Years ago, when I was properly getting into Supergrass – I’ll say I was about 12 – I asked one of my cousins if she was into the band. This was a cousin who got me into football and who I knew kind of listened to the same music as I did, so it was worth the shot. She told me that she did like them and that she remembered watching a video where they were dressed in white suits, but she couldn’t remember the song’s name. All the videos I’d seen of Supergrass on MTV2 or whatever channel up to that point had no resemblance to what she was talking about. So we were both at a loss for words and we moved onto another subject. I can’t remember exactly when or where, but there was a time when I eventually found the song’s video online and thought, “Oh, so this is the song that [my cousin’s name] was talking about.” Gaz Coombes was in that white suit. The song’s name was ‘St. Petersburg’.

The track was chosen to be the first single from the band’s fifth album, Road to Rouen, and was released a week before the record’s arrival. Rouen was the product of a sombre time in the Supergrass camp, as the mother of guitarist Gaz Coombes and keyboardist Rob Coombes had passed away and drummer Danny Goffey was getting unwanted attention in the tabloids. The music became less upbeat, more acoustic and serious. Almost artsy in a way and jam-oriented in places. It’s not an album I return to all that much. There’s something about a sad Supergrass that bums me out even more, because I associate them with having good times and upbeat, melodic tunes to bust out at the top of my lungs. A sad Supergrass is an oxymoron to me. ‘Coffee in the Pot’ lightens things up, which I appreciate. The LP may not be for me, but it’s still very much essential and an integral part of the band’s catalogue. So don’t let me turn you off listening.

So, right, yes, the song, ‘St. Petersburg’. If there was going to be a single chosen to represent the album first, it was always going to be this one. Despite all the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph, once you get into its swinging tempo, you can’t help but listen to where the song leads to. The track details the feelings of a narrator who’s simply tired of the monotonous, tedious, meaningless life they’re living and feels they have so much to give. They make an aim to move to the titular city to make things happen. But the poignancy in the fact that whether the narrator follows through with this or if it’s simply just a wish that never comes to fruition is left answered. The fact that the narrator’s time of leaving is always ‘three days’ away and never decreases to ‘two’ or ‘one’ makes it more likely that it’s the latter situation. But more generally, I fall for the song’s overall mood every time. One of those perfect songs for looking out the window of a train when it’s raining and you feel like the main subject in a music video. A very specific example. But don’t tell me you’ve never done the same thing.