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The Press Article
Bit Of Alright!
Britpop anthem with hits to go from the band we forgot we were in love with
Not so young and green any more, but Supergrass know how to keep their teeth nice and clean as they Do The Hits. It's easy to forget how impeccably ace Supergrass are. Of their Britpop contemporaries, Oasis achieved greater commercial success, Blur went further in articulating modern British life, and Radiohead made the kind of highbrow genre-straddling art that, well, 'Alright' wasn't at all. But has anyone made us smile more in the last ten years than Supergrass?
Over their ten-year tenure as simian kings of the three-minute pop song, Supergrass have written some of the goofiest perfect pop that any British beat combo has committed to wax. This tour is a celebration of that very fact.
It's not coincidence that they open with an arch reading of 'In It For The Money', dispersing any aspersions of coin-counting nostalgia that might be levied at the boys within seconds of Gaz's superbly thrilling gonzoid guitar solo. And as soon as the Stooges-esque clatter of 'Richard III' crashes into place, any remaining cynics are rounded up and frog-marched towards the exit. It becomes quickly apparent that Brian Molko has aged more in three years than Supergrass have in a decade; Gaz strutting around the stage like a young Neil Young, Danny seemingly the conclusion of a carnal unison between Keith Moon and King Louis from Jungle Book and Mickey looking like... well, nobody else on Earth really looks like Mickey.
Pushing aside an ill-conceived acoustic set (complete with a campfire 'Caught By The Fuzz' - sacrilege, no?) this is bombastic stuff. 'Grace' sounds like T.Rex smoking weed with the Ramones while 'Sun Hits The Sky' triumphantly heralds the onset of summer.
Above all, such material confirms Supergrass' status as a band we can't possibly do without. Not for their social or cultural significance, but because no-one makes music as implausibly fun as they do. And after a triumphant run-through of 'Going Out', the crowd-pleasing 'Alright' and the piece de resistance that is 'Lenny', they encore with 'Mansize Rooster' and spunky lost classic 'Sitting Up Straight'. Which only goes to confirm what we already know: Supergrass are a national treasure. Happy Birthday Supergrass, and thank you.
James Jam, NME - 08 May 2004
Britpop anthem with hits to go from the band we forgot we were in love with
Not so young and green any more, but Supergrass know how to keep their teeth nice and clean as they Do The Hits. It's easy to forget how impeccably ace Supergrass are. Of their Britpop contemporaries, Oasis achieved greater commercial success, Blur went further in articulating modern British life, and Radiohead made the kind of highbrow genre-straddling art that, well, 'Alright' wasn't at all. But has anyone made us smile more in the last ten years than Supergrass?
Over their ten-year tenure as simian kings of the three-minute pop song, Supergrass have written some of the goofiest perfect pop that any British beat combo has committed to wax. This tour is a celebration of that very fact.
It's not coincidence that they open with an arch reading of 'In It For The Money', dispersing any aspersions of coin-counting nostalgia that might be levied at the boys within seconds of Gaz's superbly thrilling gonzoid guitar solo. And as soon as the Stooges-esque clatter of 'Richard III' crashes into place, any remaining cynics are rounded up and frog-marched towards the exit. It becomes quickly apparent that Brian Molko has aged more in three years than Supergrass have in a decade; Gaz strutting around the stage like a young Neil Young, Danny seemingly the conclusion of a carnal unison between Keith Moon and King Louis from Jungle Book and Mickey looking like... well, nobody else on Earth really looks like Mickey.
Pushing aside an ill-conceived acoustic set (complete with a campfire 'Caught By The Fuzz' - sacrilege, no?) this is bombastic stuff. 'Grace' sounds like T.Rex smoking weed with the Ramones while 'Sun Hits The Sky' triumphantly heralds the onset of summer.
Above all, such material confirms Supergrass' status as a band we can't possibly do without. Not for their social or cultural significance, but because no-one makes music as implausibly fun as they do. And after a triumphant run-through of 'Going Out', the crowd-pleasing 'Alright' and the piece de resistance that is 'Lenny', they encore with 'Mansize Rooster' and spunky lost classic 'Sitting Up Straight'. Which only goes to confirm what we already know: Supergrass are a national treasure. Happy Birthday Supergrass, and thank you.
James Jam, NME - 08 May 2004