Home > Music > CD Review > Supergrass, 'Diamond Hoo Ha'

Supergrass, 'Diamond Hoo Ha'

Another worthy effort from eclectic Britpop survivors

By Scott Thill

Special to Metromix
June 9, 2008

Critic's Rating:

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Backstory: As one of the more compelling acts of the mid-'90s Britpop takeover, Supergrass has survived its more storied peers like Oasis and Blur to emerge from the new millennium with its credibility and careers more or less intact. Less derivative and more risky than their competitors, they've churned out six full-lengths over a complicated career marked by tabloid controversies, personal injuries and smoking tunes.

Why you should care: Supergrass traffics in the usual British musical idioms—steady pop rhythms, urgent piano and guitar, passionate vocal deliveries, sardonic humor—but manages to achieve escape velocity when it comes time to pigeonhole their music. This effort is proof positive of that theorem: One minute they're upgrading Iggy and the Stooges on the synth-punk of "Bad Blood," the next they're mining Elton John's piano balladry on "When I Needed You."

Verdict: Supergrass' popularity peaked in 1999, which is when they last went platinum, and everything they have done since then has been characterized as an attempt to regain that momentum. But it's a critical fallacy: from the frenetic rawk of "345" and the blistering opener "Diamond Hoo Ha Man," this effort is a far cry from their more understated last effort "Road to Rouen" and can easily stand on its own as a worthy shredder. The angular funk of "The Return Of…" and "Rough Knuckles" are as danceable as the extended finale "Butterfly" is epic. Supergrass likes to round out its rough edges with electronics, and there are more rough edges on "Diamond Hoo Ha" than ever, especially on the distorted horn freakouts of "Whiskey & Green Tea."

X-Factor: Supergrass plans to release a mockumentary called “Glange Fever” in 2009, following the exploits of the Diamond Hoo Ha Men, a duo made up of Duke Diamond (frontman Gaz Coombes) and Randy Hoo Ha (drummer Danny Goffey) that the band conceived while bassist Mick Quinn was recovering from injuries he sustained when he reportedly sleep-walked out a second-story window.

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