In the Anything Should Happen days, we spent quite a lot of our time telling people that the more interesting side of Brit Pop wasn't in the centre, but around the edges where the Guitar Pop flourished if not sold the quantities of the good, the bad and the ugly.
Bands like Octopus, Straw and The Supernaturals were every bit as good as the more known Dodgy and The Bluetones. To some extent, the United States was similar, the Pop Rock and Power Pop revival over there was much more interesting around the edges even though that whole scene was a breath of fresh air following the I am so unhappy vibe of Grunge.
The Supernaturals have also wrongly been labelled as joining Brit Pop in the second half, when they had been there all along, self releasing. A band's life does not begin when a big label comes calling, they actually are around to get that label interest.
The two hardest things to find from the band's back catalogue are the two self released cassettes, they are like Rocking Horse Shit. The first release was the Big 7 cassette followed by Dark Star. So it is an absolute delight to have the latter released for all to witness.
These eight songs reveal that the band were already there. They lack the Food (EMI) gloss that money brings, but lower fi or not, the songs stand up. In fact, The Day Before Yesterday's Man and Dung Beatle made the major label debut, It Doesn't Matter Anymore.
Both of those songs still feel just as good as today, particularly the former. I often wonder why the song was the fourth single release off that album. Smile was obvious, but The Day Before Yesterday's Man encapsulates everything that the band is about. Pop, wit and fun.
At times, the album is a little rough around the edges, but the majority of it is not and would fit untouched on any subsequent album. Ragamuffin and Bipod-X in particular are noted for the quality of the production and both reveal that The Supernaturals were not just about chirpy songs delivered at pace. The latter is very Paul Heaton.
Dark Star is splendid mix of noise and fuzz, Ballad Of Dweez is a jangling joy and Curtains is a Country twang and piano cracker in Squeeze's Labelled With Love territory. Unlike other pre "fame" recordings, Black Star stands up brilliantly on its own and it is a fiver for god sake.
The return of The Supernaturals in made my day and it continues on as great as ever. There is much interest in It Doesn't Matter Anymore due to Extended version and upcoming Vinyl release. Although the underrated A Tune A Day probably remains my favourite album, the quality has never dropped from the start to now. Highly Recommended!
You can listen to and buy the album here.
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