Anybody else out there an Anglophile like me? I love me some Brit Pop. I’m especially fond of Pulp. Jarvis Cocker is the man and their lyrics and compilations are really outsanding. I bought “We Love Life” as soon as it was released.
np: “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” – White Stripes
The Stone Roses, the Charlatans, Suede, the Bluetones (etc, etc) defined my university years. Great music.
Buy anything that Stephen Duffy ever had anything to do with.
I’ll second the Stone Roses - if you don’t own their first album, get up, now, walk to the store and buy it. Go. I’m not kidding.
Lovelife by Lush is fantastic and their vocalist, Emma Anderson (I think?) has a voice that’ll make a man weak in the knees.
Elastica’s first album is great Brit/power pop, too.
In it for the Money: Supergrass. Brilliant
and the La’s first (and only, I believe) album is wonderful
and of course, Super Furry Animals, The Beautiful South, Ash, The Verve, Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene. Oh those resourceful Brits, what will they think of next?
I’m way old school. I’m thinking Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Cliff Richard, and the 60s pop/rock invasion groups too. All great or near great.
I’ll be checking this thread for more current stuff, not so much retro greatness. If that’s what we are talking about.
But I’m telling you, if you haven’t heard Dusty Springfield, and you like pop music, get a greatest hits cd, or “Dusty In Memphis.” One of the best singers ever!
How 'bout Depeche Mode. Earlier stuff, if you’re looking for good Britpop - their recent stuff has a distinct lack of accent.
My favorites: Gene, Embrace, Suede, Blur, and of course, The Smiths and Morrissey.
I don’t know if this counts as Brit Pop, but Belle and Sebastian (an 8 member group, not a boy and his dog) is from Scotland and they’re so…hmm…sublime? That sounds right. They’re just good. Very clever lyrics, sometimes soothing and sometimes rocking music, and often you can hear their cute Scottish accents (both boy and girl singers). I recommend their first album (well, first released) “If You’re Feeling Sinister.” If you want something harder, try “Boy With The Arab Strap.”
Oh, and they’re pretty much a late 90’s band, still making albums, so they’re not “retro” at all 
Love them.
Paul Weller, Supergrass, Elbow.
Gomez
To add to the list of good UK bands, unmentioned as yet:
Coldplay, Idlewild, Ash (got to list them 'cause they are local), The Delgados.
kevja was that you reviewing dusty springfield’s album on rateyourmusic.com?
I like Stone Roses and Blur. But what I like most about Pulp is their music stays loyal to their own sound and still grows with me. Sadly, I’ve found that some of the Brit stuff I was all about a few years ago doesn’t appeal to me anymore.
Neither band is British, but they desperately want to be:
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Interpol
Highly reccomended for Brit po junkies, and frankly great CDs for anyone.
Gomez: “Bring It On”
Travis: “The Invisible Band”
Toploader: “At the Magic Hotel”
Coldplay: “A Rush of Blood to the Head” and “Parachutes”
All are very cool.
I’ll second that. GREAT album.
A quick skim through my pitiful collection (I had hundreds more, but a combination of burglars and an ill-conceived spring clean has lost me some real obscure classics):
> Tindersticks - Tindersticks
> Tindersticks - Donkeys 92-97
> The Wedding Present - Bizarro
> The Verve - A Storm In Heaven
> The Verve - A Northern Soul
> The Verve - Urban Hymns
> The Bluetones - Expecting to Fly
> Ride - Nowhere
> Ride - Going Blank Again
> The Stone Roses - Stone Roses
> The Stone Roses - Turns Into Stone
> The Housemartins - London 0 Hull 4
> Suede - Suede
> Suede - Dog Man Star
> Suede - Comin Up
> Primal Scream - Screamadelica
> Curve - Cuckoo
> Blur - Leisure
> Blur - Modern Life Is Rubbish
> The Coral - The Coral
> The Charlatans - Between 10th and 11th
> The Charlatans - Up To Our Hips
> The Charlatans - Some Friendly
> The Inspiral Carpets - Life
> The Inspiral Carpets - Revenge of the Goldfish
> Happy Mondays - Pills, Thrills & Bellyaches
> Supergrass - I Should Coco
> Supergrass - In It For The Money
(etc)
Old School:
Squeeze
XTC
Newer Stuff(that hasn’t already been mentioned)
The Boo Radleys Wake Up!
Starsailor Love Is Here
The Auteurs New Wave
Cast All Change
** Ocean Colour Scene** Mosely Shoals
Manic Street Preachers Know Your Enemy
Hopefully this’ll get you started…
Chris W
I have come to like mostly British bands, their music is just so special, I don’t know why. My favorite bands in order of discovery:
Oasis, Stone Roses, Manic Street Preachers, Travis, Coldplay
Coldplay’s new album “A Rush…” is out of this world. I thought “Parachutes” couldn’t be topped, but they did it.
Stretching the definition of “pop” about as far as it will go can I recommend two albums by My Bloody Valentine:
“Isn’t Anything” really changed my idea of what was possible to do with fierce guitar effects, sweet melodies and breathy female vocals and when I saw them play this stuff at the Barrowlands in Glasgow I had a completely unenhanced hallucinatory experience;
and “Loveless” which was their next album, seems to have been beamed into their brains from some other universe. Heard this played live too, but at this point I think self-indulgence was setting in. They held a single chord at excruciating volume for over ten minutes. Don’t let this put you off the album though, it’s an enormously inventive, and profoundly strange work.
Try the Strokes, if you like the white stripes, and though they’re not Brits, the Hives follow along the same vein.