Gaz Coombes treads more new ground on his latest solo album.
Of nearly all the groups who first made it during the Britpop-era, Supergrass had definitely earned their 2020 live reunion.
For one, the snooty way some of their critics viewed them at the time (ie, almost a novelty act) was frankly ridiculous, but the other more obvious truth was that after the movement had disappeared the trio carried on writing and releasing great tunes whatever the musical climate. This was a hand in your pocket that everyone could still feel good about.
Following a commemorative album and a final set at the Taylor Hawkins tribute show at Wembley, in playing-again-together terms however that was that.
That may have disappointed fans yearning for a first long player since 2008’s Diamond Hoo (unloved by the trio, its follow up Release The Drones continues to gather dust somewhere), but equally it fails to recognise that singer Gaz Coombes has enjoyed a commercially modest but creatively worthwhile solo career, one which Turn The Car Around continues to fulfill handsomely.
Its release, he says, marks the closing of a chapter which began with the Mercury Prize-nominated Matador (2015) and continued with World’s Strongest Man (2018).
As well as embracing destiny, the lyrical themes pick apart the vagaries of middle-aged modern life and more specifically, ‘the small print in between’.
There’s a certain universality to dodging the slings and arrows, but Gaz Coombes again wisely refuses to fall into to the trap of belting out a dozen sub-Supergrass foot tappers and calling that a wrap.
Instead Turn the Car Around deals with the extraordinary in places; Long Live The Strange is anthemic enough but it was inspired by attending a gig in Oxford by trans artist Cavetown with his eldest daughter. There the audience were connected by a lack of conformity, a shared weird place like that which as a teenager he once called home too.
That’s followed by the ghostly folk rock of Not The Only Things, an ode to growing up which develops a moving poignancy when it becomes apparent that the subject is Gaz Coombes’ other daughter, who as a result of autism has a different perspective on what many would consider to be normal.
Intimate reveals yes, and in places the confessions feel like stealing a look at someone’s diary, with Don’t Say It’s Over’s widescreen overtures based on the night the singer first met his wife and the subsequent realisation over time that love is easy to forfeit and hard to foster.
It also follows that in equal measure gaining experience can make people better storytellers, and the two most interesting tracks here are examples of that; Sonny The Strong a tale about a one-time boxer who climbed the ladder to fame only to be sent off to war and lose it all, while Feel Loop (Lizard Dream) relates to a vision that involved transforming into a reptile whilst walking down the street, its grizzled desert rock background reminiscent of Queens Of The Stone Age, a contrast in ideas that squares one of the year’s most unlikely circles.
Gaz Coombes has always maintained that he didn’t leave Supergrass because he wanted to be a solo artist, more that the choice was forced on him because he was no longer enjoying the experience.
We should be pleased that it exists though, and Turn the Car Around is a record which celebrates the diversity around us some writers choose to leave stowed away.
It’s a brave, inventive record that will have listeners searching for reasons to forget that the brakes of reality exist.