Supergrass – Diamond Hoo Ha (2008)

I was really late to discover Supergrass. Of course I did know some of their early hits, such as Alright, but I hadn't really listened to the band systematically and I had no clue of their individual albums. Then, everything changed when my sister's ex-boyfried brought Road to Rouen to one of our family gatherings at the summer cottage. I was immediately impressed about the melodic and mellow songs of that album, which led me to buy it as my first Supergrass album, which also obviously led to the earlier works as well. So, what this all entails is that Diamond Hoo Ha, which is the band's last album, was actually my first new Supergrass album while I was interested in them. It's a lot harder than its predecessor, but I still quite like it. There are excellent powerful rock songs with great melodies and energy.



I missed my chances of ever seeing Supergrass live even though it would've been easily possible in Helsinki. I'm a bit disappointed in myself for it, because they sound like they would be really great live. By nature, the music is quite light and there are similarities to 90's Britpop, but the guitar sounds are quite heavy with lots of overdrive and the rhythm section sounds fuller than most bands like this.

The album starts with almost the title-track, Diamond Hoo Ha Man, which is a great energetic rock song with some of the best Gaz Coombes vocals in any song. There's some amazing rock yells in this song. Next up is Bad Blood, which has excellent pounding drums and bass that really explode coming to the chorus, where the guitars sound amazing. Rebel in You has large stadium-style sounds and a soulful pounding that works really well with the backing vocals. When I Needed You sounds more like the previous album with its dark melodies and its more mellow sounds. 345 takes us back to wild electric guitars that buzz around sharply while the slightly overdriven bass is doing tricks here and there. The Return Of... has a nice swinging groove, but it's a bit boring when it comes to the melody. Rough Knuckles is an excellent rock song with probably the best sounds on the whole album. I really like the raunchy rock organs. Ghost of a Friend is quite different from the rest of the album. It has a strong Americana country folk feel about it even if the instruments are rockier. The vocals sound quite a lot like Bob Dylan in places. Whiskey & Green Tea goes almost jazzy in the beginning before exploding into full-blast rock. Outside is a bit all over the place, which is why it's probably my least favourite track on the album. The album ends with Butterfly that has some epic pounding that grows nicely for the chorus.

The music video for Bad Blood is quite a conventional music video. It mainly features the band playing the song in a room full of strange trinkets that move to the music. The room also goes round and round to the beat of the song. I think the video gives a pretty good impression of what the band might be like live. Even though the band members are quite a bit older than on their debut album in the 90's, there's excellent energy in the songs.

I must be a bit of a strange Supergrass fan considering that I only got familiar with the band so late and I actually know the later albums better than the first ones. I don't listen to this band that much anymore but whenever I almost wonder why. When I feel like listening to some proper rock music, Supergrass fits the bill perfectly.

Listen to the album on Spotify.