RECORD REVIEW

Bacharach's Revolver

Supergrass (Gaz Coombes, Mick Quinn, Danny Goffey and Robert Coombes) took over the British airwaves in 1994 with the Buzzcockian-meets-baby-back-up vocals of I Should Coco. They showed themselves to be more than just a one-act band with their 1996 sophomore effort, In It for the Money. The album expanded the band’s regular guitar-bass-drums rock attack with deftly produced horn arrangements, numerous organs and strategically placed theremin, favoring pop multidimensionality over the rock-from-the-hip expediency of earlier Britain-meets-Green Day-isms.

Supergrass continues this trend, with the band again curtailing straight-up punk rock and party interests for a more complex, Revolver-esque moodiness filled with the type of lyrical banter and tongue-in-cheek revelations that come with exacting musical talent and a broadened experience. The album works like a series of postcards from the surreal edge of British rock stardom. It focuses on the banality of loneliness ("Moving"), the humbling realities of insanity ("What Went Wrong"), the preposterousness of rock ‘n’ roll ("Pumping on Your Stereo"), the constant love-hate between performer and audience ("Beautiful People"), and, tellingly, the persistent need for resolution, despite the vacant stares of modern life ("Born Again" and "Mama & Papa").

Again the maturing Supergrass formula of Beatles-esque stomp and Bacharachian lyrical sleight-of-hand set the tone for the record. In "What Went Wrong (In Your Head)," Supergrass pushes the beat while secretly prodding the mind and heart, with choruses such as "God save the unstable/they stand alone/ain’t done no wrong/in such a beautiful life." Later, in "Eon," the boys abandon these self-aware feelings of empathy with the detached irony and cold of the everyday, following a lyric about "I don’t believe you’re leaving me with nothing on the tube," with "I don’t believe/in a life I can’t feel."

Similarly, strings are also prominent on Supergrass, accentuating the sense of personal inconsistency and lyrical confusion already pronounced by the undecided rock seesaw of the music. Even standard rock moments, such as "Pumping on Your Stereo" – the obvious radio single and the most sonically shallow track on the album – seem only small pieces of a larger record, built on cellos, acoustic guitars and harpsichords, meant to undercut standard rock sentiments while reiterating a well-earned faith in music.

Carleton S. Gholz writes about music for Metro Times.