The Radio One Sessions (BBC) [Live]

Editors’ Notes Elastica took five years to record a follow-up to their 1995 self-titled debut album. In the meantime, they appeared on Britain’s Radio One cranking out their glorious noise with a riotous intensity. Singer Justine Frischmann could sneer with the best of them. Tracks such as “Spastica,” “Line Up” “Vaseline” and “In the City” express the group’s tough exterior as they held down the harder end of the Britpop Revolution of the ‘90s. (Frischmann was an early member of Suede and later the muse for Blur’s Damon Albarn). The band recorded a few obligatory numbers for the holidays (“All for Gloria,” “I Wanna Be a King of Orient Ash”) and included a cover of Wire’s “Only Human” for a nod at their influences. The band plays with keyboards in search of their next direction (“KB,” a cover of Trio’s “Da Da Da”). But by the end (“Generator,” “Your Arse My Place”), the band, with new guitarist Paul Jones, are in place putting forth as strong and idiosyncratic a signal as any of their generation.