Tag Archives: supergrass

#1173: Supergrass – Seen the Light

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My old TV, provided by Virgin Media, had this feature where you could go into its guide and select a variety of music videos if ever you wanted to watch them. It was pretty cool. Television hadn’t yet got to the point where you could easily hook up your laptop right up to the big CRT screen. And if it had, I couldn’t anyway because I didn’t have a laptop. But it was neat to be able to watch whatever music video that tickled your fancy, in very, good quality, and in full screen without a problem of adverts or buffering and all the like. And it was through that that I came to know ‘Seen the Light’, a track from Supergrass’s 2002 album Life on Other Planets, which was also released as a single in early 2003.

As you’ll see above, the video doesn’t feature a physical presence of the band in any way. They must have been out on tour promoting the album or something. But is instead a clip consisting of followers going crazy over their apparent leaders, whether it be the congregation in a church or rabid fans at what appears to be a Fabian show. The video’s also made so it looks like various characters within it are miming the lyrics to the song. It’s a weird one, but also quite funny. And I guess it all ties in with the song’s lyrical matter too, which concerns the moment of joy and rapture that has been felt among the people now that their eyes have ‘seen the light’. What that light is isn’t really specified. But what matters is that there’s a sense of happiness and freedom, now that it’s been found.

I’m sure I’ve made some statement in the past referring to how this specific album by Supergrass is where they really wore their glam-rock influences on their sleeves. It’s apparent throughout the whole record, and ‘Seen the Light’ is one prime example. The way Gaz Coombes enunciates his lyrics (“Now that our eyyyyes have seeeeen the liiight, uuuuuuh”) the general tone behind the music. It’s a clear Marc Bolan/T.Rex tribute. Not that I’m complaining though. The whole track is a feel-good affair filled with very humorous moments, like the freaky/weirded out guitar(?) solo, a ‘baa’ from a sheep that makes a random appearance and an Elvis Presley impersonation, again by Coombes, that caps the whole track off. Fair to say, I think the group were in very high spirits when they were recording this.

#1124: Supergrass – Richard III

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The music video for this track is another where I think it’s just too perfect with the song. Watching it on MTV2 was how I was first introduced to ‘Richard III’. It was sometime in 2005, ’round Autumn time, I want to say. I would have been ten, so bear this all in mind. I knew who Supergrass were, mainly because ‘Alright’ was the usual video that was played anywhere. This in fact may have been the first time I’d seen another Supergrass video other than that one. I could tell that ‘Alright’ was an older song, just by the way its video looked. But I genuinely thought this was a new song that may have been released maybe a year two before. I honestly couldn’t tell. Turned out the song had been out for almost 10 years at that point. Fooled me, it didn’t look dated in thee slightest. Even today, it still looks brilliant. One of my favourite music videos ever.

The song, though, is pretty flippin’ great too. ‘Richard III’ was released as the second single from Supergrass’s second album In It for the Money in 1997. (One of my favourite albums of all time, here. A lot of “favourites” going on in this post.) ‘Going Out’ was that record’s first single, but had been released more than a year before in the first month of 1996. As a result, ‘Richard III’ was the track that properly marked the oncoming arrival of a new album and a new sound from the trio. They were fiercer, more menacing. They were rocking out. This is all nicely reflected in the video too. The three members play in this green dimly-lit room and play giving each other dirty looks and looking as if they can’t stand each other. Bassist Mick Quinn tries to run out, drummer Danny Goffey pulls him back in. Running water drops onto an electric wire and lightning bolts shoot around the place while the band go through the last chorus. Very cinematic stuff going on there.

Like quite a few other Supergrass songs, I couldn’t really tell you what it’s about because the band would usually write the lyrics as an afterthought to the music. Even the ‘Richard III’ title came about due to the threatening sound of the music rather than anything in the words. There’s no concrete theme, and reading the lyrics, you might think “…What?” “I know you wanna try and get away/But it’s the hardest thing you’ll ever low(?)” There’s not much depth to latch on to. All I know is within the context of the music and how they’re sung/harmonised by Gaz Coombes and Mick Quinn, the lyrics sound fantastic. The whole song’s a ball of energy. Gets the blood pumping. Never letting up really until the instrumental outro which fades out with a hazy wall of hammered-on/pulled-off guitar chords into silence. Makes me want to hear the track just that one more time when that silence comes.

#1120: Supergrass – The Return of…

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It’s been a long while since I’ve written about a song from Supergrass’s Diamond Hoo Ha. In fact, the two songs I wrote about from that album, I don’t even like that much anymore. Been that way for a while. Supergrass are one of my favourite bands, hands-down, no question, though I have to say that the record – their final release before initially splitting up – is my least favourite of theirs. The songs aren’t bad, but they pale in comparison to almost everything the band provided in the years before. There’s something about its production that’s always never felt right to me. To a lesser extent, it just reminds me that we’ll never get another full-length release by the band again.

All right, so I may have said the songs “pale” just a few sentences ago. But there is one that shines amongst them. The track is ‘The Return of…’, the sixth song on there, closing out Hoo Ha’s first half, and I’ll state sincerely that it may be one of the best in Supergrass’s entire catalogue. This was my third most-played song on Spotify last year. I don’t know why the realization of its greatness happened so many years on, because I owned a physical copy of the album from its year of release. Sixteen years ago. Its “return of inspiration” chorus was one that had remained in my head for some time. But it may have only been a couple of years ago where I was sitting down, listened to the whole song with some good headphones, and thought, “Wow. This song is actually really good. What the hell?”

A production trick I do appreciate on here is how particular elements of the track are separated into the two channels. In the left ear, you have the drums and the rhythm guitar. In the right, you have the lead guitar playing the main riff. In the middle is Gaz Coombes’s vocals, the bass guitar and keyboards. So with whichever earbud/headphone you’re listening to the track with, you can get two separate experiences. That’s cool. In terms of mood and lyrics, the track’s a cheery, optimistic number. The narrator here is a nothing-can-get-me-down type of person, who’s never phased by unpleasant news in the papers or on the TV, by the unpleasant people they encounter, or even when they sustain an injury caused by falling down the stairs. An enchanting, dreamy chorus ties the verses altogether and it features a screeching saxophone solo in the brought-down instrumental break, which goes all crazy once Coombes starts singing again. It’s all fantastic. I should have known this for at least 15 years. But better late than never.

#1073: Supergrass – Pumping on Your Stereo

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Back in the old days, I’d find myself flicking through the music video channels as per usual. Some of those times, I’d come across the ending of the video for Supergrass’s 1999 tune ‘Pumping on Your Stereo’. I can’t remember ever seeing its video from front to back in one sitting. It’d always be on its way to finishing, and I’d change the channel to find it at the point where the band hit that huge ending chord followed by the studio chatter that comes afterwards. Then YouTube came around and that was quickly rectified. Supergrass videos were something of a regular occurrence on the TV. And after seeing them for myself and coming to the conclusion that this band were actually really great, their albums were a usual request in any Christmas/birthday list whenever those times came around.

‘Pumping…’ is found on the band’s self-titled album. It’s a bit of a party, good times rollin’, sing-along get together of a song. The band repeatedly ask the listener if we can hear them pumping on our stereos. They also don’t hide the fact that they’re clearly singing ‘humping on your stereo’ throughout the entire thing. Even in the music video, the word ‘humping’ is visibly mimed by the band members. Not that I’m complaining though. I don’t mean to be if it sounds like I am. The whole thing reminds me of how the Beatles got away with singing ‘tit’ in ‘Girl’. Someone probably questioned the band whether the band were singing ‘humping’, to which they said no and said they were singing ‘pumping’ instead. At least that’s the story I’ve come to in my head.

Really though, the song’s not really about anything of any great importance. There’s a bit of an allusion about feeling lost while touring and being on the road in the second verse. But everything sounds so groovy and cheery that it very much slips by. I don’t think it’s any secret that the lyrics are something of an afterthought in a lot of Supergrass songs. But what matters is that they all sound good in the context, and the main chorus does its job of getting stuck in your head in the melodic mantra-like way it’s delivered. The track I think is also the first in Supergrass’s discography in which they really wore their glam-rock, Bowie/Bolan, T-Rex influences on their sleeves. They would dive even deeper into them on the album that followed Supergrass. But the seeds were sewn right here.

#870: Supergrass – Moving

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Anyone remember hearing this song in a TV advert somewhere during the early 2000s? That question is mainly aimed to any British readers I may have. Because I’m sure that I’d heard ‘Moving’ somewhere before I properly listened to the song many, many years ago now. When it comes to a lot of Supergrass’ singles, I wouldn’t be able to exactly pinpoint when and where I was when I heard them for the first time. Their music videos occasionally popped up on various channels back in the day, and just through those I found that Supergrass were actually quite great. Seeing as singles receive the music video treatment, and ‘Moving’ was one of those from Supergrass’ self-titled album from 1999, the track falls into that category.

And what is ‘Moving’ about, you might ask? Why, it’s a good ol’ song about the strain of touring. Moving and moving until you barely know who you are anymore, and trying to keep your sanity by thinking of the people back home. Especially your loved ones. The band describe these feelings in two kind of sections. There are the wistful verses, led by acoustic guitars, what sounds like an organ and strings. Then there are the busier chugging choruses where the band come in together and lay down a bit of a funky rhythm. There’s a great dynamic between the two things. Makes for some attentive listening, when those verses are left lingering at their end, you can’t wait for those choruses to kick in.

When I recently read a YouTube comment somewhere saying that the track takes its intro from Pink Floyd’s ‘Dogs’, I have to say I did start listening to it just a bit differently. There is quite the similarity. And there’s another thing I’m starting to wonder. Is there a hint of– not Auto-Tune… well, maybe it is Auto-Tune… but I’ll say pitch correction on Gaz Coombes’ vocal? Because there are many live performances of Supergrass performing the track and he definitely doesn’t hit those notes as smoothly as he does on the album. Think there’s some studio trickery going on. Sounds so great though. Definitely one of those ones for a long train journey, watching the scenery pass you by. Always like a good travelling song.