Gaz Coombes | ||
| Allmusic Biography : As the exuberant frontman for the boundlessly imaginative Brit-pop group Supergrass, Gaz Coombes at one point seemed to be an eternal teenager -- a man destined to never lose his baby fat and never slow down. But time has a way of aging even the irrepressibly youthful, and by their second decade Supergrass had started to expand sonically and, by the time he released his solo debut, Here Come the Bombs, in 2012, just two years after the disbandment of Supergrass, Coombes had eased into the role of something of a Brit-pop elder statesman: a pop songwriter who was ready to explore new territory without swearing off his allegiance to melody. Melody always was Coombes specialty, even when he was the lead singer of the Jennifers at the age of 16. He and fellow Wheatley Park School classmate Danny Goffey formed the Jennifers when they were teens, and the Oxford-based quartet got far enough to land a contract with Nude, the label best known for signing Suede. The Jennifers fell apart after releasing the "Just Got Back Today" single in 1993, but Coombes and drummer Goffey formed Supergrass with bassist Mick Quinn later that year. Supergrass rise was quick, with their debut single, "Caught by the Fuzz," selling out its first pressing in 1994 and receiving praise from John Peel, NME, and Melody Maker. Their debut, I Should Coco, arrived in the summer of 1995, right in the thick of Brit-pop mania, and it was one of the biggest records of the year, thanks in part to its effervescent hit "Alright." With their second album, 1997s In It for the Money, Supergrass fame spread outside of England, but like so many of their British peers, they never managed to crack the U.S. market, despite support from such American fans as Foo Fighters and Pearl Jam. Supergrass released an eponymous album in 1999 and Life on Other Planets in 2002 -- the latter arriving the same year that Gazs brother Rob Coombes officially joined the band as their keyboardist, but their commercial fortunes began to slide somewhat. The contemplative 2005 record Road to Rouen was followed by the glitzy Diamond Hoo Ha in 2008 and then the group fractured, the band attempting to record a seventh album provisionally titled Released the Drones in 2009 but ultimately abandoning the sessions. In the aftermath of the bands split, Coombes and Goffey bashed out cover versions in the 2010 one-off the Hotrats, and Coombes got down to business for his solo career, recording Here Come the Bombs in his home studio. The album appeared in early summer 2012, greeted by generally positive reviews. His second self-produced album, Matador, appeared in January 2015. Coombes played the majority of the instruments on Matador, assisted on occasion by his brother Charly and Ride drummer Loz Colbert. Matador debuted at 18 on the U.K. charts and wound up earning a nomination for the Mercury Prize. Coombes returned in May 2018 with Worlds Strongest Man. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 3 Title: Here Come the Bombs Released: 2012-05-16 Tracks: 11 Duration: 38:02 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Bombs (02:31) 2 Hot Fruit (04:05) 3 Whore (02:48) 4 Sub Divider (03:27) 5 Universal Cinema (06:07) 6 Simulator (03:05) 7 White Noise (04:07) 8 Fanfare (03:33) 9 Break the Silence (03:55) 10 Daydream on a Street Corner (01:17) 11 Sleeping Giant (03:04) |
| Here Come the Bombs : Allmusic album Review : Say this for Gaz Coombes: hes unafraid to have his solo debut, Here Come the Bombs, be a grand departure from his previous gig as leader of Supergrass. That Brit-pop trio specialized in melodic exuberance, a quality conspicuously lacking on the willfully elliptical Here Come the Bombs, a record so hazy it feels about twice as long as its tight 38-minute run time. Such a thick fuzziness is deliberate, as Coombes embraces the opportunity to get far out, to have his basslines turn elastic, to have rhythms fold in on their careening echoes, to layer on distortion and then peel it away. At times, Here Come the Bombs recalls the languid nocturnal tone poems of Road to Rouen, but Coombes is livelier here, sometimes pushing his hooks very hard, adding sonic color and "White Noise" (a song with some impish perversity on Gazs part that sounds not at all cacophonous), all tricks that give the illusion of a never-ending sprawl. Coombes attention to detail is a shade too studied, as if hes intent on cramming all his ideas into a contained space. Hooks and melodies surge and then fade, with the quiet moments sounding just a touch too austere, individual moments impressing but the whole never quite coalescing. Such segmentation makes Here Come the Bombs feel like work in a way Supergrass never did -- it is quite deliberately the opposite of the bracing immediacy of the Grass -- a shift that is undeniably jarring at first and is somewhat at odds with Coombes innate gifts. So, call Here Come the Bombs a transitional album, one where Gaz is trying out everything he always wanted to do within Supergrass but never could, and next time around he may be able to synthesize all these sounds. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 3 Title: Matador Released: 2015-01-26 Tracks: 11 Duration: 38:32 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Buffalo (03:19) 2 20/20 (04:13) 3 The English Ruse (04:42) 4 The Girl Who Fell to Earth (03:34) 5 Detroit (05:40) 6 Needle’s Eye (04:02) 7 Seven Walls (03:48) 8 Oscillate (03:11) 9 To the Wire (04:06) 10 Is It On? (00:33) 11 Matador (01:24) |
| Matador : Allmusic album Review : Its too easy to peg Matador as the maturation of the notorious teenage rocker Gaz Coombes, but its also inaccurate. Coombes began flirting with introspection early on in Supergrass career, eventually dedicating the entirety of 2005s Road to Rouen to reflection. Matador often plays a bit like a decade-delayed sequel to that 2005 minor masterwork, maintaining a similar sense of reserve that sometimes belies the adventure that lies underneath the shimmering surface. Often, the deliberate tempos and hushed dynamics on Matador skirt the edge of melancholy; this isnt a sad record, its a consoling one, Coombes creating comfort out of remnants of Krautrock and acoustic balladry. Occasionally, hell tip the scale in one direction or the other -- the opening "Buffalo" makes an impression with its skittering rhythms, "The English Ruse" percolates on a two-note pulse, while "The Girl Who Fell to Earth" is patented folkie psychedelia -- but soon Coombes reveals he finds no separation between the two; the electronica is firmly interwoven within the sculpted songs and vice versa. This means Matador may initially seduce with its slow, enveloping assurance but the reason it lasts are those songs, as exquisitely crafted and enduring as anything in Coombes rich catalog. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 3 Title: World’s Strongest Man Released: 2018-05-04 Tracks: 11 Duration: 42:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 World’s Strongest Man (03:28) 2 Deep Pockets (03:50) 3 Walk the Walk (03:56) 4 Shit (I’ve Done It Again) (02:58) 5 Slow Motion Life (04:27) 6 Wounded Egos (04:08) 7 Oxygen Mask (04:09) 8 In Waves (02:53) 9 The Oaks (04:39) 10 Vanishing Act (02:50) 11 Weird Dreams (04:53) |
| World’s Strongest Man : Allmusic album Review : The title Worlds Strongest Man is a feint from Gaz Coombes, a rocking singer/songwriter who has never been known to avoid humor. Not that hes in a particularly laughing mood on Worlds Strongest Man. Underneath the title boast, Coombes is exploring the outer reaches of his psyche, camouflaging his anxiety underneath shimmering synths, drum loops, and guitars that arent so much strummed as used for waves of textures. Once the giddiest of melodicists, Coombes is pretty restrained on Worlds Strongest Man: the hooks are there, but they unfold slowly, either under whispers or cool walls of sound. Listen closely, and its possible to hear how Coombes spends the album wrestling either with his demons or his middle age. Although he may allude to digital disconnection, hes also moving forward, embracing the sounds of the late 2010s -- like so many records of 2018, it is clearly cut together on computer, with dense rhythms competing with smooth surfaces -- but also not chasing pop trends. Instead, its a mature modern album, one filled with questions but also curiously settled, a combination that makes Worlds Strongest Man more rewarding with each listen. | ||