The UK Britpop zeitgeist seemed completely at odds with America's music scene during the 1990s. But this decade's UK resurgence (the Arctic Monkeys' spastic suburban ennui and the Subways' bratty, buzz-saw punk) more often than not aligns with the emo angst and punk pretensions of modern American upstarts — save for Nine Black Alps, who could easily find success in either decade. The Manchester quartet's debut, Everything Is, takes the lurching speedballs perfected by crunchy guitar bands (the Pixies, Nirvana) and splices them with Sonic Youth-style noise splinters and bombastic, big-dream hooks that a little band called Oasis took to Beatles-level heights over a decade ago. Viva Britannia!
