Indie Basement is a weekly column on BrooklynVegan focusing on classic indie and alternative artists, “college rock,” and new and current acts who follow a similar path. There are reviews of new albums, reissues, box sets, books and sometimes movies and television shows. I’ve rounded up January’s best music, highlighting my favorite songs and albums, plus links to relevant features and news, a monthly playlist, and more.

For a month that started off slow, January ended up being action packed and overflowing with good music. Usually I review 10 songs every month but with so many announcements I ended up choosing 15 to write about, including both new acts and classic indie artists.

There weren’t quite as many great albums released in January, which is typically a quiet month, but I had no problem picking five and runner-ups include Ty Segall’s Three Bells, The Asteroid No.4’s Tremble, and Swervedriver offshoot Bolts of Melody’s Film Noir. As usual, I made a Best of the Month playlist which feels extra stuffed with nearly 80 songs and over four hours of great new music.

Head below for my picks and reviews of January’s best songs and albums…

INDIE BASEMENT – BEST SONGS OF JANUARY 2024

A Certain Ratio – “All Comes Down to This”

Manchester’s A Certain Ratio are seasoned pros with 40 years of music under their belts but everyone can use a little new perspective sometimes. Enter producer Dan Carey (Wet Leg, Black Country New Road, etc etc) who seems to have lit a fire under them, as “All Comes Down to This” is their best, most immediate single in ages. The title track from their upcoming 11th album, the song is also pretty different for them, reminiscent of the mid-’00s indie scene on which ACR were a huge influence. It’s still danceable, but there’s a scrappy charm and palpable energy here, not to mention a very catchy chorus.

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Arab Strap – “Bliss”

It goes against most rules of rock n’ roll, but some groups get better with age. Scottish duo Arab Strap’s comeback, 2021’s As Days Get Dark, turned out to be one of their best-ever records and the first single from its follow-up looks to keep the bar high. Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton would never write a song just about being happy, so when they titled this “Bliss” you all but expect “Ignorance is” to be at least implied. In fact it’s much grimmer stuff — of course it is — and about “women being terrorized online.” What is surprising, though, is that Aidan Moffat’s menacing, brogue-y sprechgesang comes backed by throbbing electro-disco. It’s a match made in…not “heaven” but somewhere in Scotland. The video, directed by Ains, is equally gripping.

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Camera Obscura – “Big Love”

The first single from Camera Obscura’s first album in a decade (and first since the death of member Carey Lander), “Big Love,” is a terrific, twangy return that pays tribute to Waylon Jennings, Sandy Denny and prog band Scope all at the same time. Tracyanne Campbell sounds as great as ever, with her mix of winsome and sardonic, and there’s a spring in the band’s step, not to mention a little distortion on the guitars. Welcome back!

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Corridor – “Mourir Demain”

After three records of hyperactive rhythms and intricately woven guitar lines, Montreal’s Corridor have significantly shifted gears, at least on the first single to their first album in four years. “Mourir Demain” (“Die Tomorrow”) downplays the stringed instruments just a little and slows things down just a little while reaching higher in the sky than we’ve heard them do before. It still sounds like Corridor, just with an all-new wardrobe.

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Fat White Family – “Bullet of Dignity”

I have quickly tired of AI-assisted/created music videos but leave it to Fat White Family to do something sick, twisted and cool with the technology. “Bullet of Dignity” is as lurid as you might expect, maybe moreso, with steamy showers, saxophones, Teletubbies, Santa Claus, and mutating meat all mixed together in a phantasmagoric stew. The song is awesome as well, glammy and danceable and majorly dank. It’s wild to think we spent the whole of the pandemic without hearing from these depraved Brits but I for one am glad to have them back and reminding us to not get too comfortable.

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IDLES – “Gift Horse”

Subtle is not a word previously associated with London band IDLES but their fifth album, TAGNK, has frontman Joe Talbot singing more than shouting, with more varied music than they’ve ever used before. Turns out a little restraint is just what they needed, and a good example of that is on “Gift Horse,” which lays down a swaggering groove that stays just under a simmer…at least until the chorus when it erupts in a volcanic explosion of loud guitars and “WHOAAAAA”s. If you didn’t take to IDLES on their first couple albums, you should give them another try. Also the video wonderfully underlines the song’s high tension levels.

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Julia Holter – “Spinning”

Julia Holter has been compared to a lot of talented and eccentric musicians over the years, but really nobody else sounds like her. “Spinning,” the first taste of new album Something in the Room She Moves, is a sensory delight full of wonder. The loping, mechanical rhythm sounds straight out of the industrial revolution but she makes it soar. Speaking of, Julia looks like she could twirl up and off the set of the song’s video with a skirt that’s part parachute, hot air balloon, and carousel canopy.

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Klaus Johann Grobe – “Highway High”

Switzerland’s finest krautrock / prog / disco outfit are finally back after a five-year absence, a time which they seem to have spent working on their English — the upcoming Io tu il loro will be their first album not in German. Regardless of the language, first single “Highway High” is KJG working entirely in their native sonic tongue: lithe, masterful grooves with killer basslines and an arsenal of vintage synths. When all those elements swirl together near the end of the song, with the addition of funky acoustic guitars, it’s transportive stuff.

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Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band – “Shir’s Ghost”

Liverpool indie cult hero Michael Head, who you might know from Shack or Pale Fountains, has once again teamed up with former Coral member Bill Ryder-Jones (who can be found elsewhere in this post) for a new album. Ryder-Jones is a perfect match for Head and knows that a little Spanish-style horn arrangements really compliment his weary and warm voice. If you’re entirely unfamiliar, “Shir’s Ghost” makes a good introduction to Michael Head, too.

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Omni – “INTL Waters”

What’s it like for those rich oligarchs living aboard yachts on the open sea, just out of jurisdiction from the countries who seek to arrest them, never able to return to dry land? Atlanta’s Omni try to imagine on their latest single from upcoming album Souvenir. The band too find themselves in uncharted waters, musically, bringing a stately vibe to their typical herky-jerky rhythms with a thrilling, rocking final minute as the boat sinks to the bottom of the sea.

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Pernice Brothers – “Who Will You Believe”

After 20+ years of recording for his own Ashmont Records, Joe Pernice is finally on a label that seems to actually care about and understand his music (Thank you, New West Records). “Who Will You Believe?” is classic Pernice Brothers: a melody worthy of The Zombies or Jimmy Webb, with a lush, country-tinged arrangement backing Joe’s ever honeyed vocals, which in this case delivers a plea to hold out for hope in our times. “I fell in love with a possible world,” he sings, “Then I smashed my heart against the stones.”

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The Reds, Pinks and Purples – “Your Worst Song is Your Greatest Hit”

Glen Donaldson, the man behind The Reds, Pinks and Purples, is a master of mopey, cynical cautionary tales about the music industry and fandom. (It’s not all he writes about with RPPs, but it’s a high percentage.) In this case, it’s a familiar story of an indie artist scoring chart success with what fans might consider to be their lamest song. I’m sure we all have a song that immediately jumps to mind with a title like “Your Worst Song is Your Greatest Hit.” (I won’t name any here but there are many.) You also just know when he came up with the title, the rest of the song just poured out. “Your first idea got watered down,” Donaldson tsk-tsks, speaking for all real fans atop a haze of guitars, cheap synths and drum machines. “Only the worst parts could be found.” Elitist, bordering on Radio Dept parody, and brilliant in its world-building. Bravo!

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Ride – “Peace Sign”

Like Slowdive, Ride are having a terrific second act and I have high hopes that their upcoming album Interplay will be the best comeback era record yet. “Peace Sign” is not beholden to the classic Ride formula — synthesizers are just as prominent as guitars — but there’s no doubt as to who we’re listening to. This one’s built with an instant earworm chorus and Ride’s patented harmonies, while the production sounds modern but not in a way that will date within a year.

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Robber Robber – “Sea or War”

The shoegaze renaissance is upon us — have you heard? — at a time when, after three decades, I may have hit my limit for hazy guitars (or maybe my definition of the term doesn’t fit with some of the bands being hyped). But Robber Robber’s “Sea or War” instantly has my attention: the jazzy, shaker-fueled drumbeat that borders on breakbeat is amazing, as is the overdriven bassline and web of arpeggiated guitars that swirl around them. Nina Cates’ breathy, confident vocals seal the deal. By song’s end, after a skronky guitar solo and funky breakdown, I’m not sure if you’d even call this shoegaze (and Robber Robber have other songs that do not fit even the widest definition), but “Sea or War” is definitely great and I can’t wait to hear what’s next.

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Tierra Whack – “Shower Song”

If “She’s So Unusual” wasn’t already taken, it would make a great title for Tierra Whack’s upcoming debut album. (WORLD WIDE WHACK is pretty good too, though.) She radiates quirky charm on this ode to singing in the shower — and sounding great doing it — that, as usual, is best experienced with its bright, vibrant and fun music video. (Play this one for your kid.) Tierra Whack the total package.

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INDIE BASEMENT – BEST ALBUMS OF JANUARY 2024

Bill Ryder-Jones – Iechyd Da (Domino

“I’ve always railed against it when people ask if making a record is cathartic,” Bill Ryder-Jones says of his fifth solo album, “but I’d have to admit that this one really was.” The Coral co-founder, who’s been a solo artist longer now than he was in a member of that band, had a rough pandemic, including a bad breakup and close calls with substance abuse. He’s come through the other side, though, with one of his best-ever records. Iechyd Da, which is Welsh for “Good Health,” is one of those albums that seems to process joy and sadness as the same emotion. [Full review]

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The Smile – Wall of Eyes (XL)

Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner’s second album as The Smile is a much subtler but no less sophisticated record than the first. Nothing here calls attention to itself the way “Thing Thing,” “You Will Never Work in Television Again” or “The Smoke” did, but these eight songs hang together better as a whole and really grow on you. The most immediate number is probably “Bending Hectic,” which has a misnomer of a title though the strings get very intense (shades of Jonny’s film composition works) before the afterburners kick in for a Big Rock Finish. It’s the only song that might have you looking up from the book you’re reading — the slow-rising “Friend of a Friend” is great too, actually — but the rest of the album is engaging “back to mine” music, and Skinner’s syncopated drumming style pulls everything together in new directions. [Full review]

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Gruff Rhys – Sadness Sets Me Free (Rough Trade)

Sadness Sets Me Free is the 25th album that Gruff Rhys made, when counting solo works, records with Super Furry Animals, Neon Neon, soundtracks and more. Gruff is one of those rare artists who consistently manages to do something new every time while only ever sounding like himself and this is one of his prettiest, most melancholic works to date, heavy on acoustic guitar, piano and strings, with a strong element of both ’70s country and Tropicalia. The way he writes songs, the chords and melodies he favors, haven’t really changed over the years — this album’s “Celestial Candyfloss” could’ve fit, with a different arrangement, on SFA’s 1996 debut, and “Silver Linings (Lead Balloon)” could be a cousin to “Northern Lights” from 1999’s Guerilla. Yet both feel like they could really only be here, and his inquisitive, thoughtful, and empathetic lyrical style is as warm as the music, even when he’s bummed out. [Full review]

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Marika Hackman – Big Sigh (Chrysalis)

“Big Sigh” is not only the name of Marika Hackman’s wonderful fourth album, it’s also a pretty perfect two-word descriptor for it, playing like a comedown from 2019’s Any Human Friend, an album that was fun, extremely sex-positive, and found Hackman very comfortable in her own skin. Big Sigh feels like a hangover, or at least waking up with a shock wondering “what have I done?” At first glance Big Sigh is most like her first, 2015’s We Slept at Last, windswept and atmospheric, but with the skill, confidence and nuance that comes with nine more years of life. [Full review]

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The Umbrellas – Fairweather Friend (Slumberland)

San Francisco’s The Umbrellas embrace 40 years of shambolic indiepop, the kind made by fanzine-reading, striped-shirt-and-cardigan-wearing folks who mix big hooks and catchy choruses with warbly guitars and dream of visiting the Glasgow library for a Stephen Pastel sighting. Fairweather Friend is the band’s second album and a big sonic leap from their debut, with the production giving the kind of oomph you could tell the band have live, not to mention more nuanced arrangements (strings, keyboards, harmonies). The Umbrellas also play to their strengths here as well, namely the vocal interplay between Matt Ferrera and Morgan Stanley. Fairweather Friend hits all the right notes, even when they’re out of tune. [Full review]

Here’s a playlist featuring all the songs reviewed, tracks from my album picks and more stuff I loved from January. Available in Spotify and TIDAL form:

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

And check out what’s new in our shop.

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.