20 years later this is still one of the best albums ever...

20 years later this is still one of the best albums ever recorded.

20 years ago Blur came out with The Great Escape which was a bit of a letdown, Oasis came out with (What’s the Story) Morning Glory which was quite memorable, but not stunning like Definitely Maybe.

Different Class was a powerful follow up to His ‘n’ Hers and like all Pulp albums it is a logical evolution in sound and style. A tongue in cheek maturity, a realistic aging of a musical genre.

Blur was trying too hard to re-shape the dark-comic Britpop wave they rode high after Parklife in 1993 while also maintaining an arm’s length from everyone else. Unfortunately on The Great Escape one could audibly hear the creak of the door closing on that era of Blur’s musical arc and most of the songs on that album are too slick and too phoned in to really land with a crisp snap like their previous albums and ultimately The Great Escape is a forgettable album with the exception of “Best Days” and “The Universal” (which, incidentally, was going to be the name of the album and would have been far more fitting.) Blur’s style hadn’t significantly evolved in any substantive way between 1993 and 1995 but the British music scene certainly had.

Oasis was continuing to get drunk and fight among themselves while attempting to power through stylistic shifts and the end result on (What’s the Story) Morning Glory is a collection of super-duper catchy, timely songs that fit perfectly within the fall of 1995. What makes this mediocre album stand out as a spectacular classic is its approachability. It’s easy and uncomplicated, it plays and flows across the spectrum. Oasis, unlike Blur, was, all bickering and arguing aside, heading in a direction. But above all, it is a very memorable album. If the Gallagher brothers weren’t the insufferable douchebags that they were in 1995 coupled with the push to make a release date in the fall of that same year, it could have been a spectacular album.

Blur had outgrown itself and that can be seen clearly two years later in 1997 in the release of their self titled album. Throughout The Great Escape each track was more heavy-handed than the last and even as a listener, one could feel the pressure they were under to produce something as fun, catchy, and playful as Parklife. You knew that they knew, it was well past time to leave the party.

Oasis was in the midst of growing, the feel of the music was very transitional. One could hear how their style was changing, but they weren’t fully creating. They were certainly testing the boundaries and making interesting choices, but they stuck close to home and kept things simple. Which really worked. Somehow they had an inkling of what they created, knew how to approach an audience, and had a vague notion that they needed to build on their success. The unfortunate thing about Oasis in 1995 was their own self-knowledge that they were on the edge of unfathomable success which played into their incredible arrogance and denseness. Luckily, in spite of the themselves, they somehow figured out that they had better keep it together because they’re one coke binge away from losing it all.

Pulp on the other hand didn’t writhe and itch in too tight fitting clothes like Blur nor did they stay close to home in the way that Oasis did. Pulp stayed close to home, but unlike Oasis they moved out of their parent’s house and into their own apartment, but they’re still in the same town. Different Class was a realistic progression from the youthful story of His 'n’ Hers but picked up where that narrative left off. His 'n’ Hers tells the tale of youthful, blissful ignorance which, over the course of the album, begins to find itself learning, growing up, maturing, albeit slightly. Different Class continues the story of that previous album, but now it’s as if they’re out of school, on their own and any control they thought they had is complicated by class, by money, by time, by age. The lipgloss of His 'n’ hers has been wiped away and the reality of making one’s own way in the world isn’t as simple as it seemed or as epic, but rather extraordinarily frustrating, difficult, unrewarding, pointless, and amazing.

It’s a powerful album, very expressive, very honest, and a fuckload of fun from start to finish.

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