Sound Check — Geoff Carter: Supergrass plays the biblical card

Friday, April 21, 2000 | 8:58 a.m.

Geoff Carter's music column appears Fridays. Reach him at carter@vegas.com

"God save the unstable," sings Gaz Coombes in "What Went Wrong in Your Head." It's a fine sentiment, with more punch than "Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do." The Supergrass vocalist could do worse than convince his bandmates to do another rock retouching of the Bible, something to shame Andrew Lloyd Webber's facile attempts at the same undertaking.

Actually, the latest self-titled effort by Supergrass has more than a few things in common with the Bible. It features an appearance by Jesus, who visits from outer space, assists the ongoing peace effort and leaves "in a secondhand car." A woman named "Mary" makes an appearance, but doesn't have much to say but "ah ya ya." And like the Bible, "Supergrass" weaves such a fantastic tale that one has no choice but to take the record as an article of faith.

Sadly, that's where the two entities diverge. It's pretty ugly out there right now -- boy bands are a dime a dozen, Korn clones are popping up by the googol, and hit records are produced by committee. As nice as it is to think of Supergrass as the first trickle of an Old Testament flood of bands that will wash all these suckers out, their record is so slight as to evaporate as it rolls by.

That's not to dismiss it completely out of hand. "Supergrass" is a fun record, drawing on the same pool of influences that spawned their two previous critically-acclaimed releases, 1995's "I Should Coco" and 1997's "In It for the Money." "What Went Wrong in Your Head" is properly Beatlesque; "Shotover Hill" is beguilingly Kinks; Paul Weller, pre-ego Pink Floyd, and the Glimmer Twins all make subtle, near-subliminal appearances.

And -- so help me -- "Mary" reminds me of Supertramp, particularly in Robert Coombes' keyboard work. Maybe it was accidental, maybe not. I liked Supertramp, and like to think it has finally gotten a champion in the MP3 era.

One track stands out, and deserves to become a summer hit. While "Pumping on Your Stereo" borrows just as much as the rest of the set (bits of Thin Lizzy, Eno, Roxy Music, Eno, Bowie, say when), it is as fresh and lethal as anything that informed its creation. "Life is a cigarette / smoke it to the end," Gaz howls, over a killer guitar riff and clapped hands. It's all you can do not to break into applause with the rest of the band at the end of the track, which is far too short at three minutes.

Unfortunately, there's not enough of that exuberance to go around. The cold isolation alluded to in the choruses of "Moving" is undercut by maudlin verses. In a like manner, "Your Love" threatens to become something bigger, but is content to draw back just before someone notices. It's like watching someone sing at the top of their lungs, with a hand firmly over their mouth. A group with a future as promising as Supergrass needs to be at full voice, so the good word always comes across.