Sexual innuendoes abound on the lyrics to the album ("Stutter" isn't about verbal impotence at all), but the best songs on the album -- "Stutter", "Car Song", "Connection" and crowning glory, pure pop-rock anthem "Waking Up" -- are all based around synth-flavoured guitar riffs that choke, wail and serenade their way into your memory. It helps that Frischmann, though no great singer, delivers lead vocals with confidence to match the insrumental punch, and the melodic instincts shown on this album are pretty impressive.

Half a decade has passed since this debut album. It remains to be seen whether Elastica will base its career model on The Sex Pistols career or The Clash.

If Britpop had a defining moment, this is it.
If you were to take bits and pieces of every Britpop band (Pulp, Blur, Suede, OCS, Supergrass ect) and classic punk metal bands (The Clash, Sex Pistols, and The Stranglers), add an angsty and desireable female singer, black clothes and combat boots, and mix them all together, you would have Elastica.

"Elastica" is a fantastic record, by a mostly girl band that seems to have disappeared into nowhere (throughout 1998, promises of a new album hung in the air which were, alas, never to be kept). But to their credit, they gave us one of the finest Alt.rock albums of all time. Such classic songs are "Connection", "S.O.F.T", "Blue", and "Car Song". Each one had Justine Frischman's tomboy-ish, attitude-laced vocals and brilliant use of guitar and bass.

All of this is pressed into a neat, 16 song, 40 minute package that is sure to please everyone. The music, while not the most original, leave an impact. The proble is that they didn't do themselves any favours by only releasing this one album.

Snap up this Elastica
I always forget how good Elastica's eponymous debut album is, so it's a pleasant surprise to pop it into the stereo. There's nothing particularly revolutionary about this record (although having three out of four band-members being female is, sadly, still something of a rarity), but what it lacks in originality, it makes up for in spontaneity. This is a fun, bouncy, catchy bunch of songs and no mistake.

The tracks don't deviate from their guitar-bass-drums sound. They're all short and fast-paced. It's slightly punkish sounding, with a harder edge to it than most of the rest of the Brit-pop that was out around this time. There are some really nice melodies running through here. It's hard, but not too hard -- tuneful, but not too tuneful. A few of the songs are great, and none of them are bad. There's nothing on here that's any worse than solid.

The album has a very consistent sound (perhaps a polite way of saying all the songs sound the same, which is a fair criticism, but since I like them, it's not something I'm going to complain about). If you liked "Connection" (which was all over the airways when this first came out) you'll probably like this; if you hated that song, then the rest of the album probably isn't your cup of tea either.

Oh, and Suede fans will note that Brett Anderson gets a song writing credit in "See That Animal" (did every song he was writing in the mid-90s have some reference to animals?!).

Amongst the best of the 1990's
Elastica is dead, long live Elastica.

Justine et all put together perhaps one of the best albums to come down the pike in the nearly barren wasteland of the 1990's (heck that extends to the 2000's).

Stutter and Connection are the obvious songs on the CD and are the glue that holds it together. Intermixed beside these two incredible songs are a load of very good songs (2:1, Vaseline, Car Song, etc.), which is a tough trick no matter what band you are.

If you do not own this CD, get out from under your rock and buy it. It is not too late.

Excellent collection of playfully punky pop gems
This album has become an essential staple in my Cd player since i was lucky enough to find it at a local store.
Its sixteen, relatively short songs, are energy bursts full of spunk and punky magnificence.
Such songs as the most popular, "Stutter" and "Connection", "Car Song", "Waking Up" and "2:1" are filled the catchiness and wittiness to keep you coming back for more.

Quite Reccomended.
It all began with the perfect pop moment of "Stutter," and then everyone wondered if Elastica had it in them to produce more sublime songs. Elastica showed that they did. Never quite as much Britpop as Birdpop, Justine Frischmann parlayed a Bryan Ferry hairstyle into an individual take on the world with material like "Car Song" and "2:1," while the rest of the band showed that they were along for more than just the ride. And if they owed a debt to Wire, well, it was all paid in the end (out of the royalties). The question was, could they ever follow it up? Chris Nickson
Import edition of their Brit Pop classic that spawned many hit singles. Tracks, 'Line Up', 'Annie', 'Connection', 'Car Song', 'Smile', 'Hold Me Now', 'S.O.F.T.', 'Indian Song', 'Blue', 'All-Nighter', 'Waking Up', '2:1', 'See That Animal', 'Stutter', 'Neve