Spearmint

Although they emerged during the Brit-pop explosion of the mid-'90s, Spearmint weren't made for the rock star posturing of bands like Oasis, and fit better with the cardigan-wearing bedroom bands of the C-86 mold. Half Brit-pop and half twee pop, their detail-rich songs -- built on jangly guitars and beats borrowed from Northern soul -- wore their hearts on their sleeves, just like their fans did. Singer Shirley Lee wrote sensitive pop songs for sensitive fanzine writers and had a fine line in anthems for the underdog like "Sweeping the Nation." Shirley Lee (usually referred ...