Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Chicago Tribune
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Entertainment Weekly	B+
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Spin	9/10
The Stanford Daily	(mixed)
The Village Voice	A−

Elastica is the debut studio album by English alternative rock band Elastica. It was released on 14 March 1995 through Deceptive Records. The album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

Elastica hit number one on the UK Albums Chart, becoming, at the time, the fastest-selling debut since Oasis' Definitely Maybe the previous year. The record also did well in the US, peaking at number 66 on the Billboard 200 and being certified Gold.

The album was well-received critically. In their retrospective review, AllMusic praised the album, writing "what makes Elastica such an intoxicating record is not only the way the 16 songs speed by in 40 minutes, but that they're nearly all classics" and that "hardly any new wave band made records this consistently rocking and melodic."BBC Music wrote "As albums that fall off a genre's radar go, Elastica's eponymous debut ranks high", calling it "a neglected gem" and the "blueprint for what Britpop should sound like".

Select ranked the album at number 9 in its list of the "50 albums of the year." The album fared better in end-of-year lists in the US where it was ranked as the fourth best album of the year by the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Spin and The Village Voice.

In 2013, NME called it the 191st greatest album of all time. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

In 2014, American LGBT magazine Metro Weekly ranked the album at number 38 in its list of the "50 Best Alternative Albums of the 90s."

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Wikipedia