5. Suede | The Beautiful Ones

"The Beautiful Ones" by Suede from the album Coming Up (1996)

The raunchy glam-snorting singles on Suede's eponymous 1993 debut kickstarted Britpop, but it was their stream of neon singles three years later on the ubiquitous Coming Up that sealed their legacy. Here, Brett Anderson's chorus line of one-liners - "high on diesel and gasoline," "shaking their bits to the hits" - is an airy and breezy daydreamer counterbalance to overcommercialized times. Prodigal teenage guitarist Richard Oakes weaves electricity over the mock grave of Bernard Butler as Suede emerged glossier and more confident than ever. Fading out into spiraling a cascade of "la's," "Beautiful Ones" remains Suede's most underrated moment.

_Michael Marotta

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