Britpop started its descent into half-assed second and third waves just after the September 1996 release of Suede’s comeback record Coming Up. And by the early part of 1998, Jarvis Cocker and Pulp were properly eulogizing the UK’s brash comet-trail genre with the stark morning-after finality of This Is Hardcore.
So with that in mind, we’re looking at just over 15 years since we’ve had a truly great Britpop single. Imagine our surprise here in the schizophrenic 2014 that it’s arrived in the form of “Millions,” an album cut off Gerard Way’s debut solo record, Hesitant Alien.
We gave the former My Chemical Romance frontman’s new effort a spin last night, and maybe it’s because we were mildly-distracted from prepping another edition of Britpop Social Club, but holy shit he wasn’t kidding when he said his new material was inspired by Britpop.
We’ll just go ahead and say it: This is the best Britpop song in at least 15 years. Sorry to all the high-number wavers the NME and Melody Maker briefly winked at in the late-’90s; this is what we’ve been missing.
Hesitant Alien is out this week on Reprise Records, and Way performs at a sold-out Paradise Rock Club in Boston on October 19 — 10 days after our next Britpop Social Club.
Listen to “Millions” — and the rest of the record — via Soundcloud below…