The La's

Editors’ Notes Alongside acts like Happy Mondays and the Smiths, Liverpool’s succinctly, yet perfectly named the La’s are amongst the definitive British rock acts of the late ‘80s. At a time when British rock was still reeling from the colossal impact of the punk revolution of the late ‘70s, the La’s emerged with a set of sharply composed, self- confident pop classics on their 1987 debut. The sweetly melodic, Velvet Underground-aping “There She Goes” is in many ways the band’s defining moment, but from the woozy faux-vaudeville of “Freedom Song” to the frantic mod outrage of “I Can’t Sleep,” The La’s is jam packed with carefully crafted radio-ready pop leavened by literate songwriting and an impressively fierce punk bite. One of the few out-and-out masterpieces to emerge from England in the late ‘80s, and an important influence on the subsequent Britpop movement of the early ‘90s The La’s is a perfect wonder.