Responding to a fan on Twitter last week, Liam Gallagher dismissed rumours of new Oasis material with a defiant, “Nostalgia forever.” And why not? If you can break box office records simply by playing the hits, why leave your comfort zone and risk sullying your legacy? Oasis serve as an extreme case study, but in an overcrowded 90s nostalgia market, many bands face a similar dilemma.
Originally active from 1990 to 2009, when Stereolab ended their decade-long hiatus in 2019 it was only to tour in support of some expanded reissues. Happily, somewhere along the way the creative impulse kicked back in, resulting in May’s Instant Holograms on Metal Film – the Anglo-French outfit’s first studio album in 15 years. It remains one of 2025’s finest, positing the alt-pop pioneers alongside Pulp in an extremely rarefied club of so-called heritage acts still in their artistic prime.
