Sunday, August 28, 2005

Supergrass - Roud To Rouen

You're always in trouble when reviews of a band's new album continually focus on a band's new found maturity. That usually means that the band have jettisoned all that made them great to listen to in the first place in favour of a duller sound. And whilst this is not entirely true when it comes to Road To Rouen, its clear that the youthful exuberance that once fuelled Supergrass has long gone.

As ever though, with a new Supergrass album comes a new classic single to devour. This time its the delightful St.Petersburg which sounds delightfully Beatles-esque, and deserved to be a far bigger hit than it was. Other highlights include Kick In The Teeth, and the delightful Sad Girl.

Kicking in at around 35 minutes, this is a concise album which threatens something wonderful and falls just short. Credit should be given for Supergrass resisting the temptaion to release "another" In It For The Money or I Should Coco, but however much we credit them for evolving their sound, you can't quite escape the fact that they just don't manage to pull it off 100%. And if you are going to alienate large swathes of your fan base, your new direction has to result in a killer album. This, sadly, isn't quite it.

Icon's View - 3 out of 5.

1 comment:

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Bloggers, quite a few of whom can relate to life as a geeky kid, seem to have a soft spot for young innovators who get dissed by those in authority.
Very different blog!! I'll be back from time to time.

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