ENGLAND SWINGS: The slowly declining fascination in...

ENGLAND SWINGS: The slowly declining fascination in Britain with American rock was underscored by the year-end issue of the Melody Maker music weekly. The cover featured a montage of faces from the bands Blur, Oasis, Pulp, London Suede and Sleeper UK. The headline “1994: Britpop’s Brilliant Facelift.”

In the MM critics poll in the same issue, only four U.S. acts made the Top 10--a noticeable drop from recent years. The U.S. entries: Pavement’s “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” at No. 3 (behind first-place Portishead and runner-up Pulp), Hole’s “Live Through This” at No. 7, Jeff Buckley’s “Grace” at No. 9 and a surprise No. 10 in “EDC” by Satchel, a band produced by Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard.

Similar sentiments were expressed across the board in the British press, including New Musical Express, which named “Definitely Maybe,” the debut album by England’s Oasis, as the year’s best work.

Pearl Jam’s “Vitalogy” has bombed here both critically and commercially, making only the briefest of visits to the best-seller lists and impressing few professional pundits. R.E.M.’s “Monster” has sold like crazy but, again, failed to impress the critics.

One contrary note: The first Melody Maker cover of ’95 features Chicago’s Veruca Salt, whose “Seether” single was a huge hit in British clubs last summer and whose “American Thighs” album received a warm welcome here. The rock quartet can expect more of the same in the spring when it tours Great Britain with the hot, London-based trio Drugstore as the opening act.