Arctic Monkeys - Mirrorball

The first LP was what many of us old punks had dreamed of a band that melded the Pistols & the Beatles. True energy & good tunes.

Second album was accomplished in song writing terms & was undoubtedly their most popular with a 90's audience.

They did take a lot from the Liverpool band the Real People, who had one LP on Columbia, before being dropped & doing things on their own label.

Pulp & Blur were a different kettle of fish, but all lumped into "Britpop", although Pulp had been around most of the 80's, (I saw them loads at the Limit & the Leadmill in those times), and Blur were originally a "Baggy" band that reinvented themselves as mods with Modern Life is Rubbish, that made more than a nod to the Kinks & probably stated the "Britpop" thing there.

 

Pulp and Suede's stuff from around that time has aged much better than most of the output from either of those two. Modern Life is Rubbish is a great album, but Parklife sounds extremely dated imho.

 

Manics

 

The Masterplan and What's the Story deserve recognition surely.. Standing on the Shoulders has a couple of bangers.. Go Let it Out, Who Feels Love, Gas Panic and Roll it Over. Also b side, Let's All Make Believe is one of the best songs they ever did.

 

Take your point on not wanting to hear the first album over and over. How dull and nonsensical would that be!

 

Because of my age, I only got into them just after Out of Time had been released, although it was an IRS compilation that had me hooked. They lost me as a studio band with Reveal and Around the Sun, though they were still insane live, and revisiting those albums still reveals some absolute gems. And then, out of the blue, Accelerate appeared in 2007, and was one of the most unexpected musical gifts of my life. I rank it nearly as highly as their IRS output. If you're interested, I'd also recommend Live at the Olympia. They did a five night run during the recording of Accelerate debuting a lot of the tracks in a half-finished state, mixed up with loads of IRS songs including a lot which they hadn't played since the early to mid 80's. It's a remarkable document, no pun intended.

 

The Masterplan is a compilation of mostly early B sides, etc... that has some good tunes on it certainly.

 

Saw them a very lot in the 90's. They lost me for a while after This Is My Truth.... but I thought that Journal For Plague Lovers was an absolute work of genius. Such a pity they never toured it, and don't seem to play any songs off it live.

 

The Masterplan is the third best album of the last 50 years.

And it's not even an album. It's tunes that Noel threw away because he didn't write "**** songs".

Get Off Your High Horse Lady might disagree with this, but them B Sides were art.

 

Good discussion this btw.

Some great memories.

 

F.ck Oasis.

F.ck Blur.

F.ck the 90s.

F.ck everybody who disagrees with me.

 

And I adore Monster as an album. When Peter decided to put down the acoustic, pick up the electric and give it some *******.

 

Only cos you were still on the tit.

 

The only truly great thing to come from the 90s is 'Yes' by McAlmont and Butler.

 

Now that is a record.

 

Second only to Cornerstone on the factually accurate and undeniable best songs of all time list.

 

Nick Cave There She Goes My Beautiful World is 3rd btw.

 

You've gone again.

 

I'm deadly serious about Cornerstone. A genuine masterpiece.

 

I'd take What You Could Have Won over that any day. Being a Whitley lad, surely you agree?

At least that has a chorus.