Best Albums of 2010

Nick!

Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt

Mona!

Kings Of Leon - Come Around Sundown

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

Basho!

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record

Laura Veirs - July Flame

Dizzy!

April Smith - Songs For a Sinking Ship

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress

Jonsi - Go

School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire

Stars - The Five Ghosts

Wolf Parade - Expo 86

Scout!

1. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

-A grower, but the best kind. There's only one song on here that I'm not madly in love with (it's the one that sounds like U2). I love that they've expanded but they keep their elements intact. Mostly I just love that their holding a mirror up to how badly we fucked up. A mirror that happens to be made up of the greatest songs of the year. "Month of May" and "Ready To Start" use guitars and drums like weapons, "Modern Man" is "Downtown Train" by Tom Waits, but sweeter, "Suburban War" is Nebraska by Springsteen, but in the middle it gets 50,000 volts to the heart, "Sprawl II" is like The Human League + New Order, but with humanitarian blood coursing through it's veins, turning them bright, neon red under the skin. Regine Chassagne and Win Butler's voices are still just as important to me as the day I first heard them, at the tail end of 2004. They may be older and wiser, but to have them singing the same blues I have every day is about as close to having them put their hands on my shoulder and saying "keep it up" as I'll come. Their songs have always resonated with me because I feel like they were written about me. Which I think is Win Butler's gift as a songwriter. He's a genius who only ever talks up to the willing in his songs. He and his band beg you to wake up and love each other before it's too late. Standout track: "Empty Room." That rare object of beauty you can blast from car speakers.

2. Holy Fuck - Latin

-Holy Fuck are the only band that could ever deserve the name they chose for themselves. No one ever said that these guys could top their first album, and I definitely thought it impossible. And yet and yet. Latin is, as Brian Borcherdt's video for "Red Lights" suggests, a muscle car that bathes in the morning sun on opener "1MD" then gets into all kinds of fucking trouble for the rest of the album. Whereas LP had hooks that you could shake your ass to, Latin gives them depth, meaning, a backstory. Latin is as imperative as it is unforgettably catchy. It's also so awesome that really there's only one thing to say when you find yourself in the mesmerizing grooves the band creates. And I think you know what that is.

3. Wolf Parade - Expo 86

-Dizzy and I have discussed this album at length and though I agree with her that the first song, "Cloud Shadow On The Mountain" is the best thing ever done by human beings, I still contend that the rest of the album holds enough majesty to serve as a worthy successor to their unparralleled debut album Apologies To The Queen Mary. Still weird and still wonderful, Wolf Parade have honed their skills as rockers and it turns out their instincts as rock gods work nicely with their old baggage, singing dadaistic, avant-garde lyrics about who knows what. Dan Boeckner is the MVP here, making his guitar scream and sing in turn (the man was born to punish six strings) and for the first time since that brilliant first album, he and Spencer Krug sing together perfectly on "Little Golden Age." Boeckner's rockers and Krug's space-age barn-burners are represented here and both are in top form. And of course Arlen Thompson's drumming and Hadji Bakara's squelching keyboards are never at rest; they give Wolf Parade the gown it wears to the wedding, after all. These four work together in perfect harmony and Expo 86 is a rock album for our uncertain times. It's never at rest, it constantly conjures beautiful endless vistas in our minds, it's powerless to the machinations that surround it, but that doesn't stop it from tearing shit up real nice. Standout track: "Cave-O-Sapien"

4. UNKLE - Where Did The Night Fall

-I always liked UNKLE, but more as atmosphere rather than as songsmiths. For the hundreth time I was happily proven wrong about a band's capability this year when UNKLE delivered Where Did The Night Fall which mixes dramatic delivery with beastly choruses. "Follow Me Down" starts things off perfectly, cool and aloof at times, digging into you at others. The choice of guest vocalists was inspired on this outing. Rachel Fannan of Sleepy Sun, The Black Angels, Joel Cadbury, TV On The Radio/Celebration's Katrina Ford, Autolux... There are great, creeping club rockers that would make Portishead happy, but I'm tempted to say that the best song is the slow-burning "Another Night Out" which proves why Mark Lanegan is one of the most sought after vocalists in the game. It's dark, huge and splendid, like the album it closes.

5. The Besnard Lakes - Are The Roaring Night

-Mixing Shoegazing rock with chamber pop, The Besnard Lakes are the greatest band you don't know. Except maybe Holy Fuck. Get on that, reader, you're falling behind! Anyway, this album is everything it promises. Hazy skylines, blurring colours, canon-like bursts of guitar and drums, flying vocals, propulsive pop, rockers like runaway freight trains, the roaring night. Standout track: "And This Is What We Call Progress."

6. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record

-I don't think I even need to go into why I love this. Does anyone question my love of Broken Social Scene at this point? Is anyone surprised when their records show up here year after year? For those who do listen to "Meet Me In The Basement." Yeah, how do you like that? Pretty fucking awesome, yeah? Broken Social Scene are always in my head. They were with me all throughout my teen years and are just always with me. "Art House Director" is a lot of fun, an Andrew Whiteman-penned romp all about authorial vision, getting at the line that separates music and film. "All To All" is just amazing. So is "Sentimental Xs." So is "Chase Scene." So is "World Sick."

7.Laura Jorgensen - Feathered Arms

-Am I perhaps slightly biased when it comes to Laura Jorgensen? We've made four movies together, one of which was an account of her playing a solo concert; I directed the music video for her song "Pulling Strings;" I sat next to her in Intro To Film Scoring. Perhaps. Those who'd believe me incapable of being objective ought to just listen to one of her songs. "Pens" for instance, in which she channels Joanna Newsom, Bjork and Devotchka, all imperatively, all gorgeously, all the while proving herself a talent in need of recognition. Her voice goes from a rousing roar to a breath-taking whisper, all in the name of getting us to realize the joy and stunning life that surrounds us even in squalor. Feathered Arms is like Never Let Me Go, a kind of quiet, post-apocalyptic account of what went wrong at the end of the world. Why didn't we stop cutting down forests? Why didn't we stop fighting wars? Why didn't we hold each other a little closer? Even still, those of us who've survived are privy to a truly excellent party scored by Jorgensen's stunning and reflective old-fashioned pop music. Standout track: "South." Sweet fucking jesus, that song.

8. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

-The thing that won me over immediately was the album cover. It all made perfect sense. James Murphy is Bernard Sumner and David Bowie and Peter Murphy and Bryan Ferry and Iggy Pop and Philip Oakey and he had the album cover to prove it. This Is Happening could be the best album of 78-86 were it not for the irony, the foresight James Murphy has looking back at his own behavior, his short but almost unbelievably successful career as the golden boy of self-aware, post-Daft Punk techno. There couldn't have been anyone like Murphy until Murphy. He worked his way up, built an empire in his image, gave the spotlight to like-minded geniuses like Hot Chip, Shit Robot and Black Dice. Bands full of guys just like him except that they're not him. As unlikely rock stars go, paunchy, self-hating James Murphy is at the top of the list, but lo and behold, he not only managed to recreate the noises from his favourite records full of charismatic sex symbols, but he also found his voice. So he can now not only say "Fuck You" to everyone who doubted he was a genius, but he can do it in a really beautiful voice he found in honor of his last album. Dude...fuckin' James Murphy. He wrote a song called "You Wanted A Hit" and then realized his album didn't have a hit, so he wrote "Drunk Girls" which is the greatest song ever written. And it's not even the best song on the album. Standout track: "One Touch" and "I Can Change" because they're both sides of his personality, the hit machine and the insecure pop star who doesn't want the spotlight.

9. The Living Sisters - Love To Live

-Recently I was won over by whimsy, smiles, sunshine and hooks. I blame The Hidden Cameras to a degree and certainly years of listening to Regina Spektor (though her relentless cuteness can be like staring at the sun, you just have to stop before your eyes burn out of your head), but recently I've been totally won over by the bubbly likes of The Secret Sisters, Laura Marling and The Living Sisters, the newest Becky Stark side project, also featuring Inara George from The Bird and The Bee and mutual friend Eleni Mandell. Of the three these girls won me over with their three-part harmonies, plucky subject matter (the opening track is almost too happy), and old-school California melodies. A more easy and pretty listen you won't find this year; the perfect album to put on and pretend you have no troubles. Go on, you know you want to. Standout track: "Double Knots." Like swimming in a shimmering, rainbow-colored pool with your best gal.

10. Stars - The Five Ghosts

-Stars have yet to write an album that maintains the kind of mood that makes for a single listen. "Genova Heights" and "Today Will Be Better" are too definitive in opposite directions to be cohesive together. They're both great songs, indeed Stars write some of the best rock/theatrical pop music of the last decade, but I tend to do a lot of skipping depending on whether I'm feeling down or romantic or in the mood for a lot of headbanging and air guitar. The Five Ghosts is the closest thematically they've done since Heart and contains some of their best songs to date. Listen to Amy Millan's voice on the seemingly ordinary "Changes." What begins in that breathy, sweet way of hers morphs slowly into an impossibly beautiful plea. "Changes" has maybe her greatest vocal performance to date. Goddamn can Amy Millan sing. Like their previous albums The Five Ghosts also has some pretty massive personal significance for me and someone who will remain nameless (you know who you are!). These guys write songs that lend themselves well to soundtrack-of-your-life type situations, which really puts them in their own league as far as pop is concerned. A lot of pop music sounds like it's supposed to play during the end credits of a movie. Stars write songs that turn your life into a living film that you want desperately to have a happy ending. Standout: "Wasted Daylight." That song is fucking awesome.

11.The Hot Rats - Turn Ons

-I shouldn't count this as it's all covers but seriously this record rocks. As much as it grieves me to learnt that my favourite bands have broken up (this year I found out that Ambulance LTD. may have finally thrown in the towel, as well as French Kicks and World Leader Pretend) when I learned that Supergrass has called it quits, the blow was softened somewhat by the release of The Hot Rats' Turn Ons. Produced by Radiohead's angel-on-the-shoulder Nigel Godrich, Hot Rats is really just Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffy from Supergrass doing the work of three men and playing some of their (and mine) favourite songs and doing just as good or better a job as the fellas who penned them. I always thought that "Big Sky" by The Kinks could have used a harder edge, for instance. Apparently so did Coombes. I also thought that The Velvet Underground's "Can't Stand It' was a bit aimless; Coombes and Goffy give it a pulse and a purpose. I hate The Doors and never really thought I'd like anything of theirs that didn't open Apocalypse Now. Point Coombes. Their version of "The Crystal Ship" makes sense of Jim Morrison's formerly incoherent vision and brings a soaring chorus to life. Even songs I didn't really think deserved the Hot Rats treatment come away lively and catchy. Gang of Four's "Damaged Goods" and Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right To Party" are given such a nifty acoustic guitar treatment resulting in the kind of indefatigable kookiness that only hindsight can produce. The best of the 60s, 70s and 80s with a little of each thrown into the mix in the production, with Nigel Godrich's work almost akin to building a cabin around these songs and keeping a roaring fire going while Coombes and Goffy have a singsong. I'm just glad they invited everyone. Usually this tasteful experimentation winds up on the cutting room floor. But they enlivened the best of Elvis Costello, Pink Floyd and Sex Pistols in a way that I didn't know needed doing. Standout track: "Up The Junction," originally by Squeeze. Heartbreaking.

12. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress

-Tom Waits called Jesca Hoop's music akin to "swimming at night." Having only heard one song "Four Dreams" I didn't quite get it. Now that I've got her excellent third album, Hunting My Dress, I get it. Managing to out-Brian Deck Brian Deck with her quirky production, Hoop doesn't create songs so much as she does little worlds with hierarchies, characters and dangers. Like Waits' newer albums, Hunting My Dress is at once a showcase for her unique voice and also a new and exciting endeavour every track. It doesn't make for cohesion, but it does make for an experience that's like reading a different novel every time the song changes. "Whispering Light" is a dark ugly place where the locals'd kill you as soon as look at you, "Angel Mom" is elegiac and fragile, fraught with loss, "Tulip" is hot, full of high-contrast light and sideways glances from nervous travelers. As for "Four Dreams," it's very nearly the best song of the year. A clicking, clacking deep and wonderful place that works like a clock. And at the end of the hour, more amazing music.

13. School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire

-I have KCRW's Top Tune to thank for a lot of the albums on here (Jesca Hoop, Living Sisters, Joanna Newsom) including this, which introduced me to the best song on the album, the buzzing, expansive "Dust Devil." It showed me that School of Seven Bells have grown as a band, even if their favourite influences have stuck around. There's still plenty of My Bloody Valentine on Disconnect From Desire and Brian Eno, to be sure, but they've found a sound that extends past their ability to find a wavy, fuzzy groove. "Dust Devil" is School of Seven Bells conquering their influences and standing over top of them victorious. The twin vocals of twin sisters Deheza and the propulsive backing of Benjamin Curtis show a mastery of the kind of thing they did in their previous bands and showing what they've discovered on the trail they're currently blazing. There are hills and valleys to get lost in and if you're looking for a hiding place, an environment to discover yourself do what they did, Disconnect From Desire. Also, listen to this album cause it's pretty great.

14. Land of Talk - Cloak And Cypher

-Liz Powell has always been super impressive. I've seen her do two sets in a night, as opener and headliner, and she kept playing when the power went out onstage. Her albums until now have been mostly momentary distraction types. I need a song to rock out to between work and home? "Young Bridge" will do the job. But I never though her sweltering guitar and lazy vocals were never quite as imperative as her peers. Well, I take back my apathy. Land of Talk have proven themselves a band of amazing depth and incredible songwriting skill with Cloak And Cypher, an icy cool post-punk album that makes Powell's voice a deep and powerful force and puts her detuned guitar to work beneath layers of drums and hefty production. Cloak and Cypher sounds like The Pretenders produced by Martin Hannett. It's catchy and dark and detached and in-your-face at once. The choruses of "Goaltime Exposure" and "Color Me Badd" are monumental and will stay with you long after the album's finished spinning.

15. J Tillman - Singing Ax

-Like a wind kicked up a hundred years ago that's only just blown through your hair. You might know him as the guy who drums for Fleet Foxes but he deserves to be known as the guy whose aching, sweet voice, Cormac McCarthy-esque country songs and his distant lonely guitar will bring you to tears in the right mindset. This is isn't even as good as his previous records but this is still a haunting and winning record and better than most musicians that purport to be modern country. His voice melts in your ears and his songs will live for centuries; they already sound like they have.

16. Nels Cline Singers - Initiate

-Much more overtly jazzy than Draw Breath, a previous favourite around these parts, and much more spacious and psychedelic, too. Nels has been around long enough that when he experiments, it really sounds as vital as it ought to. After all, are there many jazz guitar players with his resume? He's played with Thurston Moore, Wilco, Mike Watt, Zach Hill and Charlie Haden. Anyway, Initiate straddles psych-rock and spacey, thoughtful jazz. "Red Line To Greenland" is way fucking awesome, loaded with instantly memorable riffs and burning theatrics, while "Scissor/Saw" is all experimental percussion and detuned disturbances. He still finds something exciting to say with the most over-used instrument on the planet and he's got a band that can keep up with him, too.

17. Lullabye Arkestra - Threats/Worship

-I love Lullabye Arkestra because they constantly remind me that even with the simplest formula (one bass, one drum kit, two Canadian spouses with indie rock credentials) something new can come bursting out. Like a charging bull, Threats/Worship takes a harder edge than their debut Ampgrave, and the soul influence is a little less prominent, but what these two do with a lot of distortion is like alchemy. Kat Taylor-Small's voice is soulful even when in the throes of a screaming fit and this time she even allows herself a moment of reverby cool on the album's best track, the sexy "Fog Machine." It's not easy to do something new with bass and drums and even harder to swim the waters between metal and soul but Lullabye do it with panache. "Sad Sad Story" sounds like it could have been written for someone on Deep City Records, while "Get Nervous" and "We Fuck The Night" are more punishing and cool than the best on Relapse Records. I'm always glad to see something totally unique spring to life when lovers make music.

18. Eric Chenaux & Ryan Driver - Warm Weather

-It doesn't quite compare to their otherworldly live show, but this collection of collaborative tracks does hint at the mysterious majesty of their harmonizing. The two men compliment each other with their wonderfully human voices and rambling guitars. Constellation Records' secret weapon for some time, Chenaux mixes the likes of Ohad Benchetrit's guitar and Vic Chesnutt's lonely singing. A fall day living room record.

19. Holly Miranda - The Magicians Private Library

-Brilliant, almost industrial post-pop that soothes and cuts in equal measure. Miranda's voice is just as interesting as her compositions; a sort of smoky, jazzy thing complimented by Dave Sitek's keyboards and Eno-like repetition and ethereal orchestration. There are sun-drenched highs ("Sweet Dreams") and noisy lows ("No One Just Is") and it all makes sense. Standout: the Kyp Malone-assisted "Slow Burn Treason." Simply astonishing!

20. Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me

-Previous albums have alienated me with their sheer outre cuteness, but this is the first album where her mammoth, baroque vision has seeped into my brain. I'm a recent convert but I really do think that this is the one record of hers that everyone could enjoy. Some really beautiful compositions that she finally does herself the favour of singing clearly on. A beautiful, beautiful collection of songs.

Supergrass Is Dead! Long Live Supergrass

So perhaps I'm a touch behind as news goes but then again I'm not actually a journalist, so...but I'm here to talk you folks about a band I love, though now I suppose I'll have to start talking about them in the past tense. For Supergrass is no more. Their blend of Britrock spanned genres and more than a decade but they've called it quits. There is reason to hope that all is not lost, but more on that later. Let's start at the top. Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey were in a band called the Jennifers in their mid to late teens which fell apart in 92. They left an indelible impression on the few who heard them gigging in Oxfordshire, their hometown. Bassist Mick Quinn, a co-worker of Coombes, joined them in 93 and after messing about with a few named settled on Theodore Supergrass. The prefix would go in the weeks after their first good reviews came in. Their history isn't crucial and to be honest I don't know a good deal about their personal journey but I know their music like the back of my hand. One of the first records I bought and felt like I was on my way to being a proper music aficionado was their 2002 record Life On Other Planets. Frequent guests here will know that it wound up very near the top of my best albums of the decade.

The band's sound is steeped in the history of British popular rock music and indeed their evolution almost uncannily mirrors that of The Who. They started with uber-catchy and very English early material (I Should Coco/The Who Sing My Generation), got a bit bigger and a little more expansive and loud (In It For The Money, Supergrass/A Quick One), way more conceptual and a little less cookie-cutter but with a distinct and beautiful personality (Life On Other Planets, Road To Rouen/The Who Sell Out) and finally a big rock sound that was a little low on the kind of magic that characterized their best records (Diamond Hoo Ha/Tommy, Who's Next). Evidently I wasn't the only one who saw the Who connection. Coombes sang "Bargain" with Pearl Jam at the VH1 Rock Honors celebration of The Who, one of their least interesting songs just before Coombes was to release his least compelling record to date just as The Who would venture into all-too-familiar rock territory after their 60s heyday (the 70s killed off some of our most impressive bands by turning the volume up and the creativity down; Imagine if The Stones had never stopped trying to make records like Second Request). In fact It's also tempting to think that Supergrass might have done a splendid little reversal a la David Bowie, who at first fell pray to the allure of early 70s musical trends but pulled himself out of his glamrock nose dive in time to make a soul record, a kind of indefinable spacy funk record and then define Post-Punk before Punk was in its death throes. The proof: Hot Rats. Springing out of their time alone following Mick Quinn's sleepwalking injury in 2007, Coombes and Goffey released a cover album earlier this year called Turn Ons, produced by Nigel Godrich, he of Radiohead production fame. The record was largely 60s, early 70s rock though there are exceptions (notably a pretty catchy cover of Gang of Four's "Damaged Goods" and the Beastie Boys "Fight For Your Right To Party", which as a reviewer pointed out sounds exactly like The Who's "I Can See For Miles"). Why this leaves me feeling hopeful for the now defunct Supergrass is that they managed to trot out the kind of rock music ruined by the 70s and make it sound both understated and alive. The Velvets, Pink Floyd, The Kinks, The Doors, Roxy Music, Squeeze and David Bowie are given a kind of Devil's Advocate production, alternately turned up and down hinting at what those bands might have done without the times shelling out money on studios. Bowie's "Queen Bitch" for example benefits from a soaring string arrangement over the verses. It's exactly the kind of momentum that the song always needed, though no one would have ever said so. That's why I love the guys in Supergrass, they answer to no one. And they can also make me appreciate The Doors. Their cover of that worthless misogynistic band's "The Crystal Ship" feels weighty and important and fun all at once, something The Doors never managed to convince me of divorced from the images from Apocalypse Now. It was also good to hear Coombes ripping apart his guitar as on recent Grass records he'd taken to big riffs with little virtuosity called for. It didn't used to be that way.

"I'd Like To Know" the first track on their debut record I Should Coco, is all furious muted picking, overdubs and high-flying tone. Coombes, who was barely 19 at the album's release, lets his youthful energy take the track around the block a number of times. He might not be Jimmy Page but he lets his guitar eat up a good deal of the track. Quinn and Goffey are just as impressive. Quinn whose stance hasn't changed much since the band's early gigs, has John Entwistle's stamina, mastery of tone and does just as impressive a job on the backing vocals. Goffey's speed and thunderous sound put him in good company as well though it would be a few albums before their ability would be given its full breath. The youth of the band is evident but there's clearly a maturity to the group's sound, which is astonishing considering their age. The penultimate track, "Sofa (Of My Lethargy)" is a great example of their preternatural skill with a studio. Not only did they get the kind of madcap, Richard Lester style irreverence of 60s British but they also had moments that aped the likes of Floyd and Black Sabbath. The sound wasn't the most unique thing in the world but it was fun and knowing and fleet of finger and besides, the best was yet to come.

In It For The Money, their sophomore record is bigger, louder and a little more fierce. The opening onslaught of the titular opener, "Richard III" and the horn-laden "Tonight" perfect encapsulate their manic energy at its unchained best. Catchy, riddled with distortion and a winking sense of themselves. These are songs to fall in out and of, pulp rock music. It's not hard to imagine Grass in 1997 filling up bonus discs with silly covers of "Hall of the Mountain King" and "The Batman Theme" as The Who did at this point in their career. Though Coombes' depth also began to shine through as on the Golden Agey acoustic led "Late In The Day." Though even as their capacity to take themselves seriously burgeoned, they could still cut themselves down to size on as on the muzak interlude on "Going Out." The album is a bit more of a whole then Coco, and the use of disparate sounds and expansive instrumentation would be put to full use on their best album.

1999 saw their second brush with big time exposure. Coco had spawned a couple of hit singles and for a minute or two the band were on top of the world. Steven Spielberg even approached them about possibly producing a Monkees like TV show which proves both their irreverent and their timeless credentials and when they said no that cemented their reputation as a band that viewed music more seriously than the fame that often accompanies it. They weren't above the odd video (it was the 90s, after all) but ultimately it was the music that drove them. Britain has churned out its fair share of run-of-the-mill pop groups but it has plenty of iconoclastic rock stars to its name as well. For every Paul McCartney or George Michael there are also a few Syd Barretts and John Lydons. Coombes and Co. have the ability to put out something as hooky as The Kinks or any of Britain's New Wave acts but their progression from fun-loving pop group to record label nightmare is important if we are to appreciate them fully. They'd always caused trouble for Parlophone and indeed wound up splitting from them but my guess is that the real trouble started in 1999. With the release of their self-titled third album came the Jim Henson Studio helmed video for "Pumping On Your Stereo" which made them (once again) an overnight sensation. They would never see this level of success again. The album that "Stereo" sprang from is quite a good collection of pop tunes with the swagger of a rock album.

Opening with another indelible string of brilliant songs, "Moving" sets the tone for the record, moving from a floating verse to a stomping chorus. The first time the organ starts creeping through before the chorus kicks in, ooh it's sweet. They unleash a number of awesome choruses on this record making this possibly their best car stereo album. "Your Love" pulls off the same trick but somehow the chorus is even more awesome. The overdubs and harpsichord help distract you sufficiently so that when the chorus comes in it hits you even harder. "What Went Wrong" has an instantly compelling verse if a little less impressive a chorus, but the real meat of the record is for me the next track. "Beautiful People" The pre-chorus and the chorus itself are screaming, gripping bits of pop genius. Tightly constructed and highly satisfying, it's the best the record gets. The rest is good, "Shotover Hill" capturing that sunbaked feel they supply on "Late In The Day", "Eon" a preview of the sort of spacey momentum they would perfect on Life On Other Planets. "Mary" and "Born Again" have a kind of slinky Station to Station feel. "Faraway" and "Pumping on Your Stereo" are instantly catchy. "Mama and Papa" is one of the few songs that seems to have any real personal meaning for Gaz Coombes, songwriter, who slows down and speaks up for the first time.


Supergrass kissed the video/radio play route goodbye with Life On Other Planets. The record spawned a few singles, none of them chart burners, in the states but after making Life On Other Planets, the most conceptual and unique of their albums to date, they went into making grounded and mature rock music that doesn't play well with teens (Diamond Hoo Ha was a bit of a relapse but it was also their downfall apparently). "Grace" the first one that made it's way here, was my first proper introduction to the Oxfordshire natives. I'd heard "Pumping on your Stereo" a dozen or so times but frankly half the record is better than that song, so I wasn't totally won over. "Grace" was different. Short, sweet, charming, effervescent, and catchy as sin. I saw the video, I believe, before I bought the record. It was as cute as the song required and I believe after a week straight singing it to myself I downloaded it and played the hell out of it. Weeks after that I found the host album, Life On Other Planets, at Siren Records, which I remember distinctly being a first of a few different orders. One of the first proper records I bought with my own money, one of the first I played until it was scratched beyond use, one of the first I remember thinking was among the best albums of all time. "Grace" was the window (and for once the single was as good as the rest of the record) and the house I climbed into was lavish beyond compare.

I've already spoken about Life On Other Planets' greatness here so I won't rehash those same points again. I'll simply say that the record is like a fantastical literary and sensory journey, a kind of grand festival that harkens to the highest highs of 60s british music, everything from King Crimson to The Creation. It's ranked among my favorite albums since buying it, which I've had to do several times because I kept damaging the discs. Bookended by meandering organ, Life is all about transporting the listener and bringing to someplace strange and new but still somewhat familiar. The songs are wholly new for the band and there isn't a bit of filler in the lot of them. None of the singles really dented the stateside charts and the band would never see them again.

Their better-than-average best-of followed two years later complete with a live bonus album. The real treat however was the single they recorded to commemorate ten years of being Supergrass. "Kiss of Life" is a bouncy and vibrant song that showcased the expansion of their sound. The next record would realize their more experimental tendencies spectacularly. When the band played "Kiss of Life" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, I recorded and watched it easily two dozen times before I had that particularly illegal DVD stolen by my then math teacher - I think he liked Pearl Jam's cover of "Masters of War" too much to part with it and told me it'd just been lost. And I think I got a C that year....fucker.

The year after they came out...well, blazing isn't the right word, considering the total lack of fanfare that greeted the release....one could almost sense Parlophone losing confidence in the band as they, like Wilco before them, gravitated away from what had made them consistent sellers in the past. The Supergrass who'd so gleefully played "Caught By The Fuzz" on Later With Jools Holland were no more. Sadly the public didn't respond as well as most critics, and even those reviews often missed the point. I remember buying Road To Rouen like it were yesterday. I was at a Sam Goody that was closing for good and picked it out of the few records worth buying still left (a testament to the album's performance overseas, even with its priced slashed no one had touched it). The quote on the sticker read approximately: "Ry Cooder meets Franz Ferdinand." It's not that that doesn't work (though it's unfairly narrow) but Franz Ferdinand had been around not even a year and already they were being treated as the elder statesmen, as if Supegrass were some bland teenaged brit-pop act like The Kooks or Razorlight, trying to sell you a sound you'd heard a hundred times before and a hundred times better. Granted, to anyone who's heard their influences Supergrass had hardly reinvented the wheel but they brought to it a new vitality and an undying charm and warmth.

Road To Rouen starts with one of their best songs and certainly one of their most interestingly produced. "Tales of Endurance (Parts 4, 5 & 6)" starts with a minor arrangement on the acoustic guitar joined by damp vocals and a slowly building orchestration complete with muted horns, piano and finally the stomping, sneering Grass we've come to expect. Next comes the soft, intriguing "St. Petersburg" that finds Coombes at his most world-weary. He sells his entanglement as wistfully as possible, helped by a heavy dose of vocal reverb that makes it near impossible to tell what the hell he's saying; that you still feel for him makes it that much more effective. "Roxy" is big and has the stature of mid-70s Bowie or early Roy Orbison. When it finally comes to a halt, we're greeted with arguably Supergrass's most fun song. "Coffee In The Pot" is welcome as the band have just spent four songs taking themselves seriously (albeit to great effect) and this is a reminder that their sense of humour hasn't deadened, it's just gotten sophisticated like the rest of their elements. The song's gypsy jazz feel and Rimsky-Korsakov like chorus are a hoot and it's pretty hard to feel down whenever I hear this song. Then it's right back to the rocking. The title track is rock but in a mood closer to "Kiss of Life" than any of their previous efforts. "Coffee" and "Road To Rouen" highlight how inventive a songwriting guitarist Gaz Coombes can be, as well as how hard Goffey and Quinn work at the rhythm. "Low C" is another departure, a little too mellow to be called typical, a little too happy to be called bluesy. "Fin," the album closer, is a spacier riff on "Mama & Papa" with a distinctly "Planet Caravan" vibe. "Sad Girl" and "Kick In The Teeth" are the two classic Grass tracks and would fit in on either In It For The Money or Supergrass, call it a shout-out to the hometown crowd. Take those two out and this may have been even more startling than Life On Other Planets.

It is my strong opinion it was Road To Rouen's performance that paved the way for Diamond Hoo Ha, the band's final official album. Granted the band hadn't ever sounded quite so official, or shiny, but the songwriting went nowhere the band hadn't tread before and though there are catchy moments (the title track is impossible to hate), Diamond is just not the record I expected and wanted after the climb offered on the previous two albums. Like the descent the Decemberists took after their nerd-rock masterpiece The Hazards of Love, the previous Grass records promised something that Diamond Hoo Ha couldn't deliver. For starters it's called fucking Diamond Hoo Ha. Secondly Gaz and Danny went on tour as their alter egos The Diamond Hoo Ha Men playing minimalist versions of the new tunes or covers like "Beat It" while pretending to be drunken idiots. Coco-era grass could have gotten away with that. 14 year old Supergrass seemed a little like older men who'd lost touch with what people wanted. That'd sort of be like David Bowie following up Low and "Heroes" with Diamond Dogs (though some people will tell you that Lodger was an unworthy successor to the other Berlin-era records, I think it holds up ok, but I digress). "Bad Blood" is ok, sparklier late-90s Grass, "Rebel In You" feels like straight T. Rex and the rest of the record rarely strays too far from that. There are saxophone solos and the odd ballad but really it's a pretty predictable album. There's a comfort I suppose in that but I was just not pleased with its lack of ambition. Evidently, I wasn't the only one as the band parted ways over "musical differences" in the wake of the record's mediocre reception.

It's always a bummer when good things end. When bands break-up there is a sense of frustration, of what could have been. The band's final album Release The Drones was slated for a January 2011 release. With a name like that, who can say what the band were up to before they left. A more conceptual album, further adventures in well-worn psychedelia, perhaps a Kid A-like aberrance. Unless they release it will never know whether they peaked with Life On Other Planets. Maybe they needed to stop. Maybe all creative endeavors have a half-life. It begs the question, do all artists have logical stopping points that they can choose to heed? Do we all have those moments. Do we all have a Life On Other Planets in us? I hope so. Until I figure that out for myself I have the output of one of my favourite groups to refer to, find solace in and explore over and over again.