Elastica, Elastica

Elastica's self-titled debut is a fantastic burst of sharp, punky, female-fronted pop rock. It pays homage to its influences such as The Stranglers, Wire and The Fall, often far too obviously (the main riff from "Connection" IS taken from a Wire song no matter what the band say and "Waking Up" is cribbed from "No More Heroes" by the Stranglers). The lyrics can often be a bit throwaway with songs about groupies, car fetishes, drunken boyfriends and ennui, but, as a complete package, the album works very well and it's nice to see an early Suede track from Justine Frischman's time with that band resurface as "Vaseline." This was one of the defining albums of the Britpop era, it's a great testament to the power of female-fronted bands and, quite frankly, is just great to jump around to.