Suede

They were declared the Best Band in Britain in 1992 (by Melody Maker) before they'd even released a single, let alone an album — but as soon as tracks like "The Drowners" and "Metal Mickey" appeared, the immense hype was instantly justified. Suede was both glamorous and grubby, beautiful and trashy, a heavenly commingling of the spirits of Bowie and Morrissey. Rock out, while swooning consumptively, to Suede's Next Steps.

Suede introduced themselves with a fistful of sharp three-and-a-bit minute rock scorchers, but when the time came for a follow-up to their self-titled debut, the full extent of the band's ambitions was given rein, despite growing tensions between iconic front man Bret Anderson and mercurial guitarist Bernard Butler. So, on Dog Man Star, "The Asphalt World" weaves its sinuous way past the nine-minute mark. Lose yourself in some of Suede's rarities and later material, in Deep Cuts.

If early Suede mined a tragic-romantic council home landscape of dragon-chasing, nitrate-popping, and heart-breaking, the band's final incarnation (with guitarist Butler long gone) was a comparatively breezy affair — probably because Anderson had successfully faced his narcotic demons and gone clean. "Positivity" from 2002's A New Morning says it all.

Suede was the first twist on the accelerator of the Britpop scooter that hurtled through the '90s: a band that achieved — over their first two albums, at least — a gorgeously balanced and highly potent distillation of the great British rock heroes (notably Bowie and the Smiths) who had preceded them. Bret Anderson flung himself into the business of leading the band with the dark panache of Lord Byron; Bernard Butler commanded the musical backdrop with elegant swirls of guitar — and, for a while, all the stars aligned. By the release of Suede's final single (2003's "Attitude") the quickening had dulled, but this collection is a thrilling reminder of greatness.