scotland

The hype around Astrid at the end of the nineties was enormous. The NME mentioned them every week but, unless you caught them live, you had little idea what they sounded like beyond the joyous write-ups. A power pop revival was underway, and Astrid crossed it with jangly C86 and Teenage Fanclub influences. No album could have lived up to the expectations—mine, anyway. But the single “It’s True” and its b-sides, “For Your Girlfriend” and “Boston”, are a high watermark of the post-Britpop years. Some bands put everything into a debut album and never get back there. Astrid did it a release earlier.

Nice piece remembering Glasgow’s 90s DIY scene. I never saw Urusei Yatsura play but I loved their records and enjoyed their progression from twee enjoyers of Japanese culture to something a little more muscular and cynical. Suspected I heard them first on a Peel session, perhaps the one mentioned here. I have a couple of their 7-inch records somewhere.