The Darling Buds' ebullient songs, packed with bright melodies, frank lyrics, and cutting guitars, helped form the bridge from C86 to Britpop. The Welsh group made their recorded debut a year after NME's 1986 cassette snapshot of the British indie scene, and soon placed two singles in the Top Five of the U.K. independent chart. Signed to major-label Epic, their driving first album, Pop Said... (1989), produced a Top 40 pop hit and peaked higher yet on the U.K. album chart. The swift follow-up Crawdaddy (1990) incorporated dance rhythms without stifling the band's pop instincts and appealed to the States with two songs on Billboard's alternative chart. The Darling Buds bowed out with Erotica (1992), a dreamier set that preceded Britpop's emergence by a year. Frontwoman and songwriter Andrea Lewis re-formed the band with past members in 2010. They've since recorded the Evergreen EP (2017).