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Spotlighting the impact of cultural landmarks
25 years on from Suede’s eponymously titled debut, Jeremy Allen rediscovers a record that shares a lineage with glam rock, music hall and Victorian burlesque and is not afraid to explore the underbelly of British sexuality. Photos courtesy of Suede/Pat Pope, John Cheeves, Phillip Williams
Change was in the air in 1998 when a duo from Versailles released an album that did better internationally than it did in France. Jeremy Allen wonders if Moon Safari by Air was the point where Anglo Saxons stopped ignoring the surreptitious delights of French pop
You’re Under Arrest - the final album of Serge Gainsbourg - is often cited as the one where he tried his hand at hip hop. Jeremy Allen argues that it was more a consolidation of a proto-rap master after years of innovation and petty musical larceny
A quarter of a century ago, Diamond D and Pete Rock pioneered a new kind of artist: the rapper-producer. Angus Batey looks back on their remarkable debut LPs and wonders where it all went wrong for them, for rap, and for us
Yes Please! is the runt of the Happy Mondays’ litter, an album more likely to turn up on lists of career-ending releases and studio disasters than on playlists and radio. But as Yes Please! approaches its 25th anniversary, could this least redeemable of albums be due a critical re-think? Ben Cardew pushes for a place in history for this unique work of ageing, regret and disaster
The Smiths’ last studio album was their most ambitious, adventurous and experimental, too. Thirty years on, Ben Hewitt looks back on the forward-thinking record that could have been the start of a new chapter, rather than a full-stop