Elastica (album)
Elastica is the debut studio album by English alternative rock band Elastica. It was released on 14 March 1995 through Deceptive Records. The album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. This is the only album to feature the original line-up, and guitarist Donna Matthews. Reception. The album was well-received critically. In their retrospective review, AllMusic praised the album, writing "what makes "Elastica" such an intoxicating record is not only the way the 16 songs speed by in 40 minutes, but that they're nearly all classics" and that "hardly any new wave band made records  this consistently rocking and melodic". BBC Music wrote "As albums that fall off a genre's radar go, Elastica's eponymous debut ranks high", calling it "a neglected gem" and the "blueprint for what Britpop should sound like". Commercial performance. "Elastica" hit number one on the UK Albums Chart, becoming, at the time, the fastest-selling debut since Oasis' "Definitely Maybe" the previous year. The record also did well in the US, climbing to a peak of number 66 on the "Billboard" 200 after 11 weeks on the chart. Two months after its release, it had sold over 59,000 units  in the US according to Nielsen Soundscan. By the end of 1995 it had sold approximately 1 million copies worldwide according to "Billboard". Around half of these sales were in America where it was certified as gold December 1995. By April 2000, sales in the UK were estimated by the band's Deceptive label at 270,000 copies. Legacy. "Select" ranked the album at number 9 in its list of the "50 albums of the year". The album fared better in end-of-year lists in the US where it was ranked as the fourth best album of the year by  the "Los Angeles Times", "Rolling Stone", "Spin" and "The Village Voice". In 2013, "NME" called it the 191st greatest album of all time. The album is also included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". In 2014, American LGBT magazine "Metro Weekly" ranked the album at number 38 in its list of the "50 Best Alternative Albums of the 90s". In 2017, "Pitchfork" listed the album at number six in its list "The 50 Best Britpop Albums". Personnel. Elastica Additional personnel Production