hop fanbase and industry structure line up pretty nicely with the UK factors I'm describing? Fans very much cosmopolitan and sort of linked up (i.e., key big-city scenes, only with more stuff in between them) -- few key sources of coverage (e.g., the Source) -- sudden expansion of market and rise of acts who have sort of a "thing" or "trick" that differentiates them (e.g. a lot of that era's hip-hop: Das Efx, Arrested Development, etc.)

Oh, and also compare early- to mid-nineties alt-rock boom of (mostly bad) one-record bands, where fashion and band-glut caused signings based on "they're an alt-rock band, but they're special because here's their little trick..."

But the actual Britpop scene didn't have twists on the music, it only had twists on the clothing style and what have you. Menswear were 'pretty' boys in suits, Sleeper were _the_ female-fronted band, Echobelly were the Asian female-fronted band, Marion were the Kingmaker tribute band, blah blah blah.

I'm not saying they all sounded exactly the same, that would be overly facile and rather stupid, but they really didn't have any differentiation that could conceivably be called a twist.

The process-based (formalist?) musical genres that can sustain long and mediocre careers (jazz and rock, mainly) haven't existed in Britain for some thirty years, due to a near total lack of competent human percussionists. Hence the novelty approach.

Sure, Emily -- I was trying not imply that they were actually innovative, but I couldn't come up with any lesser words than "little twists" or what have you. And yeah, part of it was this package-deal feeling, where the look and the "personality" were crafted sort of in tandem with the musical approach.

in fact, sleeper's last record is their best. but point taken, they probably only were worth one album really.

nitsuh, i think a lot of the problem is the UK music biz. Like you said, one single and then an album on a major label (or or a big indie or fake indie), often with a big name producer probably contributing a lot of ideas. Anyway, they don't get to build up a lot of eperience or "chops" i guess. I don't really mind this phenomenon though. The UK seems to have a pretty endless supply of people to fill the jobs...

Well, there's only so much "Pink Flag" that Elastica can build off of before they self-combust. Or have they already?