Diamond geezers.
The most surprising thing about the latest Supergrass album was the realization that the four members had repositioned themselves as transgender mariachi ragtime musicians with a penchant for singing about mutilated swans and the cold aftermath of the second Sino-Japanese war and it’s a bold move that should be warmly applauded and should see ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’ held as one of the modern classics.
Nah, of course not, ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’ is yet another Supergrass album that offers up some sparkling glam-pop and its really enjoyable but you get the impression that the band needs to shake things up a bit to be selling loads of records and getting the acclaim they deserve. The change suggested at the top of this review is clearly too far but perhaps Supergrass just need to shock people to be reviewed objectionably again because with the exception of the rather flat ‘Road To Rouen’, the band have an outstanding back catalogue and this new record maintains that average.
To be honest though, there is still a sense of development on the album, there are different elements of music and themes and more light and shading but the over-riding sense of fun and pomp is still where the bad excels. The opening ‘Diamond Hoo Ha Man’ opens with a fuzz-filled riff that could pass for The White Stripes or Queens of The Stone Age but when the vocals kick in, its undeniably the ‘Grass and ‘Bad Blood’, the single, will easily slip into the bands live arsenal with a rollicking chorus being akin to the stormier moments of ‘Richard III.’
‘The Return Of…’ has such a rinky dink keyboard intro that it is so positively 80s that you can picture Keeley Hawes running about in tight denims on ‘Ashes To Ashes’ (or is that just us?) to this song. However, talk of that show brings us back to Bowie and yep, the old staples of Bowie and The Kinks are still looming large on ‘Damond Hoo Ha.’ ‘Rebel In You’ mat start off like Franz Ferdinands ‘Do You Wanna?’ but it soon eases back into classic early 70s Bowie stomp and pomp that the band churns out effortlessly whilst ‘When I Needed You’ leans ever so slightly on ‘Dead End Street.’ Accusations of pilfering and plagiarism isn’t a criticism of the band though, its almost as if they have accepted their role as fun-time performers and the inclusion of little snippets of familiar tunes will encourage many more people to get involved and keep the band touring and festival appearing for many years to come.
Perhaps Supergrass need to release an album or single under a different name and pull a stunt on the record industry • theres every chance the music will be better received than what it is currently because make no mistake ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’ is a really enjoyable album that ensures that Supergrass are still burning brightly when so many of their peers fizzled out many years ago.
Heres to the boys and lets hope they have many years left in them.