Relatively-Recent Classics #2: Supergrass - Road To Rouen (2005)

Supergrass – “the toothsome threesome”, as no one calls them – burst onto the scene in 1995 with their debut I Should Coco. They were exuberant, larger-than-life, cartoonish (it was both fitting and somewhat unnecessary that Jim Henson later turned them into Muppet-like characters in the “Pumping On Your Stereo” video), gurning at the camera, careering downhill in shopping trolleys, and getting nicked by the cops. A three-pronged power pop celebration of youth and its recklessness.
The album became the biggest-selling debut on the Parlophone label since a little-known band called The Beatles released Please, Please Me in 1963.

2005’s Road To Rouen – a nice pun and a nod to the city in northern France where the album was recorded – opens with “Tales Of Endurance Pts. 4, 5 & 6”.
You could read into it that Pts. 1,2 & 3 were the periods marked by the three LPs that followed Coco. Each album contained big anthems but failed to take Supergrass to the next level of an Oasis, Pulp or Blur. Attempts by the band to mature and evolve their sound weren't always warmly received or entirely successful: In It For The Money featured a Kinks-y approach to songwriting and grown-up hues of brown and purple organ, but wasn't a massive seller; Supergrass was more personal and experimented with mood, but was perhaps too sombre for its own good. Life On Other Planets seemed to be a reaction to this, Supergrass making the kind of record they thought Supergrass fans expected/wanted from Supergrass: two minute pop-punk tunes about UFOs, girls and getting pissed, with shout-along choruses and hyperactive bass, played at break-neck speed.
They had had to endure and had endured, but were, in many ways, back where they’d started, ten years on, in a much-changed pop landscape. Where to next?
You could read all that into the title of “Tales Of Endurance Pt. 4, 5 & 6”, but most probably it’s just a neat name for a Side One Track One.

Musically, “Tales” begins with an extended intro, a simple acoustic riff layered with rumbles, twangs and puffs of smoke creating a cool spaghetti western vibe. Horns rise and fall. A dreamy, rolling verse is halted by another choir of horns, before jagged electric guitars and yelping vocals charge in, taking the track to a strutting conclusion. “St Petersburg”, by contrast, drifts in and catches you off guard with its quiet beauty. “Time to move on…set sail for St Petersburg” croons lead singer Gaz Coombes, a rich string section swirling around him, recalling Jean Claude Vannier’s arrangements for Serge Gainsbourg. It also acts as a reminder that vinyl-fiend Coombes has always professed himself a massive Gainsbourg fan and that Air included I Should Coco track “Lose It” amongst the film scores, prog and French lounge music on their incredible Deck Safari mix.

Throughout, the string arrangements are stellar, and a striking feature of Road To Rouen. Recorded live, they bring a drama, sophistication and timelessness missing from the many modern records which include synthetic studio strings (For two more expertly arranged, string-soaked Noughties beauties, see Richard Hawley’s Cole’s Corner and Paul Weller’s 22 Dreams).
This change to a more refined, reflective sound, as well as the relocation to France, was in direct response to difficult events in band members’ personal lives: the brothers Coombes’ mother had passed away, while drummer Danny Goffey’s rock‘n’roll lifestyle had brought him unwanted tabloid press attention. Care-free odes to being young and free with teeth nice and clean suddenly weren't high on the agenda.

The lushness of the sound is matched by the ambition of the song structures. Even the songs which take classic Supergrass as their starting point shoot off in unexpected directions: the title track has a glam feel the band have explored before, but it’s a tricksier Roxy Music variety of glam compared to the “Blockbuster”-stomp of earlier efforts; “Roxy” starts conventionally enough, before building to a hysterical, strung-out climax of ringing piano cords and shrill, stabbing strings.

Following directly after “Roxy”, “Coffee In The Pot” is light relief, more a studio in-joke or local radio jingle than a song. The album highlight for me is “Low C”: a wonderful strum-along, which could slip effortlessly onto John Lennon’s Imagine album, its unexpected key changes and whoops of joy recalling “Oh Yoko”.

“Fin” – appropriately enough – closes the LP on a serene note, a lullaby with plinking electronics and a studio effect which turns Coombes’ voice into a ghostly quiver. “It’s a long way home”, he half-whispers, half-gargles.

Gaz Coombes later reflected on the album as “career suicide”, and, in commercial terms, he was right – despite positive reviews, its stately pace and lack of bouncy lead single meant that it sold slowly and disappeared quickly. Supergrass released one further album, Diamond Hoo Ha, their most blatant homage to their glam rock heroes, before calling it a day in 2010. Still, they leave behind a pretty much flawless Greatest Hits, a legacy as one of the great festival bands, and – in Road To Rouen – a fantastic, future unearthed rock gem.