Talulah Gosh - Backwash (1996)
Artist: Talulah Gosh
Author: Sarah
Date: 11/25/2025
Listen: Apple Music (as Was It Just a Dream?) | Bandcamp | Spotify (as Was It Just a Dream?)
It tends to get overshadowed by the albums Amelia did with Heavenly, but if I could only listen to one indiepop album for the rest of my life, I think this one is what I'd actually end up going with. Though to be honest, the songs aren't quite as good as they'd get with Heavenly, and the sound can be pretty rough at times (especially on the radio sessions); but paradoxically, it's the ways in which Talulah Gosh fall short that make them the indiepop band nearest to my heart.
When I listen to Heavenly, they sound put together enough that though I can easily picture myself going to the shows and hoping to meet other fans of the band, it still feels a bit removed from my life. But with Talulah Gosh, I'll find myself thinking it wouldn't really be that hard to learn a few chords and put together an indiepop band of my own, similar to the way you'll hear punk musicians talk about hearing like Bikini Kill or the Ramones for the first time. (Author's Note: if any reader is ever made to feel this way by my amateurish writing like "well, if she can write about music, why not me?", then I'm flattered!)
Even aside from that, it's fun to see the sheer variety that Talulah Gosh went through during their career, with every member writing at least one song. From their singles, there's Elizabeth's dreamy songs, Amelia's pop-punky songs, and Peter's jangle pop songs. Mathew and Chris only write one song each in there, but they both make it count, with Mathew writing the band's most enduring song ("Talulah Gosh") and Chris giving us the punk freakout of "Testcard Girl"). When we get to the radio sessions, things get a bit more homogeneous with fewer standout moments, but we only get an hour of the band so I'm not going to complain about a single second of it. This is ground zero for my love affair with indiepop, and its every imperfection is perfection for me.