By Jeremy Azevedo
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My earliest experience with Supergrass that I can remember was hearing “Caught By the Fuzz” on Beavis and Butthead back in maybe ’93. If you know much about 90s music, you know that it was largely disposable for the most part. Heard any new Gin Blossoms or Eagle Eye Cherry albums lately? Yeah, me neither. |
So you can imagine my surprise to find that not only has Supergrass survived the 90s, outlasting alternative Brit-pop peers like Blur and Pulp well into the 2000s, but are still making music that is not only relevant today, but also an evolution of a style that has been in development for over ten years.
Supergrass has always been an experimental band, dabbling in psychedelia, funk, folk and garage punk. “Diamond Hoo Haa" is no exception. It was a little hard to take in at first, but after a few listens, I found that nearly every song had ingrained itself on my normally fickle memory. The songs are fun, the lyrics are great, and almost every song sounds like it could be at home on the radio or even MTV (if we lived in some kind of alternate reality where MTV still played rock music).
One of my favorite tracks, “Rough Knuckles” starts off like a Police song, before turning on a dime into this sort of epic chorus. It’s all very effortless how Supergrass is able to blend it all together. The second single on the album, “Bad Blood” is similar in arrangement, and is another great track. This is going to sound like an overreaching recommendation, but if you are into Travis, The Hives, The Police, Oasis, The Strokes, Vampire Weekend, or (duh) Supergrass, you really must check out “Diamond Hoo Haa”.
Rating: 8 out of 10
+1 if you’re already a big fan of Brit-pop
-2 if you’re some kind of “chav” or something
Mother 
