Supergrass Album: “I Should Coco”

Lot's of fun yet again, then at the end winds down to cool things off for the next supergrass cd which is "In It For The Money"

I Love Supergrass, Never Change

Supergrass's first album is just sheer fun through and through. They may have been influenced quite audibly by quite a wide variety of other bands (tell me Mansize Rooster doesn't make you think of Madness's Embarrassment), but the way these sounds are swirled around together is for the most part undeniable original and catchy as hell. Not the most earth-shattering album of the decade, perhaps, but definitely one of the best.

It's funny how a name sticks in your head sometimes. In my blunted early youth, around when I began college, I heard of a band named Supergrass. Their hit single at the time, Pumping On Your Stereo, was receiving a modest amount of airplay in Los Angeles and I thought the tune was infectious. Fast forward to 2004. I was twenty-three, finished with school and gobbling up as many shows as I could catch in the New York area. Supergrass happened to be playing a show in Manhattan. I remembered Pumping On Your Stereo and quickly bought tickets to the show and their first album, I Should Coco. I read the reviews here and elsewhere and they were unanimously glowing.

What did I think? Well, being a voracious music listener I hope my own glowing review counts in influencing your decision to purchase a Supergrass album. They're all good, by the way, but this one is better than the rest and I recommend you start here. As stated earlier, I Should Coco is the lads' first album and it was written and recorded when frontman Gaz Coombes was still in his teens. This is a key fact you must keep in mind when listening to the record. Doing so will leave you in awe and will help you to appreciate the maturation exhibited on subsequent releases. How could a band of teenagers have their fingers on the pulse of pop music to this high a degree? It is an aberration to say the least. The last lads I saw do pop this well and this melodically went on to an unrivaled legendary status.

But don't let me get ahead of myself. I Should Coco begins sprinting out of the gate. I'd Like to Know, the opener, is so infectious that its hard to believe it was chosen to open the album. One would figure that exhausting this exhuberant a song so early might portend banality later on. Not so. Every subsequent song raises the bar over its predecessor. This album is fun, it is energetic, it is youthful, and it is silly to the point that it will make you smile. To paraphrase, it is everything that pop music should be. Mansized Rooster, Strange Ones, Alright, Lenny, Sit Up Straight, She's So Loose, and Time are all killer. The whole album is a classic and a nugget of the Britpop genre of the early-mid 90's.

It is tantamount to a crime that Supergrass never achieved mainstream recognition in the States but it is also a blessing. It means that those of us lucky enough to hear about Supergrass by keeping our ears to the ground are in on something special that most of our contemporaries are not.

This was my first Supergrass album, bought solely for "Caught By The Fuzz". I had written off Supergrass as just another Britpop band, comparable with the likes of Travis, but once I listened to this album I realised how talented the band really is. Gaz's lyricism isn't going to win him a Pulitzer anytime soon, but strung together with their refreshingly bouncy melodies, they create excellent songs. Every track is a good listen, but in particular I would like to point out "She's So Loose", which is largely forgotten. It is the most melancholy song on the album, and also one of the best. Definitely worth the money.

but this is not a perfect record. sorry. strong building blocks that will lead up to their best record (the third). thank you...