If this collection had a tagline, that tagline should read: “'I Should CoCo' this ain't.”
Gaz Coombes, formerly of hugely popular Oxford indie noiseniks Supergrass teams up with the producer of their previously named debut Number One hit album for a record that sounds in no way, shape or form like smash hit single 'Alright' ever did. Showing a diverse, imaginative, and fearless approach to piecing a record together, we get a sublime, if occasionally tricky album. Opener 'Bombs' sounds anything like explosive with its slow, wispy, prettiness meandering slowly through its short 90 seconds. In fact, it's the second track on this record, 'Hot Fruit' where the bombs truly begin to explode. Channelling fellow Oxford alumni Radiohead's 'Bodysnatchers', this thumping four minutes could quite easily soundtrack any explosive car chase scene from almost any movie and make it instantly more dramatic.
As the record progresses you can tell this was a true clean slate record. This is Gaz Coombes' imagining of how to put together a real showcase of original, yet not inaccessible tracks. Supergrass fans get a shock, but don't feel entirely alienated, whereas there's plenty here for people who have never given Supergrass a second listen. 'Sub Divider' is suitably dirty, combining Coombes' distinctive vocal tones with distorted, fuzzy guitars that only get more and more frantic and distressed as the track barrels on.
If you ever wanted to round the whole album up in one song, take the six-minute opus 'Universal Cinema'. An intro featuring light latin Guitars, a deep and heavier than dark matter bass, some out-there complicated instrumentals and at one point, just like most the rest of the "Bombs” on offer, the track explodes entirely before piecing itself back together for its final minute. Four hundred and ninety different ideas all crammed into one track, and while it is by far the longest one on this forty-minute album, they all merge together well.
Parts of this albums shimmer and glide with ease. Other parts of it grabs you and, quite literally, drag you through a hedge backwards. A lot of it reminds of me the, quite frankly excellent, debut album by the Cooper Temple Clause. You can, in a matter of seconds, be thrown from a blissful dreamscape into the firey depths of hell, and while this album is unpredictable (to put it mildly), it's its deliberate nature that makes you utterly engrossed in it.
In fact, 'White Noise' is the only track on the album you can totally predict from start to finish. An utterly emotive piece that is as simple as bread and butter in many ways, but still manages to capture you through its though-provoking lyrics, its delicate melodies, and its sheer honesty above all else. Listening to it sounds like being lifted up onto Cloud Nine itself, realising it's a long way up from the world below, but feeling entirely safe and secure up there. Oh, and you have to hear the half-sung half-spoke 'Fanfare' to truly believe how such a vocal style could even conceivably work. As an aside, parts of that song sound a bit like the level music to Sonic 2's Winged Fortress too which, on a personal note, I loved.
By passing the sounds-exactly-like-what-it's-called 'Daydream on a Street Corner', we finally reach this albums grand finale. A perfect bookend to compliment 'Bombs'. Slow and hazy, it's this albums chance to put you down gently after everything you've just been through.
I remember writing a glowing review of Graham Coxon's 'A&E' a few months back. I can't remember if I said it at the time, but that very quickly became my favourite album of the year. While that album is completely essential in every way, it's been surpassed by this monster. Gaz Coombes has started out with a totally blank canvas, and has managed to paint an original, one of a kind, part angry, part melodramatic, explosive record that not only deserves to be a part of your library on your music player, but almost deserves to be the only album on it.
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Gaz Coombes, formerly of hugely popular Oxford indie noiseniks Supergrass teams up with the producer of their previously named debut Number One hit album for a record that sounds in no way, shape or form like smash hit single 'Alright' ever did. Showing a diverse, imaginative, and fearless approach to piecing a record together, we get a sublime, if occasionally tricky album. Opener 'Bombs' sounds anything like explosive with its slow, wispy, prettiness meandering slowly through its short 90 seconds. In fact, it's the second track on this record, 'Hot Fruit' where the bombs truly begin to explode. Channelling fellow Oxford alumni Radiohead's 'Bodysnatchers', this thumping four minutes could quite easily soundtrack any explosive car chase scene from almost any movie and make it instantly more dramatic. 
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