11. Letters To Cleo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w2YLdjxS_M Lost in the shuffle of all the great alt-rock grrl bands to spring up in the mid-90s, Letters to Cleo were the most unabashedly upbeat...which was pretty much poison to a band's credibility back then. Whereas Juliana Hatfield thrived as an off-kilter indie rock darling, Hole had a wealth of legitimacy-by-association in the grunge scene, and Garbage rightfully took their gloomy brand of alt-rock to the top of the charts, Letters to Cleo were unfortunately left to collect the scraps. Listening to their two big hits, "Here and Now" and "Awake," it's easy to consider them just a peppier rip-off of genre frontrunners Veruca Salt (who some might argue are underrated in their own right), but that would be underselling their uncanny ability to craft a spellbinding hook. They didn't just create head-bobbing pop-rock, they excelled at delivering fast-paced, catchy songs with more of an edge than they're usually given credit for. Sure, they weren't as downtrodden as some of their peers, but when did "melancholy" automatically equal "better"?