Britpop was an excellent time for singles, huge indie-rock anthems that have stood the test of time (longer than a lot of the bands lasted, actually). But there was also a literal bonus flipside to all the hits, and that was the sheer magnitude of brilliant B-sides. Even better was that it was the era of both the maxi CD and bands being forced by their labels to release two versions, all backed with a plethora of bonus material to throw yourself into. For some bands, this extra homework resulted in songs to match the A-sides. Here are some of the best Britpop B-sides, crack cuts that never made a Shine compilation:
Ash – Sneaker (1996)
Northern Irish trio Ash were one of Britpop’s finest singles bands, their songs a perfect balance of punk-pop chaos and classic melodicism. If their lead tracks required something a little more refined, it was on their B-sides where they really cut loose. Their B-sides usually fell into two categories: cover versions of the sort that you didn’t see their more serious, frowny-faced peers attempting (John Williams’ Cantina Band or ABBA’s Does Your Mother Know, anyone?) or the sort of sonic carnage you save for the final ten minutes of a particularly drunken band rehearsal. From the Goldfinger single, Sneaker is one of the best from the latter category, a thrashy and riotous three and a half minutes that was a sort of cover version – the song was originally by a band of the same who featured Ash’s Mark Hamilton and Rick McMurray in their line-up.
Blur – Young And Lovely (1993)
It was around their second album Modern Life Is Rubbish that Blur really became Blur. Burnt out by an exhausting US tour, they returned to the UK determined to tap into a more British, homespun sound, emerging with a collection of songs melding Damon Albarn’s Kinks-y hooks with Graham Coxon’s Smiths-style guitars, Albarn's lyrics exploring the mundanity and melancholy of humdrum Britain. In doing so, they found their natural selves, to the point that classics such as this lovely, swaying number was relegated to a B-side, featuring on 1993’s Chemical World single. They’ve made sure since that it’s had its moment in the spotlight, featuring as part of the setlist in some of their warm-up shows in 2023.
Oasis – Acquiesce (1995)
Peak Oasis were so good at B-sides that the album collating them all, 1998’s The Masterplan, ranks as one of their best. In fact, if Noel Gallagher hadn’t been quite so antsy to get all these gems he’d written out there as soon as possible, then there might well have been a third classic Oasis album to sit alongside Definitely Maybe and …Morning Glory instead of Be Here Now and, you know, the other ones. There is a lot to take your pick from amongst their B-sides, whether it be Noel Gallagher in acoustic, contemplative mode (Talk Tonight, Half A World Away), one of their punkiest moments (Headshrinker) or straight-up how-the-hell-is-this-a-B-side epics (The Masterplan) but Acquiesce gets the nod. It’s an Oasis all-timer, combining a chest-pumping rock’n’roll groove with soulful vocal interplay between Liam and Noel Gallagher, the only time they duetted on an Oasis song. Surely, as they did around its release, they’ve got to open with this next summer?
Mansun – Ski Jump Nose (1996)
At their best, Chester quartet Mansun were wonderfully strange, both a prime Britpop band whose rattling indie-rock had super-powered 60s pop melodies but who were also too restlessly weird to properly fit in. By the time of their 1998 second record Six, they had mostly shaken off their poppier moments and become a sort of awkward indie-prog hybrid but with their debut album and a number of singles and EPs, they left behind plenty to mine for gems. From their ’97 Closed For Business EP, the pulsing, skulking Everyone Must Win deserves an honorary mention but Ski Jump Nose, from 1996’s Egg Shaped Fred single, is Mansun at their finest, giddy and silly and armed with a big riff and infectious, holler-along chorus.
Elastica – See That Animal (1994)
Led by the insouciant singer and guitarist Justine Frischmann, London quartet Elastica were one of the 90s most effortlessly cool guitar bands. Their best singles are draped around that streak of whateverness nonchalance – their big hit Connection might as well have been called I Don’t Actually Care If You Don’t Listen To Me – and their B-sides were just as soaked in art-school attitude. This one, which backed up Connection, is an excellent whirlwind of stomping drums, clanking guitars and Frischmann’s vocal eye-rolls.
Radiohead – Talk Show Host (1996)
Are Radiohead Britpop? Definitely not. Would they blacklist me for life if they saw I had put them on a Britpop list? Almost certainly. But if you consider Britpop to cover British bands with guitars making music that took a 60s template and put a modern spin on it then you can (sort of) include Radiohead. Just don’t tell them, please. Radiohead pushed things further forward than most, though, and Talk Show Host isn’t just one of their best B-sides, it’s one of their greatest songs, period. With its minimalist minor chord riff, stop-start, hip-hop-tinged rhythmics and a mesmeric Thom Yorke vocal, it’s the sound of a band beginning to turn rock music inside out. It was a blueprint for their next move, and their next move was OK Computer.
Manic Street Preachers – Dead Trees And Traffic Islands
Well, I’m playing fast and loose now, aren’t I? The Manics were not Britpop before Everything Must Go (if they were, 1994’s proto-Faster cut Comfort Comes would be in this list instead) and they weren’t Britpop after, but for a brief moment around 1996, they were definitely part of the Britpop parade. They were even on the bill at Knebworth, which is basically the gig version of getting a tattoo that says We Were Part Of Britpop. Plus this B-side to the era-defining A Design For Life is a proper little gem, a curio in their catalogue because (a) it contains a flute, (b) James Dean Bradfield sounds a bit like Sting on it and (c) it’s really good.
Supergrass – Wait For The Sun
The run of singles around Supergrass’s debut I Should Coco were basically E number rock’n’roll, fantastic and frantic indie anthems that were gone before you could get to grips with them. But in the Oxford trio’s B-sides, they were already hinting at something a little more contemplative to come. There was the doleful splendour of Odd?, which backed up the bouncy Mansize Rooster, and this, from the Lenny single, a plaintive acoustic number with lush melodies and a gentle sadness in its soul.
Suede – My Insatiable One
Even more than their albums, B-sides were where Suede fully and wholedarkheartedly embraced maximum Suedeness. It was a standard they set from the off – My Insatiable One featured as the B-side to their Britpop-igniting debut single The Drowners, setting a standard that they rarely let slip (well, until they got to Head Music and A New Morning, anyway).
Super Furry Animals – Guacamole (1996)
Welsh rabble Super Furry Animals were one of Britpop’s most inventive bands and they didn’t curb their wildly imaginative ways on B-sides, as this shows: it sounds like Elvis singing a Ziggy Stardust-song from the middle of a sleep psychosis breakdown. Glorious stuff.
