Posts Tagged ‘Gaz Coombes’

GAZ COOMBES (SUPERGRASS) – ” Don’t Say It’s Over “

Posted: September 30, 2022 in MUSIC
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“When I wrote ‘Don’t Say It’s Over’ I had in mind wandering through some bustling holiday town at night, two people sharing strange and beautiful moments together,” Gaz says of this elegant new song. It’s from his new album “Turn the Car Around” that’s out in January.

‘Turn The Car Around’ is a record that I’ve been building up to for the last seven years,” says Coombes. It’s a record of feeling, an album that captures the ups and downs of modern life and all the small print in between. Written and recorded by Coombes in his gloriously ramshackle Oxfordshire outhouse Studio, he has emerged with the best work of his illustrious career. It’s an album that both taps into the sonic palettes and lyrical themes of its predecessors and marks the third and final part of a trilogy of records alongside 2015’s Mercury and Ivor Novello nominated sophomore album “Matador” and 2018’s “World’s Strongest Man“. At the same time it carves a bold new way forward for one of the UK’s most gifted and cherished singer-songwriters. “There’s a lot of subject matter in there that I’ve played with and maybe not managed to see through in the past. I’ve evolved and I feel like I’ve got better at what I do”.

‘Turn The Car Around’ features additional instrumentation from members of Gaz’s live band, Garo Nahoulakian, Nick Fowler and Piney Gir. The album also sees Coombes reuniting with his live band’s vocal trio ‘The Roxys’ (a nickname given to them by Nile Rodgers when they shared the bill at a Later with Jools show) to create a rich and nuanced sonic tapestry. Cameo performances appear courtesy of Willie J Healey and Ride’s Loz Colbert, and Coombes shares co-production duties with long-term collaborator Ian Davenport.

As he celebrates 10 years of his lauded solo career since the release of his debut ‘Here Come the Bombs’, and riding a crest of the Supergrass reunion, the announcement of ‘Turn The Car Around’ solidifies Gaz Coombes status as one of the UK’s most interesting, enduring and effortlessly classy artists.

The new Single: “Don’t Say It’s Over” is out now on Hot Fruit Recordings/Virgin Taken from Gaz’s forthcoming album “Turn The Car Around”, released on 13th January 2023

GAZ COOMBES – ” World’s Strongest Man “

Posted: June 20, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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World’s Strongest Man is the magnificent third solo album by Gaz Coombes. Inspired variously by Grayson Perry’s the Descent of Man, Frank Ocean’s Blonde, Californian weed, British woodlands, unchecked masculinity, Neu! and hip hop (and a whole lot more besides), it’s a truly remarkable collection of eleven deeply personal songs each set to expansive, addictive melody. The book resonated on a personal level, making him contemplate his conduct as a man in the context of being a partner, a father to two daughters, a son, and a songwriter, but also as a male who feels compelled more generally to be an active participant in deconstructing and rebuilding masculinity in order to create a better, fairer, more equal society.

His way of doing this is to embrace the facets he thinks constitute a strong man. Which is to say, this is an album that presents vulnerability, the admission of flaws and emotional openness as routes to strength. There might be pokes at the negative repercussions of prevalent toxic masculinity (‘Wounded Egos’), but it’s mostly about his mind.

“I’m a little mashed up,” he sings on the opening line on the album’s title track, sounding torn: “I want to be by myself / Don’t leave me by myself.” That theme – that there’s benefit in sharing mental fragility – boomerangs around the LP, most directly on ‘The Oaks’, where he strolls to the woods near his countryside home to talk to the trees (“Came upon the oaks / told them about the episode”) and the ‘Vanishing Act’ where his voice cracks as he yells: “I’ve got to get my fucking head straight / I’ve got to put on my happy face”.

Coombes’ vocal, of course, gives the whole thing a nostalgic familiarity, but musically it’s an album that, for him, explores some fresh ground. Frank Ocean’s ‘Blonde’ and ‘Channel Orange’ were both influences, not just in their production but in their approach – their pride, in not just prioritising a big pop chorus, but in the smaller sonic details. Therefore, a lot of ‘World’s Strongest Man’ is about feel, a repetitive groove or a slow build (‘Slow Motion Life’). There’s the deft influence of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on ‘Deep Pockets’, Daft Punk on ‘Shit (I’ve Done It Again)’, Beck on ‘Walk The Walk’ and, a likeness to fellow Oxfordites Radiohead on ‘World’s Strongest Man’ and ‘In Waves’.

If all this sounds like a long way from the goofy 18-year-old with the huge sideburns that wrote ‘Caught By The Fuzz’ – it is. So it should be: almost 25 years have gone by. Coombes, unlike some of his ‘90s peers, has shown an ability and, more importantly, a desire to challenge himself and move forward.

So here’s an album by a male songwriter who feels deeply affected by the conversations happening around men and masculinity right now in light of #MeToo, Time’s Up and gender inequality in all its forms. Gaz Coombes isn’t congratulating himself on having these thoughts, he’s just trying to be more like the man he wants himself and other men to be. There’s room for a lot more of those.

Ex Supergrass’ Gaz Coombes makes his Later… solo debut performing Deep Pockets

Later… with Jools Holland on BBC Two (12th June 2018)