FEATURE:
Groovelines
Supergrass - Moving
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THERE is no denying…
that Supergrass’ first two albums, 1995’s I Should Coco and 1997’s In It for the Money, are classics. A band that came straight out of the gate all guns blazing, there are comparisons with other bands. Rather than it being a difficult second album, they had a difficult third – sort of like Oasis, but for different reasons. I think that 1999’s Supergrass is a fantastic album, yet it does have a few filler tracks and is quite top/middle-heavy with a run of a few lesser tracks to end things. They showed they could not be written off. Their penultimate album, 2005’s Road to Rouen, is one of their best. I am not sure whether we will hear any more music from the band. However, their 1999 album is very special to me and I will mark that with a twenty-fifth anniversary feature closer to 20th September. A transformation and evolution from them, they went from the cheeky chaps and this perception of them and incorporated more elements into Supergrass. Perhaps a bit more maturity and grace. Tracks that build up and were more emotive. Of course, this being Suerpgrass, there was still some of their trademark charm, wit and fun! Songs such as Pumping on Your Stereo and Jesus Came From Outer Space. Many critics felt there were too many half-finished moments and not enough of the excellence heard on In It for the Money. Whilst there was little as raw and hypnotically brilliant as Richard III or Going Out, some of the band’s career-best was on Supergrass. Gaz Coombes, Danny Goffey and Mick Quinn produced a solid and impressive album. Ending the century with plenty of bang! Following Pumping on Your Stereo – the album’s first single, released on 24th May, 1999 – Supergrass’ second single and second most-popular song (and not by much) is the majestic, stirring and beautiful Moving. It is the song that opens Supergrass.
Moving is a sublime track! I agree that Supergrass is not sequenced that well. In the sense that two of the album’s weaker tracks – Your Love and Beautiful People – appear in the top third. Two of the weaker tracks, Far Away and Mama and Papa, end the album. Though Mary offer some mid-album brilliance, there are seven tracks between Moving and Pumping on Your Stereo. I often think that Pumping on Your Stereo should have closed Supergrass, as it would end it on such a high. Also, with their being applause and a humorous five final words (“Can we go home now?”), it would have been perfect. I digress! Moving turns twenty-five on 6th September. I think this was about the date I started at sixth-form college. The Supergrass album was a big fixture and I would hear it played in the social areas and lunch room. Moving was a track that was much-discussed. The band opened the album with, in my view, its strongest cut. Maybe a risk not opening with something like Pumping on Your Stereo or Mary, this was a more reflective band commenting on the rush and endless touring of the past few years. They also knew they could not really release Moving as the first single. That contrast between confidently opening the album with Moving but not feeling it was right as the lead single. Whereas Pumping on Your Stereo reached eleven in the U.K., Moving went to number nine. A triumphant and wonderful top ten single, I know that the band have played it a lot live. As they reformed and toured again fairly recently, I wonder how they feel about Moving. Maybe taking on new meaning. Lines like “Moving, just keep moving/Well I don't know why to stay/No ties to bind me/No reasons to remain” maybe about touring and the endless stop and start of life in the band at that point, now might seem at odds with who they became and how they endured. Those words perhaps less poignant and urgent as they were.
I wanted to spend some time with Moving. I love its slow-motion video. Directed by Nick Gordon, its pace and sense of somnambulism and sleepiness depicts the tedium and routine of touring. The weariness and the displacement. How they had no home. Many critics look at Moving as a reason why Supergrass feels less inspired or tired. Perhaps touring taking too much out. The band needing a kick and refresh. 2002’s Life on Other Planets – whilst not hugely acclaimed – went some way to returning in some ways to their former self. People dismiss Supergrass’ third album. It arrived after two adored albums and extensive touring. They needed to change pace and develop their music. Not repeat what they did before. The Moving video is large slow-motion, but there are sections sped up too. Bits repeated. It is that disorientation. Playing Moving at shows fairly recently – this review of a 2020 set not long before the COVID-19 lockdowns is an example -, I hope we get to hear it played live again by Supergrass. There are some features and reviews I want to come to. In 2017, this blog gave their opinion on the magnificent Moving:
“The people:
Written by Gaz Coombes, Rob Coombes, Danny Goffey & Mick Quinn.
Produced by Supergrass & John Cornfield.
Lead vocals by Gaz Coombes.
Backing vocals by Mick Quinn & Danny Goffey.
Guitar by Gaz Coombes.
Drums by Danny Goffey.
Bass by Mick Quinn.
Keyboards by Rob Coombes.
The opinion:
Every once in a while, Random.org gives me a britpop song to write about in this series. This week we get one of the most successful bands of the genre, but also one of the bands that seems to have faded from public consciousness the most. Not really deserved if you ask me, even if it is also somewhat understandable.
The core of their appeal might also have been their downfall in the long run: they made unpretentious songs that sound breezy. Especially their hit singles sound so effortless that you might forget they are secretly something special. Few bands can make a whole career out of music so giddy and upbeat (regardless if the lyrics are all that happy). Its’s a modus operandi that became a bit more prominent in indie rock during the 2000’s, though, but few acts were at the same time so unabashedly poppy as well as alternatively cool as Supergrass at the time. They had broad appeal.
IN THIS PHOTO: Supergrass in 1999/PHOTO CREDIT: Martyn Goodacre
Moving was one of the last real hits the band had; in fact it was the very last in many areas. Although it is one of the least ambitious songs they ever did it still deserves to be seen as a definite final hurrah. Though I’m aware that a case can be made of much subsequent work as being of equal quality, these mostly weren’t hits. Moving was the last big time in the limelight.
The lyrics are in some way about the downside of the limelight. For musicians it means touring, seemingly endlessly. Gaz Coombes essentially sings about the mental boredom and loneliness that comes from the travelling. He wasn’t exactly the first to do so. I don’t know which singer sung about this the first, but the oldest I’m aware of are Simon & Garfunkel on their classic Homeward Bound. Other notable songs about this subject are the popular Faithfully by Journey and the ode to roadies by Jackson Browne, named The Load-Out. There are happier examples too: the Ramones basically bring an ode to their travel schedule on Touring and John Foggerty celebrated “Rockin’ All Over the World”, which was also a hit for Status Quo.
The thing about Moving is that it has lyrics that sound rather sad on paper, but the song itself doesn’t feel that way. This is not a band given to sharing deep, painful feelings. The opening seems to become a honest-to-goodness ballad, but quickly the chorus sets in and everything becomes both up-tempo and upbeat. In fact, when that chorus hits it feels like an explosion, thanks to both a small second of silence before it and a change in volume. It might not be the most original thing ever, but for me it makes the song, as it is executed so satisfyingly.
That goes a long way in explaining the appeal of Moving and Supergrass. Among their Britpop contemporaries they never had the depth of The Verve, the sense of exploration of Blur, the swagger of Oasis and all of the above of Pulp. Yet on songs like this or the other hit of the album, Pumping On Your Stereo, they delivered shameless pop executed in such a way that it became cool, while still retaining its sense of fun. The handclaps, the hooky chorus, heck even the videoclip that turns boredom into something goofy: everything has an honest celebratory feeling that make all these potentially annoying elements glorious.
Of course, as said there was little depth to all this, musically of lyrically, which might in the long run be the reason people forget about them more easily than other britpop contemporaries. I know I can be dismissive of this kind of unassuming music every now and then, but I also have to acknowledge that there is definitely place for well-executed pop as this.
7/10”.
In fact, I will bring in this feature from Medium and then round off I think. There is a lot to dissect and discuss when it comes to Moving. In terms of its timing and its relevance to where Supergrass were at that point psychologically. Its position on the Supergrass album and its significance of a single release. For anyone new to Supergrass who were too young when the single came out in September 1999, I hope that they check it out:
“Time moves, man: sometimes slowly, sometimes sideways, sometimes with unbearable celerity. But its constant is always motion.
Moving, just keep moving
’til I don’t know what I’m saying
I’ve been moving so long
The days all feel the same
Through time, we are propelled through space. We go from Day 1 to Day Now, a specific place along the line we travel from birth to death. But how do we distinguish if this day is unlike any other? The peripheral landscape might be different: the colours are greener? — the birds are chirpier? — the strangers seem to smile more?
And how does gravity affect the movement? Can it bend time onto itself, to where present me can kiss the forehead of 14 year old me, and I can whisper solemnly, “this will pass, young sir — just keep on moving.”
Supergrass is phenomenal. I hold them up there with Radiohead, and Oasis, as my favorite bands from across the pond during the last couple decades. And honestly, I think their discography, as a whole, probably outdoes those other two bands, as I adore all their albums. Their debut, I Should Coco, is a raucous display of pop sensibilities through a filter of English punk attitude (you’re surely familiar with “Alright” — which to me is what I think Ray Davies would have written if he were born in the late 70s). The whole album is downright anthemic.
Moving, just keep moving
Well I don’t know why to stay
No ties to bind me
No reasons to remain
Though they also didn’t rest on that formula. Their third release, Supergrass, is a masterpiece. It’s more “Village Green” than “You Really Got Me,” with lovely songs that might evoke English meadows on rainy afternoons. “Moving” is the lead track, and it reveals the perfect voice of Gaz Coombes. The song starts with that voice over an acoustic and subtle synth, through the verse. The chorus bounces in, with the bass and drums and electric guitar. There’s a beautiful juxtaposition between the two sections, which comprise the whole song (the third “verse” plays out with no vocals, but rather an outro solo that mirrors the verse vocal melody). It’s a simple song construct that is executed brilliantly.
Moving, keep on moving
Where I feel I’m home again
And when it’s over
I’ll see you again
Time, man. It moves. And we go where the line takes us through space. And we can only anticipate what our future experiences might offer us.
Until then: there’s Supergrass. There’s Gaz Coombes. There’s symmetry as we wait to live, as we move forward”.
On 6th September, Moving turns twenty-five. A song that arrived at a moment of change for Supergrass, its lyrics can apply to modern touring. That grind and mundanity. One of their most revealing tracks to that moment, it was the second single from the brilliant Supergrass album – one that will remain underrated I fear. A tremendous single that I can’t believe is almost twenty-five, it will always be special to me. And, yes, as its title suggest, it is a song that will always move me! That is the power of Supergrass! For those who have not played Moving in a while, make sure that you play it now. It only takes one play through…
BEFORE it hits you!