Preparing for his latest album, Turn the Car Around, Gaz Coombes of Supergrass fame finds himself experimenting with ideas that appear to have passed him by the first time around. Lucid qualities of the indie genre with art rock sentimentalities blended in. Not the most unique sound to take on, but if there is anyone that can play around with that and model a new style, it is a man whose first release was back in 1995. Holding out hope for Sonny the Strong is to ignore the terminally acceptable qualities of the other two tracks that support Turn the Car Around, which so far finds itself in a perpetual state of average works.
There is a hollow state of play in Sonny the Strong that makes it impossible to think anything of. Standard varieties in both melody and instrumental, Coombes’ work here is placid and not as rewarding as the singles that followed this release. It does not have the seemingly grand importance of Long Live the Strange nor does it have the personalised aesthetics and space-like orientation of Don’t Say It’s Over. The first track setting out to promote Turn the Car Around slumps out with nothing particular. It is an empty track, in one ear and straight out the other with no chance of truly making an impact. That comes more from its presentation and the lack of flair than anything else.
Take refuge then in what Sonny the Strong does prove. Coombes has not lost his voice, somehow, he sounds as good as he did in the heyday of his and Supergrass’ unexpected rise and rise. Now taking to that solo work like the inevitable fish to the damp puddles of independent labels, Coombes does not know whether to reinvent himself as the jacket-clad singer of anthemic qualities like Liam Gallagher, or to push the other way, into the stranger territory already marked by Jarvis Cocker, Rose Dougall, and Graham Coxon. Chasing both leads to nowhere interesting, as Coombes finds out on Sonny the Strong, a horribly disinteresting, simple track that has no real rise or fall, no lyrical hook and certainly nothing intense to its even-tempered tone. Broader tones in the lyrics find themselves knocking back at generalities, and it is disappointing more than anything.
Coombes has done well to hide what Turn the Car Around could be about. It likely is as every other frontman-turned-solo artist has offered. A collection of tracks that were kicking about the studio, written up with time to kill and put together on an album with loose and wistful titles so as not to promise the illusion of connectivity. These are just fairly good songs and put together will make for a fairly standard setlist. Sonny the Strong adds to that with completely nothing to offer. Coombes’ lyricisms are the strongest part of the song, and while some of those moments are stronger than usual, it is hard to attach them to anything when the instrumentals feel stock and filtered in. An afterthought for a not-so-strong song.
