Supergrass
Supergrass
Island

Never mind all of those artificially created pretty-boy/girl pop confections who couldn't pick out a G5 power chord if their entire supply of hair gel and lip gloss depended on it. Supergrass's third album is what jingle-jangle dreams are made of.

Listen below the surface, though, and you'll find dark underpinnings. The first cut, "Moving" may have a buoyant sense of wonder, but the subject matter delves into restlessness and fear. "I'll keep moving, just keep moving / When I don't know who I am," sings leader Gaz Coombes, his acoustic guitar backed by plaintive strings and organ. Same goes for the bouncy "What Went Wrong (in Your Head)," where he stretches out the word "head" to five syllables in what is perhaps the signature song for the Magical Mystery Tour that might have been. "Shotover Hill," meanwhile, stakes a claim in Gornez territory after opening with backwards guitar and kettledrums.

But occasionally, vivaciousness is exactly what it seems to be-as when things get all glammed up in "Pumping on Your Stereo" which mixes (get ready) David Bowie panache and Doug Yule/Loaded-era Velvet Underground choruses with Todd Rundgrenesque lead-vocal reverb. So how does your Supergrass grow? By planting shadowy overtones in an exuberant pop garden.

Mike Mettler, Sound & Vision - June 2000