''Life on Other Planets'' is the fourth album by English

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Supergrass Supergrass are an English rock band formed in 1993 in Oxford. For the majority of the band's tenure, the line-up consisted of brothers Gaz (lead vocals, guitar) and Rob Coombes (keyboards), Mick Quinn (bass, backing vocals) and Danny Goffey ( ...

. It is the first album that includes

Rob Coombes Robert Joseph “Rob” Coombes (born 27 April 1972) is an English musician and keyboard player for Supergrass. He is the older brother of the band's lead singer, Gaz Coombes, and the most recent member to join Supergrass, officially joining i ...

as an official member of the band, and originally went under the working title of ''Get Lost''. The American edition of the album included many bonus tracks and rare live editions. One of these live editions became infamous when it was discovered you can hear a gunshot in the background of the song. It peaked at #9 in the UK charts.

Concept

The band claim that much of the inspiration for this album was gleaned from a "working holiday" in the

Côte d'Azur The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...

, Southern France together, listening to the French radio station

Nostalgie Nostalgie is a popular French radio station broadcasting on FM, mostly playing pre-2000s songs with 76% of them coming from the 1980s. Nostalgie is part of the NRJ Group. History Radio Nostalgie, now simply Nostalgie, was created on 16 Septembe ...

and watching

Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ext ...

documentaries on the

cosmos The cosmos (, ) is another name for the Universe. Using the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos, and understandings of the reasons for its existence and significance, are studied in ...

and

Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author and screenwriter, best known for ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' developed into a " ...

are in fact mentioned on the reverse of ''Life on Other Planets'' under a list of people

would like to thank. The naming of the album was influenced by this excursion, but also by a

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...

which qualified astrophysicist and

keyboard player A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instr ...

, would bring with him to the recording studio in order to see the

planets A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young ...

; "...we got fascinated on everything above us and came up with the title," explained

Mick Quinn Mick Quinn (born 17 December 1969) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as founding member of English rock band Supergrass. He is a permanent member of fellow Oxford band Swervedriver. Career 1984–1993 Mick Quinn s ...

. The band hired an outside producer,

Tony Hoffer Tony Hoffer is an American record producer, songwriter, and music mixer. Career Hoffer is credited for his work on multiple platinum-selling albums including The Kooks, The Thrills, Beck, Supergrass, Turin Brakes and Air. His records have bee ...

, for the record, having felt that their last release, ''

'', lacked some of the urgency of their previous albums: "He helped us keep the takes quite short and sweet", says

Danny Goffey Daniel Robert Goffey (born 7 February 1974) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as the drummer and backing vocalist for Supergrass. He briefly toured with Babyshambles in 2010, following their drummer's departure. C ...

. "We really didn't mess around because he kept us moving. If we had done it on our own again, we'd just get really analytical and start crying and trying to mend things that weren't broken." The album was debuted at Meltdown festival in London's

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

on 28 June 2002, the edition curated by

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

Track listing

All tracks written by Supergrass (as Rob Coombes officially was a band member effective this album). CD 5418002 Limited edition 12" (with free poster) 5418001 #"Za" – 3:04 #" Rush Hour Soul" – 2:55 #"

Seen the Light "Seen the Light" is a song by English rock band Supergrass. It was the third single from their fourth album ''Life on Other Planets''. It was the first Supergrass release on DVD and reached number 22 on the UK Singles Chart when it was released ...

" – 2:25 #"Brecon Beacons" – 2:56 #"Can't Get Up" – 4:02 #"Evening of the Day" – 5:18 The track is in fact a tribute to Spinal Tap song "All the Way Home", with the lyric "If she's not on that 3:15, then I'm gonna know what sorrow means." #" Never Done Nothing Like That Before" – 1:43 #"Funniest Thing" – 2:29 #"

Grace Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninco ...

" – 2:30 #"La Song" – 3:43 #"Prophet 15" – 4:05 #"Run" – 5:28 CD TOCP 66003 (Japan only) The Japanese release of the album has the same track listing as above, but with the addition of:

"Velvetine" – 3:39
"Electric Cowboy" – 5:09

Enhanced CD 440 063 685-2 (US only) This contained the same tracks as the standard release, but the enhanced section consisted of the following: #"Grace" (video) – 2:37 #"Seen the Light" (video) – 2:45

Personnel

* Gaz Coombes – lead vocals, guitar, bass guitar on track 6 * Mick Quinn – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitar on track 6, lead vocals on tracks 6, 7 & 10 * Rob Coombes – keyboards * Danny Goffey – drums, backing vocals

Charts

References

External links

''Life on Other Planets''
at

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(streamed copy where licensed) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Life on Other Planets Supergrass albums 2002 albums Albums produced by Tony Hoffer Parlophone albums Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios Albums with cover art by The Designers Republic