Supergrass
In It For The Money

THE REVIEW

Strange guys these Supergrass: they don't take anything seriously, they have fun and make others have fun, then, more importantly, they know how to play and write beautiful songs, yet they never manage to convince the music critics, thus losing out on a good portion of listeners they surely deserve.

It's a strange story, that of Supergrass: being hyped up by all the British magazines under a banner saying "The next BEST thing" as soon as they released their debut album, only to be forgotten by even the NME, which almost elevates Cristina D'Avena to glory.

Released in 1997, In It For The Money is certainly a nice album, varied and engaging, but definitely not a masterpiece.
The music of this eccentric trio (now a quartet with the singer's cousin joining the band) has always followed a very precise path: punk not too angry, rather, sweetened with the addition of brass instruments, acoustic ballads, but also distorted and very fast guitars accompanying the singer's raspy voice, with added piano solos and raw sounds reminiscent of the seventies.

"Sun Hits The Sky" is the classic supergrass-song: goofy lyrics "I wanna live where the sun hits the sky/ I'll be a doctor/ I am a doctor/ I'm on my way...", guitars roaring at full blast (literally) towards punk rock, except for the ethnic intermission with bongos and small keyboards to let Gaz Coombes catch his breath, known for not being quite an athletically built person.
It can be said, with a good chance of not being ridiculed too much, that Supergrass are the Libertines in an embryonic state, with a rougher technique, less direct, but sometimes softer and more beautiful sounds, equally chaotic and skilled at bringing a very basic pop song to a good level of rock 'n' roll.

Strange to say, for a group that was born predominantly electric, but among the songs of "IIFTM" that deserve more, there are two ballads, "Late In The Day" and "It's Not Me" (full brit-pop style but only in this case), where only the strings are missing to make the Gallaghers worry.

Good band this Supergrass and to hell with the NME (there's always de-baser)!