Faster than a cannonball

Decades tend to crest halfway through, and 1995 was the year of the Nineties: peak Britpop (Oasis v Blur), peak YBA (Tracey Emin’s tent), peak New Lad (when Nick Hornby published High Fidelity, when James Brown’s ‘Loaded’ detonated the publishing industry, and when pubs were finally allowed to stay open on a Sunday). This book is a cultural swipe of the decade from loungecore to the rise of New Labour, teasing all the relevant artistic strands through interviews with all the major protagonists and exhaustive re-evaluations of the important records of the year – ‘The Bends’ by Radiohead, ‘Grand Prix’ by Teenage Fanclub, ‘Maxinquaye’ by Tricky, ‘Different Class’ by Pulp, and ‘The Great Escape’ by Blur.