The Best Album in the World...Ever Vol.1

There are britpop fellow travellers such as the Prodigy, Fluke and the Chemical Brothers, all of whom appeared on the soundtrack to the Playstation hit "Wipeout" and its sequel, and who were not indie guitar bands at all. There is nothing by Orbital, however.

The biggest omission is drum'n'bass, which was the hippest thing imaginable at the time; instead of Goldie's "Inner City Life" or Tricky's cover of "Black Steel" there is "Lifeforms" by FSOL, which isn't really drum'n'bass and isn't even the best song that FSOL group did. As with britpop in general, of the roughly two hundred people who appear in the bands on this record roughly half a dozen are not white europeans.

It's odd to search for Goldie and find Goldie Lookin' Chain rather than Goldie (pause) Goldie. Drum'n'bass really was quite extraordinarily hip, I can't express it in words.

It is fascinating to read the tracklisting of this decade-old release and ponder on those britpop artists that were popular at the time but have since vanished into obscurity; I believe the majority of the bands have split up since 1995 or are no longer recording (conversely New Order has reformed).

As for being the "best album in the world ever" the title is clearly nonsense; that would imply that the first decent rock single in the world (ever) was This Charming an by the Smiths.


The best of the Best of series...   April 20, 2003
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

The mid-nineties was a fine-time for British music; a time when pop music hadn't been pop-starred and manufactured, it was the day of the guitairs and monkey side-burns, tight fitting T-shirts and 'Trainspotting'. It was the day of Brit-pop.
It's no wonder that this album that plucked the best of the charts of the time, comes up with a wide variety of fantastic tunes. With the Brit-poppers and rockers on one CD: Oasis (at their best), Blur, Charlatans, Supergrass, Pulp, Skunk Anansie and Stone Roses, and the dancier tunes of the Prodigy, Primal Scream and KLF on the other.
This is music that takes me back to a very sunny Glastonbury festival in 1995 when Supergrass and Sleeper rocked the NME stage and Boo Radleys 'Wake up Boo' was the theme of the summer.
This album is an absolute must for all that were teens in the mid-nineties and need to be reminded that actually the chart music was pretty damn good back in the day.