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The Press Article
SUPERGRASS
LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS
(PARLOPHONE)
Eight years on from the pure rush of 'Caught By The Fuzz' and the carefree 'Alright', and three years after their eponymous third album, everybody's favourite festival band is marking time. Sure, their 12 new songs display more maturity than the material on 'I Should Coco' but, not for the first time, Gaz Coombes, Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey are hostages both to rock's past and their huge record collections. Of course, Britpop always saw the '60s through rose-tinted glasses, but the 'Grass had a knack for injecting a punk energy to kick their heady songs into the '90s. Recent limited edition 7" 'Never Done Nothing Like That Before' and the fizzy 'Rush Hour Soul' hark back to that approach, but on the swaggering 'Seen The Light' Coombes and co mimic the early-'70s glam-pop of T-Rex while new single 'Grace' sounds like Wreckless Eric of Stiff Records fame. The pastoral ska of 'Brecon Beacons' is more a blind alley than a new direction, whilst the list-making 'Prophet 15' and the appropriately-titled 'Can't Get Up' appear just plain lazy. Bizarrely, when the trio let their muse run riot as on the jaunty 'Evening Of The Day' and the dreamy 'Run', the results prove much more appealing. The band who famously turned down Steven Spielberg are not so much back with a vengeance as marooned in their own musical remake of Back To The Future.
2.5/5
Pierre Perrone, Rock Sound - October 2002
LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS
(PARLOPHONE)
Eight years on from the pure rush of 'Caught By The Fuzz' and the carefree 'Alright', and three years after their eponymous third album, everybody's favourite festival band is marking time. Sure, their 12 new songs display more maturity than the material on 'I Should Coco' but, not for the first time, Gaz Coombes, Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey are hostages both to rock's past and their huge record collections. Of course, Britpop always saw the '60s through rose-tinted glasses, but the 'Grass had a knack for injecting a punk energy to kick their heady songs into the '90s. Recent limited edition 7" 'Never Done Nothing Like That Before' and the fizzy 'Rush Hour Soul' hark back to that approach, but on the swaggering 'Seen The Light' Coombes and co mimic the early-'70s glam-pop of T-Rex while new single 'Grace' sounds like Wreckless Eric of Stiff Records fame. The pastoral ska of 'Brecon Beacons' is more a blind alley than a new direction, whilst the list-making 'Prophet 15' and the appropriately-titled 'Can't Get Up' appear just plain lazy. Bizarrely, when the trio let their muse run riot as on the jaunty 'Evening Of The Day' and the dreamy 'Run', the results prove much more appealing. The band who famously turned down Steven Spielberg are not so much back with a vengeance as marooned in their own musical remake of Back To The Future.
2.5/5
Pierre Perrone, Rock Sound - October 2002