About a year has passed since Oxford boys Supergrass released their sixth studio album Diamond Hoo Ha. Providing a rougher and less sophisticated sound than its predecessor (2005′s Road To Rouen), Diamond Hoo Ha felt as a sign of Supergrass returning to the fantastic form of 2002′s Life On Other Planets.

The britpop veterans (Note: singer Gaz Coombes was born as late as 1976) delivered an album that started out as a big sucker punch in the face, continued to provide top class 2000s britpop – but the high class faded a bit towards the end.

Opening track and lead single Diamond Hoo Ha Man featured one of the most exciting bass lines I’ve ever heard, and it was followed by the rough Bad Blood (about a late night out in Reykjavik). Supergrass sounded dirtier than ever before. Tracks #3 and #4, the stomping glam rocking Rebel In You and the exciting and endangering When I Needed You (featuring a rememberable guitar solo), were among the band’s top 10 songs ever. The first six songs on the record (tracks #5 and #6 being 345 and The Return Of Inspiration) were… inspiring and together they constituted a block of songs that can’t be matched by many rock n roll albums in world history.

I wouldn’t like to say that the second half of the album is weak in any way, but certainly they didn’t reach the same astronomous levels as the opening numbers. Some of them (such as Ghost Of A Friend and Rough Knuckles) were, while being decent songs, sounding more Road To Rouen than Life On Other Planets. And that was not positive in my book.

Still, the final parts didn’t make Diamond Hoo Ha a poor record. It was LOUD, glammy and stirring – a great rock n roll album that could have been a classic if it had ended in the same manner as it began.

VERDICT: 8/10

Best tracks: Rebel In You, When I Needed You, Diamond Hoo Ha Man, Return Of Inspiration
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