Supergrass - 'Diamond Hoo Ha' (Parlophone) Released 24/03/08

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It seems a longtime ago since the sounds of ‘Alright’ and ‘Caught By The Fuzz’ filled the air with the carefree tom foolery that sideburn wielding four-piece Supergrass encouraged. But a lot has changed in the thirteen years since ‘I Should Coco’ was released; the whiff of Britpop has long since faded, Labour have come to power and Alex James now makes cheese. Some things however haven’t changed; the sideburns remain the same, but the happy go lucky 20 something’s are now in their mid 30’s and still attempting to cling onto anything salvageable from their freewheeling youthful innocence, which has long since departed.

Their previous album ‘Road To Rouen’ showed a band that had grown up and although there’s nothing wrong with returning to nostalgic musical pastures, there has to be enough sustainable material to graze on. Unfortunately ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’ is fairly innocuous and goes a long way in cementing the argument that there is only one Oxfordshire band worthy of note and we’re not talking about Ride. Supergrass have always been an energetic, three cord, good time band, guaranteed to put a smile on your face, but the highly polished production on their sixth studio album almost ruins the reunion party… that and the lack of killer tracks.

The opening track ‘Diamond Hoo Ha Man’ not only sets the pace but the glam rock style that permeates the album, but it fails to deliver and is a disappointing start. Seemingly stripped of the bands Englishness, there’s a lack of authenticity throughout many of the tracks, despite the catchy riffs and boundless energy, the likes of their flagship single ‘Bad Blood’, ‘When I Needed You’, ‘345’, ‘Rough Knuckles’ and ‘Outside’ simply try too hard to sound mysterious and dangerous to be taken seriously and then there’s the unnecessary instrumentation; whether Supergrass need to be taken seriously or not isn’t the point. It’s not that they’re bad tracks, but they’re not great tracks, slightly devoid of the natural sounding feel good factor that their past glories provided.

There are some notable returns to form through the catchy pop infused ‘Rebel In You’, vaguely Dirty Pretty Things sounding ‘Whiskey & Green Tea’ and ‘The Return Of’ despite the dire chorus and an unforgivable freestyling saxophone, whereas the bizarrely Dylan infused ‘Ghost Of A Friend’ and the over indulgent ‘Butterfly’ leave you simply confused. ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’ isn’t a bad album, and the world can only be a better place for having Supergrass around, but it’s slightly dry, forced and too highly polished to be a good one either.