Amazon.co.uk Review
Supergrass may be the unluckiest band to come out of the Britpop wave of the early 1990s. Their first album,
I Should Coco, saw the trio typecast as a cartoon Indie boy band, propelled to stardom by the adolescent hi-jinks of "Feel Alright" and "Caught By The Fuzz". Unfortunately, this tag proved rather difficult to shake and as their music matured, their audience dwindled; their second album
In It For The Money was released to critical esteem and consumer indifference. By the time
Supergrass was released in 1999, Supergrass had already been relegated to the "Oh yeah, I remember those guys" category of pop. What a shame, because
Supergrass is at least as good as
In It For The Money and that album was fantastic. Flaunting their 70s-rock influences proudly, Supergrass continue to sound like the world's greatest garage band with a sackful of studio toys. These guys know what makes a good pop song: "Pumping On Your Stereo" is practically shouting out for an audience of handclaps, while "Shotover Hill" makes use of that oft-neglected instrument, the kettle drum. With
Supergrass, the boys have again demonstrated how much they've grown up. Pop music, yes, but definitely not kid's stuff.
--Robert Burrow
Review
Oxfordshire's finest sons (after Radiohead) finally grew up with this album. Perhaps the clue was in the title: eponymity equalling a desire to drop the teenage jokery and start turning all that growing up they'd been doing after several years touring, into music of quality.
There is a certain lethargy to some of the tracks, where intros last for eons (as on, um...Eons) and don't quite resolve themselves. You get the idea that the result of getting it together in the country retreat of Cormills studio in Wales has resulted in a little too much herbal refreshment.
Yet there was at least a sufficient amount of top tunes to keep you convinced that the band knew exactly where they were going.
Opener Moving is a wonderful sweep of English whimsy, drifting into a bruising stomp at exactly the right place, and Your Love and Shotover Hill are easily its equal. There was even room for the japes on numbers like Jesus Came From Outer Space and Pumping (or ''humping'' as they slyly sing in the intro) On Your Stereo (the album's first hit). The real understated gem came at the end with Mama And Papa: a heartbreaking ode to childhood.
It wasn't all wonderful news though. Too many reviewers concentrated on the rather tired vibe effusing the whole album, mistaking weariness for laziness. What Supergrass really represents is the consolidation of what In It For The Money had dared to let us dream: that this cheeeky Britpop trio had morphed into a truly world class band. --Jerome Blakeney
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