Life On Other Planets (Expanded Edition) ［LP+10inch］＜White, Green & Black Vinyl＞

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. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

前作から約３年、通算４作目のフルアルバム。ポップでパワフルでキャッチーなスーパーグラス節が爆発！！ＵＫギターバンドの最高峰！文句ナシの傑作です！！オススメ→（１）（２）（３）（４）（９） (C)DaKaRa

そうか、もう4枚目なのね。過去3枚の実績からUKロック好きの期待が必要以上に膨らむ本作は〈過去最高の完成度を誇る〉などというと、時として大袈裟で信憑性を欠くことがあるが事実なのだからしょうがない。南仏でのレコーディングが功を奏したのか、なにか吹っ切れたかのような力の抜け具合がこれまた絶妙。良いメロディー、良いアレンジ、そして十分にロックなアルバム。と、これ以上何を望む?
bounce (C)石田英稔