Supergrass – Life On Other Planets (2023 Remaster) (2022/2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Supergrass makes music so effervescent and so effortlessly joyous that it’s easy to take them and their skills for granted. Surely that was the case around the release of their third album, 1999’s eponymous effort, which in its labored fun and weary ballads illustrated just how much hard work it was to craft records as brilliant as I Should Coco and In It for the Money. It suggested the group might have burned too bright and flamed out, but, happily, 2002’s Life on Other Planets is a smashing return to form, an album giddy with the sheer pleasure of making music. What makes this all the more impressive is that this is the record that Supergrass attempted to be – a perfect balance of the sensibility and humor of I Should Coco with the musicality and casual virtuosity of In It for the Money. Where that album felt labored and a little weary, Life on Other Planets is teeming with life. The tempos are sprightly, the hooks tumble out of the speakers, the band mixes up styles and eras, and they never, ever forget the jokes (Gaz’s fleeting Elvis impression on “Seen the Light,” an allusion to Spinal Tap’s “All the Way Home,” or the chorus of “Evening of the Day”). Sure, it’s possible to spot the influence all the way through the album – most clearly T. Rex on “Seen the Light” and “Brecon Beacons,” where Gaz’s warble is uncannily like Marc Bolan’s – but it never sounds exactly like their inspirations – it all sounds like Supergrass. And Supergrass hasn’t offered such pure, unabashed pop pleasure since their debut; there hasn’t been an album that’s this much fun in a long time. Since they’ve been away for a while and have never broken in the States, Supergrass has been curiously overlooked, even though they’re better than 99 percent of the power pop and punk-pop bands out there (plus, their everything-old-is-new-again aesthetic can be heard in such albums as the Strokes’ Is This It?). But, as this glorious record proves, there are few bands around these days who are as flat-out enjoyable as this trio. The world is a better place for having Supergrass in it.

Before the planet was put under double lockdown, there was… live music! To immerse yourself in this Live on Other Planets is to enjoy a life-saving reminder that the mental and physical power of a good old concert will never be replaced by a live session on social networks, watched on a 10cm smartphone screen… Supergrass have always had a symbiotic relationship with the stage. For Gaz Coombes’s band, who are forever fine-tuning their studio albums, and for their audiences, concerts are an experience in their own right. After officially cashing out at the end of a legendary concert at La Cigale in Paris on 11 June 2010, Supergrass returned to the stage in 2019 for a global reunion tour which was interrupted in spring 2020 by the virus. With its crisp sound and magnificent performances, Live on other Planets goes beyond the mere “live album”, to remind those who have forgotten that amidst the Britpop tsunami that shook the 1990’s, Supergrass was a true marvel. More melodic than Blur, more restless than Oasis, and more eclectic than Pulp, this group started out with punk-infused pop, before making its rock more sophisticated by rounding it out with increasingly diverse influences like glam rock, funk, psychedelic pop or Sixties rock… But the real magic was that for all that Supergrass loved the Stones, the Beatles, Bowie, the Kinks, the Who and the Jam, they still sounded like Supergrass. Finally, this 2020 live recording also showcases the talent of the impressive melodist Gaz Coombes: scrolling through his hits like Caught by the Fuzz, Moving, Grace, Alright, Pumping on Your Stereo or Late in the Day. A class live act. – Marc Zisman

Tracklist:
1-01. Supergrass – Za (2023 Remaster) (03:03)
1-02. Supergrass – Rush Hour Soul (2023 Remaster) (02:54)
1-03. Supergrass – Seen the Light (2023 Remaster) (02:26)
1-04. Supergrass – Brecon Beacons (2023 Remaster) (02:56)
1-05. Supergrass – Can’t Get Up (2023 Remaster) (04:02)
1-06. Supergrass – Evening of the Day (2023 Remaster) (05:14)
1-07. Supergrass – Never Done Nothing Like That Before (2023 Remaster) (02:03)
1-08. Supergrass – Funniest Thing (2023 Remaster) (02:29)
1-09. Supergrass – Grace (2023 Remaster) (02:29)
1-10. Supergrass – La Song (2023 Remaster) (03:43)
1-11. Supergrass – Prophet 15 (2023 Remaster) (04:05)
1-12. Supergrass – Run (2023 Remaster) (05:27)
2-13. Supergrass – Dark Star (Studio Recording) (01:03)
2-14. Supergrass – Za (Helioscentric Demo) (03:17)
2-15. Supergrass – Rush Hour Soul (Helioscentric Demo) (02:41)
2-16. Supergrass – Everytime (03:12)
2-17. Supergrass – Seen the Light (Helioscentric Demo) (02:37)
2-18. Supergrass – I Told the Truth (02:21)
2-19. Supergrass – The Loner (03:26)
2-20. Supergrass – Brecon Beacons (Helioscentric Demo) (03:08)
2-21. Supergrass – Can’t Get Up (Helioscentric Demo) (03:33)
2-22. Supergrass – Evening of the Day (Helioscentric Demo) (03:35)
2-23. Supergrass – Funniest Thing (Helioscentric Demo) (02:20)
2-24. Supergrass – Stinkfinger (02:34)
2-25. Supergrass – Velvetine (03:39)
2-26. Supergrass – Electric Cowboy (05:07)
2-27. Supergrass – Tishing In Windows (Kicking Down Doors) (02:11)
2-28. Supergrass – That Old Song (03:58)
2-29. Supergrass – La Song (Helioscentric Demo) (04:07)
2-30. Supergrass – Prophet 15 (Helioscentric Demo) (04:02)
2-31. Supergrass – Tronic (03:47)
2-32. Supergrass – Life on Other Planets (01:29)
3-33. Supergrass – Za (Live at Elysée Montmartre) (03:13)
3-34. Supergrass – Rush Hour Soul (Live at Elysée Montmartre) (03:22)
3-35. Supergrass – Seen the Light (Live at Elysée Montmartre) (02:50)
3-36. Supergrass – Brecon Beacons (Live at Elysée Montmartre) (02:50)
3-37. Supergrass – Can’t Get Up (Live at Heineken Music Hall) (04:07)
3-38. Supergrass – Evening of the Day (Live at Wembley Arena) (03:26)
3-39. Supergrass – Never Done Nothing Like That Before (Live at Elysée Montmartre) (01:55)
3-40. Supergrass – Funniest Thing (Live at Wembley Arena) (03:05)
3-41. Supergrass – Grace (Live at Wembley Arena) (02:32)
3-42. Supergrass – La Song (Live at Wembley Arena) (03:24)
3-43. Supergrass – Prophet 15 (Live at V2002) (03:50)
3-44. Supergrass – The Loner (Live at Elysée Montmartre) (03:50)
3-45. Supergrass – Run (Live at Elysée Montmartre) (05:22)
3-46. Supergrass – Rush Hour Soul (Live Acoustic) (02:21)
3-47. Supergrass – Seen the Light (Live Acoustic) (02:24)
3-48. Supergrass – Evening of the Day (Live Acoustic) (03:01)
3-49. Supergrass – Can’t Get Up (Live Acoustic) (03:28)