June 10, 2011 by A.S. Van Dorston

This is NOT about the royal wedding. As an American I feel it is my duty to loathe and reject monarchy. But the English have at least offered abolitionism, church-ratified divorce, mod fashion, the modern novel, and best of all, British guitar pop. The best known British invasion of UK guitar pop is of course the one with The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks, The Who, The Small Faces, and lesser known bands like The Move, The Smoke, The Action, and many more. That’s of course been covered exhaustively by truckloads of books and special issues of MOJO, Uncut Classic Rock and other boomer-oriented rags. Then there was the poppier side of punk with The Jam, XTC, Elvis Costello, The Stranglers, Buzzcocks and such, followed by 80s bands Echo & the Bunnymen, The Smiths, The Cure, and of course the “brit pop” bands of the 90s like Suede, Blur, Oasis and Pulp. Relegated to the back seats of UK pop history, the short bus of brit pop, at least in terms of critical impact and sales in the U.S., are the the fifth wavers (sixth if you count Cliff Richard & The Shadows) of the 00s. This would include the tabloid-hogging Libertines and Razorlight, who quickly sold over a million copies of their debut album in the UK but are virtually unknown in the U.S., and fiercely despised by the critics who do know them, Franz Ferdinand, The Futureheads, Maxïmo Park, The Rakes, Bloc Party, The Editors, Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons, Good Shoes, Pete & the Pirates, Wild Beasts, and many more. This past decade, I’ve probably listened to these bands more than any other British invasion waves, even including my favorite 70s era.

I can’t say these bands are any better than the others (though I do prefer a lot of them over most of the 90s stuff), but there’s something to be said for having new, catchy guitar pop to chew on every year. I have an ongoing mix of over 250 songs ranging from 2002 until now that may not push stylistic boundaries like other major releases I celebrate in my year-end lists, but is still endlessly listenable after much repetition. Some of the names will be familiar to a lot of Americans, while others will be unfamiliar unless you follow Artrocker and NME. The first half of 2011 has been pretty busy for UK guitar pop bands, with good releases from newcomers Frankie & the Heartstrings, The Chapman Family and The Vaccines, and also Pete & the Pirates, Young Knives the most recent release as of this week, Arctic Monkeys. I go through phases at least a couple times a year when I want to listen to this stuff repeatedly. This time around, I even finally grew to like the first Arctic Monkeys album, which turned me off first time around because of the hype and probably the crappy sounding MP3s.

Surprisingly, the renewed interest in guitar rock in the UK was sparked by an American band, The Strokes, who spent time gigging and releasing singles in the UK before they were known in their home country outside of New York City, just like Jimi Hendrix did in 1966. Stirring up a healthy amount of hype, some associated them with garage rock revivalists The Hives from Sweden and The White Stripes from Detroit. With their references to The Velvet Underground and Television, they scratched a different sort of itch for me, but did it well. Supposedly infuenced by The Strokes, The Libertines tap into more British influences like The Jam and especially The Clash, the obvious link being the production work of Mick Jones. Up The Bracket (2002) is filled with song after catchy song, and even after the overexposure in the press, the junkie crimes, breakups, makeups and their failure to maintain consistent quality, the debut sounds like a classic nine years later.

The other band to stir up dust and saltwater spray was The Coral, from the seaside village of Hoylake. With a distinctly 60s sound with harmonies and harmonicas, the first single “Shadows Fall” was a setup while “Dreaming Of You” is the knockout punch. While they’ve evolved and released solid albums since, they haven’t come close to matching that single.

2002 Playlist: Coral – Shadows Fall, Dreaming Of You, Skeleton Key, Wildfire; The Libertines – Death On The Stairs, Time For Heroes, Up The Bracket, The Boy Looked At Johnny, What A Waster. 2003 – Don’t Look Back Into The Sun.

The next big debut was the self-titled album from Glasgow’s Franz Ferdinand. Leading with the absolutely brilliant masterpiece of double-meaning, “Take Me Out,” the rest of the album is nearly as great. References are made to American band Interpol and post-punk influences like Gang Of Four, but the band has a really strong, sexy identity of their own.

Less sexy and clever, but certainly earnest and ambitious, are Razorlight. Sounding like the Libertines if they tried to cover Richard Hell & the Voidoids and The Patti Smith Group, leader Johnny Borrell is undoubtedly a class A d-bag. I’ve seen them live and he just exudes it, just asking to be punched. But passion on tracks like “Golden Touch,” “Up All Night” and “Don’t Go Back To Dalston” won me over, as they did over a million British album buyers. Unfortunately they fired their secret weapon, awesome drummer Christian Smith-Pancorvo, and everything they did thereafter was excretable.

The Futureheads came blazing like early XTC at warp speed and supercharged harmonies. While their best song is a cover, of Kate Bush’s “Hounds Of Love” (guaranteed goosebumps), there’s another good handful of songs, though the album starts to tire one out after a while. They would evolve into a sort of cerebral pop band not unlike how Madness developed. There’s a bunch of other “B Team” bands that later became the target of scorn like this gleefully brutal ILM thread, the landfill that time forgot: crap uk bands of 00s/10s, though it also included more on the MOR end like Snow Patrol, The Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, Starsailor, The Kooks, and Scouting For Girls. While they may have failed to make consistent albums, I still like a bunch of songs by The Bees, The Ordinary Boys, Dogs Die In Hot Cars, The Cribs and The Zutons. The Cribs got some attention for briefly having Johnny Marr join the band, while Sam Preston of The Ordinary Boys got some fame via the TV show Celebrity Big Brother.

2004 Playlist: Franz Ferdinand – Jacqueline, Take Me Out, The Dark Of The Matinee, This Fire, Darts Of Pleasure, Michael, 40′; The Bees – No Atmosphere, The Russian, Hourglass; The Ordinary Boys – Over The Counter Culture, Week In, Week Out, Talk Talk Talk, Little Bitch, Weekend Revolution; Dogs Die In Hot Cars – I Love You Cause I Have To, Celebrity Sanctum, Apples And Oranges, Godhopping; The Cribs – You Were Always The One, Things You Should Be Knowing, Another Number; The Futureheads – Robot, Decent Days And Nights, Danger Of The Water, Hounds Of Love, Man Ray; Razorlight – Rock ‘n’ Roll Lies, Vice, Up All Night, Rip It Up, Don’t Go Back To Dalston, Golden Touch; The Zutons – Pressure Point, You Will You Won’t, Remember Me.

One of the harder sounding bands, Maxïmo Park, with Paul Smith’s Geordie accent, they could be mistaken for a yob’s band, if it weren’t for their bittersweet themes of lovelorn underdogs, and a mad rush of ideas compressed into concise songs not unlike their mates The Futureheads. Over half the songs of all three of their albums are keepers.

At first glance The Rakes seem to be one of the more straightforward and simple punk-inspired bands of the bunch. However, like The Stranglers, their taught and tight arrangements keep things free of clutter, allowing the songwriting to shine and reveal their timelessness in hindsight. They’ve enjoyed heavy rotation in my house, where my love of them perhaps surpasses good reason. Their second and third albums were unfairly underrated, and sadly the band folded in 2009.

Bloc Party were destined to do better in the U.S. than their peers, with their post-punk influences balanced by anthems that manage to be emotic rather than emetic. The appeal of Dogs, on the other hand, was limited to only one side of the pond, though Johnny Cooke’s raw vocals roughed up some perfectly catching songs just right. Field Music are somewhat misfits here, having more in common with 70s art rock, but their debut was too good not to mention. While some complained Editors were a poor imitation of Interpol, the truth is that they’re an improvement. Pete Doherty’s post-Libertines band Babyshambles was nearly a complete disaster, with only one decent song called “Fuck Forever.” Franz Ferdinand achieved what most bands failed to do, improving on their debut album.

2005 Playlist: Maxïmo Park – Apply Some Pressure, Graffiti, Postcard Of A Painting, Limassol, The Night I Lost My Friend; Art Brut – Emily Kane; The Ordinary Boys – Boys Will Be Boys, Life Will Be The Death Of Me, Skull & Bones, A Few Home Truths, Rudy’s In Love; The Rakes – Strasbourg, Retreat, 22 Grand Job, Open Book, Binary Love, Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club, Sleep); Babyshambles – Fuck Forever; Field Music – Luck Is A Fine Thing, It’s Not The Only Way To Feel Happy, You Can Decide; The Brakes – Heard About Your Band, I Can’t Stand To Stand Beside You, All Night Disco Party; Bloc Party – Like Eating Glass, Banquet, Blue Light, She’s Hearing Voices, This Modern Love, Little Thoughts; Editors – Lights, Munich, Blood, Bullets; The Cribs – Hey Scenesters!, Mirror Kisses, The Wrong Way To Be; Dogs – London Bridge, Selfish Ways, Donkey, End Of An Era; Franz Ferdinand – The Fallen, Do You Want To, Eleanor Put Your Boots On, I’m Your Villain; Hard-Fi – Cash Machine, Stars Of CCTV.

While Carl Barat’s own post-Libertines band Dirty Pretty Things had a much stronger debut than his old mate’s Babyshambles, it doesn’t come close to the thrills of Up The Bracket. 2006 saw decent to solid followups from the Elvis Costello-influenced The Ordinary Boys and The Futureheads, but it’s no wonder Arctic Monkeys caused such a stir with their breathless, blustery debut. Their snide humor and densely chaotic riffs made everyone around them sound just a bit listless. I thought they were a bit too headache-inducing at first, and didn’t realize until after their second album that it was partly due to badly ripped MP3s. While their debut isn’t exactly a classic, it holds up pretty well, and they improved on Favourite Worat Nightmare (2007), reworked their sound on Humbug (2009), and sound better than ever on Suck It And See (2011).

2006 Playlist: The Ordinary Boys – Lonely At The Top, Nine2five, Thank You And Goodnight, Boys Will Be Boys; Ladyfuzz – Bouncy Ball; The Futureheads – Yes/No, Fallout, Skip To The End, Back To The Sea, Area; The Victorian English Gentlemens Club – The Tales Of Hermit Mark, Impossible Sightings Over Shelton; Young Knives – Weekends And Bleak Days (Hot Summer), Here Comes The Rumour Mill, She’s Attracted To, Loughbrough Suicide; Dirty Pretty Things – Deadwood, Bang Bang You’re Dead, The Enemy, Last Of The Small Town Playboys; Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, Fake Tales Of San Francisco, You Probably Couldn’t See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me, Riot Van, When The Sun Goes Down.

In 2007 the flavor of the year was The Klaxons, who jokingly came up with the term “nu-rave,” which was stupid enough to take off in the press much to their dismay. A few brilliant singles, particularly “Gravity’s Rainbow” showed a ton of potential. However, Maxïmo Park, Field Music, Arctic Monkeys, Good Shoes, Mother and The Addicts, The Rakes, The Maccabees, Editors and Dogs all released better albums. Even Babyshambles nearly managed to put together a consistently good album.

2007 Playlist: Bloc Party – Hunting For Witches, Waiting For The 7.18, The Prayer, I Still Remember; Editors – Bones, Spiders; The Maccabees – X-Ray, Latchmere, Precious Time; Arctic Monkeys – Brianstorm, Teddy Picker, Flourescent Adolescent; The Cribs – Men’s Needs, Our Bovine Public, Girls Like Mystery, I’ve Tried Everything; Klaxons – Atlantis To Interzone, Golden Skans, As Above, So Below, Gravity’s Rainbow; Maxïmo Park – Girls Who Play Guitars, Our Velocity, Books From Boxes, Russian Literature, By The Monument, Parisian Skies; Mother & the Addicts – Watch The Lines, So Tough; Babyshambles – You Talk, Side Of The Road, There She Goes, Baddies Boogie; Dogs – Dirty Little Shop, Soldier On, Winston Smith, This Stone Is A Bullet, On A Bridge, By A Pub; The Rakes – The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect, Little Superstitions, We Danced Together, Trouble, Suspicious Eyes, When Tom Cruise Cries; Good Shoes – The Photos On My Wall, Morden, Never Meant To Hurt You; Field Music – Give It Lose It Take It, Tones Of Town, A House Is Not A Home, In Context.

One of the best new albums of 2008 came from newcomers Pete & the Pirates, who recall Orange Juice and various jangly New Zealand bands, with a knack for quirky, distinctive harmonies. It was largely unheralded, while Wild Beasts attracted more attention with their own unusual vocal approach that recalls the 90s Too Pure band Long Fin Killie. Bloc Party did a quick turnaround with their third album, Intimacy. They were getting self-conscious about their post-punk roots and strove to expand their reach to dance music and Public Image Ltd. territory, resulting in a less consistent album, but some great highlights.

2008 Playlist: Bloc Party – Mercury, Zephyrus, Ion Square, Letter To My Son, Flux; Wild Beasts – The Devil’s Crayon, His Grinning Skull, She Purred While I Grrred, Pete & the Pirates – Ill Love, Come On Feet, She Doesn’t Belong To Me, Knots, Mr. Understanding, Bears; Dirty Pretty Things – Buzzards & Crows, Hippy’s Son, Best Face, Truth Begins; Young Knives – Fit 4 U, Up All Night, Light Switch, Turn Tail; The Futureheads – Radio Heart, Sale Of The Century, Broke Up The Time, Sleet; These New Puritans – Numerology (AKA Numbers), Infinity Ytinifni, Elvis.

In 2009, Arctic Monkeys, The Cribs, Editors, The Rakes, Maxïmo Park, and Franz Ferdinand all released their third albums, with mostly very good results. But Wild Beasts are operating on another plane of existence, their vapor trails leaving lingering memories of luminous bands like The Associates, The Blue Nile and Talk Talk.

2009 Playlist: Arctic Monkeys – My Propeller, Crying Lightning, Secret Door, Cornerstone, Dance Little Liar; The Cribs – City Of Bugs, Ignore The Ignorant, Stick To Yr Guns; Editors – Bricks And Mortar, The Big Exit; The Rakes – The Loneliness of the Outdoor Smoker, Bitchin’ In The Kitchin’, 1989, Muller’s Ratchet, The Final Hill; The Victorian English Gentlemens Club – Parrot, Bored In Belgium, I Say What I See; Maxïmo Park – Wraithlike, Let’s Get Clinical, Roller Disco Dreams; Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses, Turn It On, No You Girls, Bite Hard, Lucid Dreams; Wild Beasts – Hooting & Howling, All The King’s Men, We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues; The Maccabees – Love You Better, Can You Give It, Dinosaurs, Kiss And Resolve, William Powers.

A slow year, 2010 was kicked off by Good Shoes. Only on their second album, they already sound more world-weary than bands that have been active half a decade before them. Like The Rakes, who disbanded that year, they can no longer run purely on youthful exhuberance and cockiness and wrote a great batch of songs. Albums from Klaxons and The Futureheads were slightly disappointing.

These New Puritans, however, showed how acolytes of The Fall, Wire and Gang Of Four can still create something quite original. While they lack tunefulness, their unique arrangements more than make up for it in power.

2010 Playlist: These New Puritans – We Want War, Hologram, Fire-Power; Good Shoes – The Way My Heart Beats, Under Control, Our Loving Mother In A Pink Diamond, City By The Sea; Klaxons – Echoes, Flashover, Future Memories; The Futureheads – Struck Dumb, Heartbeat Song, The Connector, This Is The Life, The Baron; Two Door Cinema Club – Something Good Can Work, I Can Talk, Undercover Martyn.

Things are picking up in 2011. In the first half of the year there’s already a half dozen great albums, with newcomers Frankie & the Heartstrings, The Chapman Family and The Vaccines, the return of Pete & the Pirates, Young Knives, the fourth album from Arctic Monkeys, and a brilliant third album from Wild Beasts. It’s a bit early to say a lot about them other than the Pete & the Pirates album is wonderful, and being completely ignored as usual, while The Vaccines are being targeted with a lot of scorn in some reviews. While their songs are simple, they sound pretty great to me. There’s a bunch of other bands that could theoretically fit here, like British Sea Power and New Young Pony Club, but their sound just didn’t seem to fit. The new Wild Beasts album is massively different from anything else in the list, but when key songs are heard in the mix, it makes sense. Now, in the tradition of the British weekly papers that try to hype the next big band before they’ve even finished recording a debut album, I’ll take a whack at predicting fame for a band called The Heartbreaks from Morecambe, supposedly one of the worst places on Earth. Here’s a video:

2011 Playlist: Arctic Monkeys – Library Pictures, Piledriver Waltz, Suck It And See; The Chapman Family – 1000 Lies, A Million Dollars, All Fall, Anxiety; Frankie & the Heartstrings – Hunger, It’s Obvious, Photograph, Tender, Ungrateful; Pete & the Pirates – Blood Gets Thin, Cold Black Kitty, Half Moon Street, Jennifer, United, Winter 1; The Vaccines – Blow It Up, If You Wanna, Norgaard, Post Break-Up Sex, Wetsuit, Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra); Young Knives – Glass House, Love My Name, Sister Frideswide, Woman.

Anglophila 2002-2011

Wild Beasts – Smother (Domino) 11
Franz Ferdinand – You Could Have It So Much Better (Domino) 05
Franz Ferdinand (Domino)04
Pete & the Pirates – Little Death (Stolen) 08
The Rakes – Capture/Release (V2 UK)05
The Libertines – Up The Bracket (Rough Trade) 02
Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (Wichita/V2) 05
These New Puritans – Hidden (Domino) 10
Field Music (Memphis Industries UK)05
Maxïmo Park – Our Earthly Pleasures (Warp) 07
Field Music – Tones Of Town (Memphis Industries) 07
Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare (Domino) 07
Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (Domino) 06
The Vaccines – What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? (Columbia) 11
Pete & the Pirates – One Thousand Pictures (Stolen) 11
Editors – The Back Room (Kitchenware UK)05
Razorlight – Up All Night (Vertigo UK)04
Wild Beasts – Two Dancers (Domino) 09
The Rakes – Klang! (V2) 09
Good Shoes – Think Before You Speak (Brille/EMI UK) 07
Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See (Domino) 11
Mothers and the Addicts – Science Fiction Illustrated (Chemikal Underground) 07
The Rakes – Ten New Messages (V2) 07
Maximo Park – A Certain Trigger (Warp)05
Dogs – Turn Against This Land (Island UK)05
The Chapman Family – Burn Your Town (PIAS/Electric Toaster) 11
Good Shoes – No Hope No Future (Brille) 10
The Futureheads – News And Tributes (679)06
Frankie And The Heartstrings – Hunger (Wichita) 11
Franz Ferdinand – Tonight (Sony) 09
Young Knives – Ornaments From The Silver Arcade (Gadzook) 11
The Maccabees – Colour It In (Polydor) 07
Wild Beasts – Limbo, Panto (Domino) 08
Art Brut – Bang Bang Rock and Roll (Rough Trade) 05
Editors – An End Has A Start (Kitchenware UK) 07
The Coral (Sony UK)02
Dogs – Tall Stories From Under The Table (Weekender) 07
The Klaxons – Myths of the Near Future (Universal) 07
The Futureheads (Fantastic UK)04
Maxïmo Park – Quicken The Heart (Warp) 09
Bloc Party – A Weekend In The City (Vice) 07
Arctic Monkeys – Humbug (Domino) 09
Bloc Party – Intimacy (Wichita) 08
The Maccabees – Wall Of Arms (Fiction) 09
Editors – In This Light On This Evening (Columbia) 09
Two Door Cinema Club – Tourist History (Kitsune) 10
The Victorian English Gentlemens Club – Love On An Oil Rig (This Is Fake DIY) 09
The Dirty Pretty Things – Waterloo To Anywhere (Universal) 06
These New Puritans – Beat Pyramid (Angular/Domino) 08
The Bees – Free The Bees (Virgin UK)04
The Ordinary Boys – Over The Counter Culture (B-Unique UK)04
The Klaxons – Surfing The Void (Polydor UK) 10
The Futureheads – The Chaos (NUL) 10
Young Knives – Superabundance (Transgressive) 08
The Cribs – Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever (V2) 07
The Cribs – Ignore The Ignorant (Wichita) 09
The Cribs (Wichita UK)04
Ladyfuzz – Kerfuffle (Transgressive/WEA International) 06
Dogs Die In Hot Cars – Please Describe Yourself (V2)04
Babyshambles – Shotters Nation (Astralwerks) 07
Dirty Pretty Things – Romance At Short Notice (Vertigo) 08
The Futureheads – This Is Not The World (Nul) 08
The Victorian English Gentlemens Club (Republic of Music) 06
The Ordinary Boys – How to Get Everything You Ever Wanted in Ten Easy Steps (B-Unique) 06
The Zutons – Who Killed The Zutons? (Deltasonic UK)04
Young Knives – Voices of Animals And Men (Transgressive) 06
The Ordinary Boys – Brassbound (B Unique) 05
The Brakes – Give Blood (Rough Trade) 05
Coral – The Invisible Invasion (Sony) 05
The Cribs – The New Fellas (Wichita UK)05
Babyshambles – Down In Albion (Rough Trade) 05