Hms Fable

Perfectly listenable but also the blandest second tier britpop imaginable. Baffling inclusion

nuffin crazy in either sense

Pretty serviceable Britpop.

The first third had me considering whether being an oasis knockoff is something that scores you points or loses them. The lyrics are less relatable though. By the second half, more folk sensibilities have snuck their way in and I just can't help but be only mildly whelmed by this. Brits and their folk...

1999 Britpop Comedy Streets of kenny Since i met you

Unmemorable.

it's ok, nothing really stands out to me.

I don't have anything really bad to say, it's just most other music is better than this. Nothing popped and nothing made me go, ahh, that's why it's on here. I guess this is the representative for all lackluster middle of the road British pop.

I have to be in the mood but I enjoyed.

A really hidden gem. I would buy and listen to it again. First 5 songs were really good but then it lost some steam. Regardless, I really enjoyed it.

Natalie's Party - 2.5/5 Comedy - 2.5/5 Pull Together - 2.5/5 Beautiful - 2.5/5 Lend's Some Dough - 2/5 Captain's Table - 2.5/5 Streets of Kenny - 3/5 Reinstated - 2.5/5 I Want You - 2.5/5 Cornish Town - 2.5/5 Since I Met You - 2.5/5 Daniella - 2.5/5 Britpop was a plague brought the U.K. and we were all forced to suffer the massive weight of the battle between Oasis and Blur. Meanwhile these guys sound like some average band you'd get at your pup and chances are you will forget what they sounded like once reality hits you the next morning. But for some reason, critics think that this should be worth our time because they're tangentially related to the whole Britpop movement and therefore must be good. No, they're not. They're actually very bland and utterly forgettable. Overall: 2/5 Favorites: They all blended together

3.5

This was fine? Forgettable 90’s rock

I quite liked this. Jangly and catchy. The vocals lean into their Englishness. Solid effort.

I’m going to guess that whoever made this list was born after 1980 and really started feeling feelings in the late 90’s so the albums that hit them the hardest may not have been very good but they landed at just the right time.

Halfway between REM and Oasis. Not sure why I've never heard of this prior given when it came out? Feels like it should have been a smash at the time? The REM part thrills me. The Oasis part is a noper.

This is awful. No reason to be on this list. The best example of a 1 star album The best example of "Critics don't know shit." The best example of this being a colossal waste of time. The best example of "How did this band even get signed?!"

Grat album - like it very much.

bland

solidan britanski pop rok album, stoun rozes s 10 godina zakašnjenja, tj. kinksi s 40 godina zakašnjenja. u načelu dobro i na trenutke baš lijepo (zadnja stvar!), ali meni ipak nedovoljno dojmljivo da bi zaradilo četvorku mjesto trojke. ljudi na ovoj stranici treba da se ščilaju: kao što sam već jednom rekao, ispodprosječan britanski album i dalje je umnogome bolji od prosječnog američkog sranja [odslušano i napisano 9/10/26]

Production: 4 - sounds complete, lovely production and eveything sounds layered - great vocal layering - balanced musically in general - Great instrumentals Enjoyability: 1.5 - its alr but idk, not something I’d get obsessed with, kind of boring - Was looking forward to finish the album Songwriting / composition: 3 - imagery-rich writing but again quite simple - Good use of repetition - Nothing really profound Cohesion: 4 - uses consistent instrumentation and similar mixing styles and sound like they come from the same body of work Songs liked: 2/12

Bien.

The 90s gave us Nirvana, Ice-T, Alanis Morissette, Blur, Pulp, Oasis (I guess), underground classics like Lisa Loeb and Body Count—but it also gave us Friends theme that sold over a million copies. Unfortunately, Shack sound like some crappy hybrid of Hootie & the Blowfish and The Waterboys, the “I feel like I want to dies.” There are a few decent tracks, but they’re buried under an ocean of mundane songs.

Meh…

The songs are banal and forgettable. And the production is terrible! On "Beautiful" the violins are turned up to 11 so you can barely hear the vocals. What a weird choice. I vaguely remember "Natalie's Party," from back in the day, but that's it. I'm utterly baffled as to how this album made it onto this list.

Unfamiliar with this band but I’ve had a handful of 90s era Britpop bands so far so I will see how this sounds. It’s a solid 90s/2000s guitar heavy Britpop alt rock sound. Enjoying it early but it does seem very Oasis inspired and it’s not really jumping out as anything particularly original. Don’t think I ever realized how many of these Oasis type bands emerged after them. And there’s a reason I wouldn’t hear of this band even though Oasis way more stands the test of time. There’s also not been a single out song that stood out from the rest. There’s a defined sound and it’s all fine but nothing is really sticking with me. A lot of it I’m liking it though. Just all feels too generic to me. Didn’t hate anything about it and it was pretty good at times. Thought about going up to a 3, but the longer into this list I get, the more likely I am to rate down when it’s between numbers for me because I want something that stands out more.

Who knew the 90s could sound so shitty. And why couldn't they all sound like that last song? It was so much better in terms of songwriting than anything else on the album.

The dough song is pretty good, otherwise everything else is generic Brit pop that I could’ve lived without

A decent enough listen.

Pretty enjoyable. I kind of tuned out in the second half, but would definitely throw this album on as a mindless listen while I’m doing god knows what.

What a little gem. I didn’t know this album existed. I’m glad it does

ok

Really don’t get why this album is on the list. Such middle-of-the-road rock music.

another new album for me and a really great one. it has a bit of a slow burn. the first couple of tracks weren't working for me. by track 3, it's pretty much non-stop great tracks

I'm starting to get Britpop-ed out from this list. A lot of these albums are starting to sound the same to me. They're all the same cheery-ish, acoustic-ish, kind of hard to remember anything that happened after the last song ended kind of albums. I mean, this one's about pirate ships and whatnot, and I still think it's a pretty good album, but I'm pretty sure feeling like this when I'm only halfway through the list is a sign of things to come in the second half.

Unremarkable

Very bland

Excellent - saved the whole album to my Spotify account

Я щось не дуже зацінив. Майже весь альбом така собі дефолтна музика для радіо. Навіть cow bell в Pull Together не рятує ситуацію

Доволі посередній брітпоп альбом. Є непогані пісні (Pull Together наприклад), але більша частина просто ок, тому знов-таки дивно що він тут робить. десь між 2.5 і 3, послухав і забув.

2.5

Forgettable

i just couldn't qet into any of the songs. it's not bad, but, it sounds like a hundred other albums. did it pioneer any kind of sound? because i don't know why this should be in the list of 1001 otherwise

Never heard of them, but I enjoyed it more than I expected to. ★★★

It's 1999 and we are still getting must-hear BritPop. As expected, this band is English and this book loves English bands, so obviously this last gasp at 90's Brit-Pop must be heard...apparently. I feel like I type this on repeat, but this isn't a bad album. There are dozens of other artists who did what Shack is doing here and they did it (a) just as well and (b) earlier than Shack did. Pull Together is essentially an Oasis cosplay and plays like an outtake from one of their albums. I have heard dozens of comparable bands which could also deserve a place in this book. It seems this album was considered great because it was delayed and therefore highly anticipated. Feels like Shack got on the last helicopter out of the Liverpool 90's scene. My favorite tracks: Natalie's Party Comedy Pull Together Streets of Kenny Since I Met You

little odd

Ok

Not bad. Not great. Not listening again. 2.5 stars

Not for me. It was like a discount REM, something that belongs in the background. Doesn't stick out at all. Rating: 3/10 Favorite Song: Natalie's Party

A perfectly pleasant britpop album, but definitely not essential. This one's a skipper for me. The songs are fine, but nothing is really sticky. I actually got annoyed at the ending of "Streets of Kenny". Who ends a song like that? Outside of that, it's not offensive, but not outstanding. My Rating: 3/5

Incompreensível estar numa lista de 1001 para ouvir antes de morrer. Tem trocentos discos e bandas assim nos anos 90, várias mais representativas e melhores. É legalzinho pra quem curte esse rockzinho pop, como eu, mas não me passaria pela cabeça inserir numa lista dessas.

So when you pull up the Wikipedia page for an album before listening and pretty much all it says is "This album was made on (xxx date). It is featured in the book 1001 Albums..." and then goes straight to the song list, you can bet it is going to be a Britpop album that for whatever reason was nostalgic to the author of the book but nobody else really cared about it. Is that the case here? We shall see... Yeah kind of. It's sparkly early/mid 90s sounding Britpop, though maybe not the most Britpop-y Britpop out there. It actually kind of takes a turn toward folk towards the end which is not all that unwelcome I guess. But it is extremely dated, and oddly dated for like 5-7 years before it actually came out. I think they were a bit behind the times on this one. It's not bad but not groundbreaking or innovative in any way. I find it hard to justify including this on the list. I think I would rate this higher if I just randomly came across it somewhere but it being one of the 1001 seems a little much. 2.5/5 but rounding down because there's no way this belongs here.

It's ok its very this will be on the oasis boys label

Wie ist die vielen Leute vor mir schon gesagt haben, ein gewöhnliches Britpop Album. Macht einen wütend das sowas auf dieser Liste ist.....

ganz nett

Werde mich morgen nicht mehr an das Album erinnern. Aber das Albumcover gefällt mir

No. 434/1001 Natalie's Party 4/5 Comedy 4/5 Pull Together 4/5 Beautiful 3/5 Lend's Some Dough 3/5 Captain's Table 3/5 Streets of Kenny 3/5 Re-Instated 3/5 I Want You 3/5 Cornish Town 4/5 Since I Met You 3/5 Daniella 3/5 Average: 3,33 Nice listen, but nothing extraordinary.

Nothing too extraordinary here. Rounding up from a 2.5/5

Quite nice, nothing earth shattering. Elbow vibes but better.

I wanted more sea shanty but that's just not what this was, I wouldn't be mad if I had to listen to it again though

Yet more pleasant and inconsequential britpop that shouldn't have been within a million miles of the list, but it was written by British music journalists in 2005, so go figure

The opening song is telling me that this is another one of those 90s indie bands that would nice to experience as a single song in a radio set or as a live set at a bar. It’s got some tracks I could get behind, like “Streets of Kenny,” which had a lot of energy to it, but then you’ve got things like “Re-instated,” which sounded like 70’s lite rock and caused me to suffer a bit. This might be one of those albums that will improve on a second listen when I can familiarize myself with the lyrics a bit more, since it seems like there’s something there, but for now I’ll say that it was a pleasant 90s indie album, but if someone asked me about it I’d probably have to refer back to this review.

We've already got R.E.M. on this list. Why do we need this?

Is this Britpop? Pretty dull. This is one of the few entries where I've never heard of the band, not to mention the specific album. I guess that comes with being from the wrong side of the Atlantic and all. Every now and then the band picks up a little steam but never really does anything interesting with it. With the exception of a few tracks, this album's not actually bad, just soggy and uninspiring. It's just barely good enough to keep me from rating it a 2 but it feels too generous to give it a 3, as there are much better albums that I've rated 3, and one I rated a 2 that was not good but still a bit more enjoyable. Well, now I've talked myself into giving this a 2. Sorry Shack. Essential listen: no, while it's not terrible, I wouldn't recommend this even in a casual way Desert island disc: uh, no

this was sweet, I think

[Vibe review] I wasn't caring for it, and every sound became annoying when I realized that Operation: Doomsday (1999) isn't on the list but this 1999 album is. It was probably a banger in 1999, but it doesn't have much lasting power, imho.

i feel completely neutral about this album

Not bad, but I was hoping for sea shanties based off of the album art

I really enjoyed parts of this, and other parts really turned me away -- that bridge on "Natalie's Party" ruined the whole song for me. It felt very much like an Oasis-adjacent band (and to my surprise they signed to Noel in the 2000s). I thought overall it felt overproduced and I feel like if it were stripped back in some places that it would have been more appealing.

I apparently listened to this on May 3, 2026 and can’t remember the first thing about it. Not a great sign. Can I internalize anything new that isn’t Richard Hawley?

This album has some well written songs on it and was interesting to listen to. Some songs reminded me of the folk country rock groups of the early 70s.

Groupe inconnu. Rien d’original dans cet album pop/rock. Il m’a paru très long avec ses 12 morceaux, et les morceaux s’étirent en longueur, même si ils ne sont pas désagréable à écouter. Bref, je me suis plutôt ennuyé ! Pas de seconde écoute donc. =>2/5

So surprised by this album. Another Britpop album I actually liked

This was a fine album with some catchy tunes however I fail to see how it could be included on this list.

Iznenadila sam se što postoji nešto okarakterisano kao britpop što ne znam, a onda sam nakon slušanja albuma i skontala što ne znam. Ništa posebno, već se slabo sjećam šta sam odslušala, ali nije mi smetalo.

This is yet another testament of the brit-centered nuance of this list. The album itself is not bad, and I thought it was at least half interesting. However, as in many of the albums of the same style, I fail to see the significance that it could have to have landed in a list such as this one. 7/10 [DROP]

This was good. It’s a 3’z 3 bay-be.

I’m trying to decide who these guys sound like. I can pinpoint it but I think it’s because it’s really very generic pop. Maybe the Shins? Toad the Wet Sprocket? It’s very pleasant to listen to. But it also wouldn’t be out of place in my local grocery store. It didn’t push anything forward,and I’m not convinced I would come back to this instead of the groups that did it before them. But

I find it amazing that I'm presented with bands that I have never heard of before in my life! These are bands that I like and have the style of music that dominates my collection. Well done Shack, nice album, one to listen to again but it's just missing something that'll stop it being top drawer

Fine not my thing

What a baffling inclusion to this book. A fucking 1999 britpop album. The bias for british new wave and britpop is insane. The genre was already dead by that point, this band dindt reinvent the wheel nore made something particulary good. They dindt include fucking Godspeed you! black emperor or swans but ofc this shit does. On top of bieng totally unwhorty of being on this book, its also not a good album at all. Great. Britpop/5

For some reason I bought this album when it was released. Having now re-listened cannot remember what attracted me to it. Must have been that at this time I was into the phase of Coldplay, Travis and the like. But in retrospect Shack were a very pale comparison to those two. The music is so beige and inoffensive that it should make you sink into a fluffy bed with a warm glow. Instead I just want to hit someone in the face. Another album which makes you think why the hell is it on this list? 2/5 8/9/26

Super fun folk adjacent stuff.

3.5 Pretty good but honestly fairly typical Britpop, and came out years after the genre peaked too so not sure why this is considered essential

These songs sound like AI version of songs by Oasis, Dodgy and Elbow etc., and i have to say that all of those names above should be on this list before this band. Quite generic 2nd tier brit pop from this era and it's hard to understand why this album has been selected to this list instead of one of the many better one's released this era.

I assume it's ok to try to be like Oasis... Shack does is ok!

#474 / 1089 Heard before? ❌ Revisit? ❌ Yet another Brit rock/pop band that sound utterly mediocre, but somehow is getting lifted to a pedestal by the local press. WTF. I'm getting so cross just reading about this that I'm having trouble listening to this even half way open-minded. Nah, I don't care enough. The second and third song cemented how much I do not care. It's really 1 for me, but giving it 2/5 due to decent production.

I've never heard of this album, nor this artist. I made it through 2 times, and not one song stood out as memorable or interesting. Liked songs on Spotify: 0/12 Rating: 1/5 (should be zero)

Shack was a band from Liverpool, which apparently is reason enough to include them on this list. In any case, their album “H.M.S. Fable” gives little reason to believe it had anything to do with their music. Britpop was one of those 90s genres that was already outdated by the time it emerged. Typically, there was one successful trendsetter (in this case, Oasis) and a slew of imitators that nobody needed. Fortunately, while Britpop is totally boring, it’s not as annoying as, say, Eurodance. In that sense, this album is quite tolerable, but completely irrelevant.

Interesting, needs another listen.

This music vibrates at the exact frequency that is most naturally for me as a listener. As such, I really enjoyed this album. As much as I enjoyed myself, this album couldn't get all the way to 4 stars for me, even if I considered it.

“NO! STOP!” -Shack arbitrarily on “Pull Together”/Me when another album like this comes up on the generator. Another album where there is nothing to grip, no real riffs or hooks, passable but bland. It's music that, if you heard it played live with the vocals muffled, you'd never guess the song. It's mostly notable for… not really feeling like an album? Maybe it's just my ears, but the songs feel intentionally separated from each other, like weird audio kerning. Might just be me. Another ⭐️⭐️⭐️ for the sake of being the C-est of C grades.

5.5/10

Comedy is such a treat to hear. Looking at reviews it seems I might be alone in liking this album a lot. But I like what I like. And I seem to love Britpop. I love the abrupt ending to Streets of Kenny.

I'm not actually not that mad about it but I'm so tired of the brits, colonize my hole

Cream of wheat type beat

Enjoyed this. Thought it was well done and a solid bit of musical work.

Britpop and alternative rock built from chiming guitars, warm strings, melodic bass, and gently driving drums feels like being taken on a long, pleasant walk by someone who has an excellent memory for beautiful scenery, pointing out every detail along the way. There is warmth, craft, and plenty of melodic sophistication, while I often found myself spacing out or appreciating the scenery rather than feeling drawn into it.

Based on the reviews I was expecting something much worse and this is not bad, it's quite good actually but it's more brit pop, makes me wonder if most of the critics were English that there are so many brit pop albums in this list. I guess that's the problem with a 1001 list of anything, you are not only listening to the album you are comparing the album to what you've listened to and what you are expecting to listen to and I hope I can listen to a lot less brit pop.

Booooring.. absolutely nothing of note, almost soured my mood