new introductory bit here.

This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Rock the Casbah," which is not new.

note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input.

For a few years, this moody English guitar band looked like it might have been huge, and worthwhile successors to the Smiths, but the creative sparks of Guy Chadwick and Terry Bickers meshed for only a tragically brief period. All ten pop gems from their indie debut are impressive, but the band shouldn't have let their crowning moment, the stunning "Christine," a symphony of chiming guitars and lost love, lead their first album...it guaranteed it would all be downhill from here. Following Bickers' departure, their second album was the first for major label Fontana, and apparently a pre-release press statement was poorly worded, leaving every news magazine in England calling the actual album "Fontana," which has stuck to distinguish it from their first eponymous LP. Overall, it is really good stuff from 1990 that got the band some college rock and 120 Minutes play in America. The singles "I Don't Know Why I Love You" and especially "Shine On" are terrific, but I've never been convinced by "Beatles and the Stones."

Their third studio LP, released in 1992 following a now-scarce B-side collection, shows that idols do have feet of clay sometimes. "Feel" is remarkable, but no other song on this album contains anything like the power we've expected from Chadwick. "The Girl With the Loneliest Eyes" is woeful, and I can't stand the guitar on "You Don't Understand." It's eminently missable, and, as the shoegazing power of Ride and Lush swept England, the swirling power chords sounded dated. Their fourth and final LP was issued in 1993 and was a minor return to form. At worst, some of the songs are forgettable, but some other tracks, like "Erosion" and "Haloes," saw something of a return to standards. Chadwick insisted no singles be issued and no songs emphasised to radio. Consequently, radio and print media ignored this one totally and it was a worldwide bomb. The band split shortly afterwards.