''Road to Rouen'' is the fifth studio album by English rock 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 ( ...
. The album was released in the UK on 15 August 2005 by
Parlophone
Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...
, and in the US on 27 September 2005 by
Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...
. The title refers to the city in northern France where the album was recorded, as well as the 1978 album ''
Road to Ruin'' by
punk rock band
Ramones
The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...
.
''Road to Rouen'' was a difficult album for the band due to personal reasons, including
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 ...
's
tabloid ordeal and the death of
Gaz
GAZ or Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (russian: ГАЗ or Го́рьковский автомоби́льный заво́д, , Gorky Automobile Plant) is a Russian automotive manufacturer located in Nizhny Novgorod, formerly known as Gorky (Го ...
and
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 ...
' mother. The album reflected a rough period for the band and was oriented towards longer, looser, more orchestral material. The record was highly acclaimed and well received by most fans of the band; it reached a respectable number 9 on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
.
Three singles were released from the album: "
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
" in August 2005, which peaked on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
at number 22;
"
Low C
C or Do is the first note and semitone of the C major scale, the third note of the A minor scale (the relative minor of C major), and the fourth note (G, A, B, C) of the Guidonian hand, commonly pitched around 261.63 Hz. The actual frequen ...
" in October 2005, which peaked at number 52;
and "
Fin
A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...
" in January 2006, which failed to enter the Top 100.
Recording
In 2004, the band opted to move away from
Sawmills Studio
Sawmills Studios, founded in 1974 by record producer Tony Cox, is a recording studio near Golant on the banks of the River Fowey in Cornwall.
The studio building is located on its own tidal creek on the banks of the Fowey. Sawmills was one o ...
in Cornwall, where their first three albums had been recorded, and settled at Studio St. Mard, a converted barn in
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
, Normandy. Supergrass claimed to have been more "focused" despite the rural surroundings and rudimentary recording equipment. Aside from their traditional instrumentation, the band used
zither
Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat bo ...
s,
ukulele
The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
The tone and volume of the instrumen ...
s, brass, strings, and a
drum machine.
The album's first single, "
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
", was recorded in one take and features no overdubs.
Drummer Danny Goffey said of the album's more acoustic, streamlined recording: "It was a kind of conscious decision to make an album that didn't have a three-minute single, something that had more of a mellow vibe about it. There have been those obscure tracks that have been on the albums that no one probably had heard, because people just buy our singles or see just what's on the charts or on the radio. So yeah, we wanted to make sure that that side of us come out of us a bit more, you know, and that we didn't just pick some radio friendly song to release."
In a 2008 interview, bassist
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 ...
said the introspection and orchestration of the album was "almost entirely" a direct reaction to the death of the Coombes brothers' mother, as well as Danny Goffey's tabloid ordeal. "Some of it was a reaction to other bad stuff that was going on," said Quinn. "I don't think ''anyone'' was in the mood to release another set of "
Alright
Alright, All Right or Allwright may refer to:
Music Albums
* ''Alright!'' (album), a 2007 album by Bogdan Raczynski
* ''Alright'', a 2011 album by Jerry Williams
* ''All Right'', a 1982 album by Himiko Kikuchi
Songs
* "Alright" (Cast song)
* ...
"-style jovial pop songs. Everyone was in a very stern frame of mind. Danny had a lot of personal stuff going on, thanks to the adult tabloid media. He was really messed up. You have to make the most of a bad situation though, and you try and express yourself through your music. It would have been a lie to try and do 'up' music at that point. The lyrics probably were commercial suicide though – it didn't sell particularly well... but I'm more proud that it actually exists than if it didn't."
Artwork
The front cover photo depicts a cattle bridge near
Lefaux
Lefaux () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.
Geography
Lefaux is situated 8 miles (16 km) north of Montreuil-sur-Mer on the D148 road.
Population
Places of interest
* The nineteenth cent ...
, France, that crosses the
A16 autoroute
The A16 autoroute – also known as ''L'Européenne'' and forming between Abbeville and Dunkirk a part of the larger ''Autoroute des estuaires'' – is a motorway in northern France.
The motorway, which has a total length of , starts at a ju ...
, part of the route between
Boulogne
Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the ...
and
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
. It was taken at dusk using a Canon EOS 350D set to a 10-second exposure as a lorry passed under the bridge. (the photography is credited to
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 ...
and Paul Wilson). The inner photo was taken by Pierre Olivier Margerand (studio engineer) and shows the keyboard and drum set up in the live room of Studio St. Mard. Overall album design was by graphic company Traffic and Mick Quinn.
Critical reception
''Road to Rouen'' was released to generally favourable reviews. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a
normalised rating out of 100 based on reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received a score of 73, based on 22 reviews.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...
of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
awarded the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, and said of the album, "...there's a mastery of tone, as the group creates a warm, trippy, late-night vibe and then never lets it flag over the course of nine songs." Erlewine then hailed the album as "a terrific little record" and concluded, "Supergrass have found new things to do with their sound without getting self-consciously mature or middlebrow."
John Murphy of ''
MusicOMH
MusicOMH (stylized as musicOMH) is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B.
History
MusicOMH was founded and launched by ...
'' lavished the album with praise, stating that ''Road to Rouen'' "adds up to the sound of a band developing and maturing nicely, without ever losing sight of what made them so great in the first place."
By contrast, Jack Smith of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
was more critical of the album, concluding that, "Supergrass have outlasted most of their contemporaries and still have it in them to make a truly amazing masterpiece. Unfortunately ''Road to Rouen'' is not quite it."
– keyboards
* Written and produced by Supergrass
* Engineered by Pierre Olivier Margerand
* Mixed by Michael Ilbert, except:
** Tracks 1 and 4 mixed by Michael Ilbert and Supergrass
** Track 5 mixed by Pierre Olivier Margerand
* Strings and horns arranged by Simon Hale and Supergrass
* Conducted by Simon Hale
* Backing singers on "Low C": Andy Lovegrove, Laura Capillaire, and Jules Francis
* Arranged and recorded by Andy Lovegrove
* Photography by P. Wilson, M. Quinn, and P.O.M.