10 Britrock albums you should definitely own

Ash and Skunk Anansie
(Image credit: Mick Hutson/Ian Dickson/Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images/Pixabat)

After grunge peaked in the early 90s, a gap opened in the market - one that was rapidly filled by a disparate bunch of rock bands whose only common denominator was that they were British. A quarter of a century after the movement that was christened Britrock exploded into the mainstream, we look back on the finest albums that the scene had to offer.

Let the countdown commence.

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The Wildhearts: Earth Vs The Wildhearts (EastWest, 1993)

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=38569&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2Fdp%2FB0040U8XQO%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">The Wildhearts: Earth Vs The Wildhearts (EastWest, 1993)

A band who made an art form of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, The Wildhearts’ history is an inglorious tangle of in-fighting, drug abuse, self-sabotage and some of the finest rock songs ever committed to vinyl. 

An intoxicating, hyperactive mash-up of pop melodies, punk aggression and glam-rock swagger, <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/reviews/the-wildhearts-earth-vs-the-wildhearts-album-of-the-week-club-review" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">their brilliant debut is a perfect encapsulation of what it meant to be a skint, horny, cynical, pissed-up and lairy twenty-something in mid-90s Britain.

Terrorvision: How To Make Friends And Influence People (Total Vegas/EMI, 1994)

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=38569&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2Fdp%2FB000024TNJ%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Terrorvision: How To Make Friends And Influence People (Total Vegas/EMI, 1994)

Raised on Kiss, <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/ac-dc-albums-ranked-from-worst-to-best-the-ultimate-guide" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">AC/DC, <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/elton-john-buyers-guide" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">Elton John and <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-beatles-best-albums-buyers-guide-collection" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">The Beatles, Bradford’s Terrorvision were viewed as the relentlessly chipper, slightly daft face of Britrock; a shiny-trousered Slade for the 1990s. 

Endlessly patronised by the London media, and always much smarter than they let on, on their second album the quartet delivered a succession of killer singles (OblivionPretend Best FriendAlice, What’s The Matter) and became Britrock’s definitive festival entertainers.

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<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=38569&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2Fdp%2FB08N1DMT4K%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Therapy?: Troublegum (A&M, 1994)

A million-selling album which transported “three chubby hicks from the sticks”, as <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/therapy-albums-ranked-worst-best-troublegum-nurse-andy-cairns" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">Therapy? frontman Andy Cairns once described his band, into rock’s premier league, Troublegum plays out like a teenage diary from hell, with Cairns rendering the frustrations of small-town adolescents in blackened punk-metal nuggets. 

Featuring five Top 40 singles (ScreamagerTurnNowhereTrigger InsideDie Laughing), the album convinced A&M Records that they had the European Metallica on their hands; its doomy, arty follow-up Infernal Love swiftly disabused them of this notion.

Skunk Anansie: Paranoid and Sunburnt (One Little Indian, 1995)

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=38569&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2Fdp%2FB00004WSYF%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Skunk Anansie: Paranoid and Sunburnt (One Little Indian, 1995)

In the ‘provincial white boys with guitars’ Britrock club, <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-12-best-skunk-anansie-songs-chosen-by-skin" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">Skunk Anansie stood out like a drum solo at a Ramones gig. 

Fronted by the switchblade-sharp, fearless and charismatic, Brixton-born Skin, the London quartet announced their arrival with 1994’s explosive Little Baby Swastikkka before delivering a striking debut album, showcasing Skin’s exceptional vocals amid taut punk/funk/metal songs. Lemmy, an early champion of the band, sang their praises ’til his dying days.

Baby Chaos: Love Your Self Abuse (EastWest, 1996)

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=38569&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2Fdp%2FB000024UNP%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Baby Chaos: Love Your Self Abuse (EastWest, 1996)

Young, good-looking, cocky and blessed with top-grade management, a major-label record deal and a raft of brilliantly infectious, sussed, diamond-hard pop-rock songs, it’s a mystery why Baby Chaos never truly fulfilled their potential. 

Labelmates of The Wildhearts (whose frontman <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/ginger-wildheart-a-guide-to-the-best-albums" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">Ginger Wildheart has encouraged <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/news/baby-chaos-return-with-first-single-in-17-years" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">their 2015 comeback), the Glasgow quartet toured relentlessly, were press favourites, and with Love Your Self Abuse delivered one of the best British rock albums of the decade… and still no one cared. It’s a shit business.

Compulsion: The Future Is Medium (One Little Indian, 1996)

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=38569&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2Fdp%2FB000024LYN%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Compulsion: The Future Is Medium (One Little Indian, 1996)

Dublin-born but based in north London, Compulsion were always a little bit too smart, too awkward and too self-aware to throw themselves wholly into the hedonistic whirl of Britrock. 

The Future Is Medium, their second album (the follow-up to 1994’s Comforter) was a fiercely intelligent, acerbic state-of-the-nation address, wrapping frontman Josephmary’s scathing, sarcastic lyrics in the sunniest pop melodies. Guitarist Garrett Lee has since become a superstar producer for the likes of U2 and <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/how-to-buy-the-very-best-of-rem" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">R.E.M.

Ash: 1977 (Infectious, 1996)

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=38569&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2Fdp%2FB07HSLV8Y7%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Ash: 1977 (Infectious, 1996)

Babies of the Britrock scene, Downpatrick teenagers Ash were still in high school when they began notching their first Top 40 hits. Formerly a metal band called Vietnam, the trio were turned on to alternative rock by <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/nirvana-everything-you-need-to-know" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">Nirvana, and while frontman Tim Wheeler possessed none of Kurt Cobain’s existential angst his band’s pop-punk anthems mined Cobain’s sense of melody. 

Featuring five hit singles (Girl From MarsKung FuAngel InterceptorGoldfingerOh Yeah), 1977 was the first of the band’s two UK No.1 albums.

Reef: Glow (Sony, 1997)

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=38569&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2Fdp%2FB000024J91%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Reef: Glow (Sony, 1997)

Thanks to the patronage of TFI Friday host (and Radio 1 DJ) Chris Evans, Reef were arguably Britrock’s biggest household name. 

West Country boys who took their musical cues from <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/every-led-zeppelin-album-ranked-from-worst-to-best" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">Led Zeppelin and <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/free-albums-ranked-from-worst-to-best" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">Free, and had zero interest in chumming around with their Britrock peers, Reef were introduced to the world via a Sony Mini-Disc advert (featuring their track Naked) but hit commercial paydirt with this, their funky, hard-rocking George Darkoulis-produced second album, which featured the monster single <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/how-reef-wrote-place-your-hands-by-gary-stringer" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">Place Your Hands.

3 Colours Red: Pure (Creation, 1997)

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=38569&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2Fdp%2FB000024RL6%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">3 Colours Red: Pure (Creation, 1997)

Creation Records boss Alan McGee, a man with a fabulous gift for hyperbole, once bracketed his new signings 3 Colours Red alongside Oasis as “the most exciting British rock bands since the Sex Pistols.” They weren’t, obviously. 

But before dreamboat singer Pete Vukovic succumbed to starry-eyed notions of becoming Britrock’s own Richard Ashcroft, the band he formed with guitarist Chris McCormack were one of the most engaging on the Britrock circuit. Pure, their debut album, threw up five Top 40 singles and remains a masterclass in punk-metal melodicism.

Feeder: Polythene (Echo, 1997)

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=38569&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2Fdp%2FB00000K3ZM%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Feeder: Polythene (Echo, 1997)

Initially touted as the UK’s answer to the <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/10-best-smashing-pumpkins-songs" data-link-merchant="loudersound.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">Smashing Pumpkins, Feeder emerged at the tail-end of Britrock and became standard-bearers for British guitar music well into the next decade. 

Though their biggest commercial success came with 2002’s stately, half-million-selling Comfort In Sound (written in the wake of drummer Jon Lee’s suicide), their debut album – Metal Hammer magazine’s Album Of 1997 – remains their most charming, full of sweeping, roaring guitars and watertight choruses.

Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.