The La's

Alongside acts like Happy Mondays and the Smiths, Liverpool’s succinctly, yet perfectly named the La’s are amongst the definitive British rock acts of the late ‘80s. At a time when British rock was still reeling from the colossal impact of the punk revolution of the late ‘70s, the La’s emerged with a set of sharply composed, self- confident pop classics on their 1987 debut. The sweetly melodic, Velvet Underground-aping “There She Goes” is in many ways the band’s defining moment, but from the woozy faux-vaudeville of “Freedom Song” to the frantic mod outrage of “I Can’t Sleep,” The La’s is jam packed with carefully crafted radio-ready pop leavened by literate songwriting and an impressively fierce punk bite. One of the few out-and-out masterpieces to emerge from England in the late ‘80s, and an important influence on the subsequent Britpop movement of the early ‘90s The La’s is a perfect wonder.