Supergrass
Pumping On Your Stereo

Profound philosophical debate in the guise of pop music, as Gaz Coombes ponders, "Can you hear us pumping on your stereo?". If a tree falls in the forest and no-one is there, does it make a sound? And if the new Supergrass single is played with the volume turned off, does it still exist? That this meditation on the relationship between music and the medium by which it is disseminated bowls along exactly like the apothesis of dumb rock'n'roll, 'Rebel Rebel' by David Bowie, only heightens the intellectual subversion at work. Either that, or else it's just another catchy no-brainer by Britain's least charismatic but strangely likeable band, with no ambition beyond being played on the radio for the rest of the summer. Tough call.

John Mulvey, NME - 29 May 1999