Customer Reviews

I Should Coco

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Their sound on this album has been likened to Green Day and early Who, both of which are right-on- but I would also add they have the sound of Sid Barret-era Pink Floyd (i.e. their poppier but still wierd days)- "Strange Ones" indeed! Great post-punk UK rock with great pop hooks and cool lyrics.

Lot's of fun yet again, then at the end winds down to cool things off for the next supergrass cd which is "In It For The Money"






I Love Supergrass, Never Change

Supergrass' I Should Coco is a landmark acheivement. The thought that mere teenagers could recreate an energy not felt since the birth of punk in the late 70s is astounding. Supergrass deliver great track after great track almost through the entire album, each one filled with a youthful energy and an appropriate goofiness that is so lacking in the world of music. The frontman of the band, Gaz Coombs, has written enough infectious songs on this one effort alone to qualify him as one of the great pop writers of all time. Only during maybe one or two tracks does the album slow a bit. It effects the final result of the album but it doesn't kill it (the slow tracks are just as good as the rest). It's amazing to think how short-lived Supergrass' fame was when listening to this fine album and one can only hope that these unsung artists will rise to the top once more.

Supergrass's first album is just sheer fun through and through. They may have been influenced quite audibly by quite a wide variety of other bands (tell me Mansize Rooster doesn't make you think of Madness's Embarrassment), but the way these sounds are swirled around together is for the most part undeniable original and catchy as hell. Not the most earth-shattering album of the decade, perhaps, but definitely one of the best.

I stopped dead in my tracks the first time I heard "Caught By the Fuzz." It's so different, yet so familiar--an addictive blend of the best hooks, arrangements and early lyrics of the Who, Beatles ("Sofa [of My Lethargy]), and the Rolling Stones ("Sitting Up Straight"), and you have Supergrass. Unadulterated fun at full distortion, by 3 remarkably accomplished musicians. A real revelation.

It's funny how a name sticks in your head sometimes. In my blunted early youth, around when I began college, I heard of a band named Supergrass. Their hit single at the time, Pumping On Your Stereo, was receiving a modest amount of airplay in Los Angeles and I thought the tune was infectious. Fast forward to 2004. I was twenty-three, finished with school and gobbling up as many shows as I could catch in the New York area. Supergrass happened to be playing a show in Manhattan. I remembered Pumping On Your Stereo and quickly bought tickets to the show and their first album, I Should Coco. I read the reviews here and elsewhere and they were unanimously glowing.

What did I think? Well, being a voracious music listener I hope my own glowing review counts in influencing your decision to purchase a Supergrass album. They're all good, by the way, but this one is better than the rest and I recommend you start here. As stated earlier, I Should Coco is the lads' first album and it was written and recorded when frontman Gaz Coombes was still in his teens. This is a key fact you must keep in mind when listening to the record. Doing so will leave you in awe and will help you to appreciate the maturation exhibited on subsequent releases. How could a band of teenagers have their fingers on the pulse of pop music to this high a degree? It is an aberration to say the least. The last lads I saw do pop this well and this melodically went on to an unrivaled legendary status.

But don't let me get ahead of myself. I Should Coco begins sprinting out of the gate. I'd Like to Know, the opener, is so infectious that its hard to believe it was chosen to open the album. One would figure that exhausting this exhuberant a song so early might portend banality later on. Not so. Every subsequent song raises the bar over its predecessor. This album is fun, it is energetic, it is youthful, and it is silly to the point that it will make you smile. To paraphrase, it is everything that pop music should be. Mansized Rooster, Strange Ones, Alright, Lenny, Sit Up Straight, She's So Loose, and Time are all killer. The whole album is a classic and a nugget of the Britpop genre of the early-mid 90's.

It is tantamount to a crime that Supergrass never achieved mainstream recognition in the States but it is also a blessing. It means that those of us lucky enough to hear about Supergrass by keeping our ears to the ground are in on something special that most of our contemporaries are not.

Supergrass are classic oldies in the format of punk--Caught by the Fuzz and Alright, which grooves happily into a little Hawaiian guitar solo toward the end, are spectacular songs that are represent what the band can do. I Should Coco is truly a fun album to listen to. Supergrass deserve to be included in the same category as Pearl Jam, as one of the best bands of their time. A super album.

This was my first Supergrass album, bought solely for "Caught By The Fuzz". I had written off Supergrass as just another Britpop band, comparable with the likes of Travis, but once I listened to this album I realised how talented the band really is. Gaz's lyricism isn't going to win him a Pulitzer anytime soon, but strung together with their refreshingly bouncy melodies, they create excellent songs. Every track is a good listen, but in particular I would like to point out "She's So Loose", which is largely forgotten. It is the most melancholy song on the album, and also one of the best. Definitely worth the money.

I got into Supergrass just as they released 'In It For The Money' around 1997. Instantly i purchased COCO. Britpop was quite underground in America, but extremely lively compared to the music being done domestically by most bands of the time.

A couple weeks back I revisited Supergrass after half a decade's lapse and found their newer albums were all rather good, unique, evocative. COCO still stands up as an excellent album. It is fun, lively, youthful, catchy, and hasn't aged a bit. I could see kids today still loving this stuff dearly, as they did back in the mid-90's.

What a band. Supergrass is excellent, and I hope they keep doing what they do until they are old as dirt.

but this is not a perfect record. sorry. strong building blocks that will lead up to their best record (the third). thank you...