Music

We would put money on the fact that the first time you heard that fat, thrillingly fuzz-coated, primal, garage-blues guitar riff belching from your wireless, you cocked an ear and thought, ‘who the hell is that, so audaciously biting the White Stripes’s style – and to such blinding, kick-ass effect?’. A DJ likely announced the band responsible as The Diamond Hoo Ha Men, hopefully adding that it was the (temporary) alias of a rejuvenated Supergrass. Not quite who you were expecting, right?

We chiefly remember the Supers as cheeky pop scamps (two of them still teens when they released their debut LP in 1995) who resembled a troupe of PG Tips chimps, kept their teeth ‘nice and clean’ and somehow also kept their clever heads above the tide of Britpop effluent that almost engulfed them. However, in the intervening years, the band have dealt with their ‘difficult third’ LP (‘Pumping On Your Stereo’, plus 11 tracks no one really liked), the Danny Goffey tabloid circus, faltering self-confidence and increasing critical indifference (did you hear ‘Road To Rouen’?). All of which makes their latest effort even more impressive. Put simply, it sounds brilliant, a vital and energised, gale-force breath of fresh air exhaled by a bunch of mates again tripping on the love of music that first inspired them. Bowie’s spirit hovers close by (it was recorded in Berlin’s famous Hansa studios), most notably over ‘Butterfly’ and ‘Rebel In You’, but elsewhere it’s Elton John circa ‘Honky Château’, while the storming ‘When
I Needed You’ recalls Fleetwood Mac and ‘Outside’ oddly suggests Mark Lanegan mixing it with Arctic Monkeys. All up, a killer hoodoo – and proof that if you need a serious kick up the ’Grass, you can do it best yourself.