Album Review: Superfood – Don’t Say That
Don’t Say That
Released November 3rd 2014
Words: Jimmy Gallagher
Superfood, who hail from Birmingham, have built up a fair following due to their early EP releases but in recent months the NME have claimed them and the rest is history (or we can assume it will be).
The band certainly have one hell of a lot about them and seem well armed to charm their way in to the guitar pop community. Their name, for starters is far too pertinent to their vibrancy and charged positivity to be any sort of accident. Surely the naughtiest thing these guys have ever done is to have had one too many pop tarts for breakfast.
Don’t Say That opens with Lily For Your Pad To Rest On. The band cavalierly chant the importance of their ‘Superfood’ in this new self aware world of pop.
“We got friends, we got meat, we got something to eat”, a fresh, cool dynamic designed to whet your appetite. To be fair to Superfood, it is a refreshingly ‘glad to be here’ album. There are pockets of uplifting fun to be found throughout this album.
The first thing that strikes you and continues to rub your nose in it, is – Superfood bloody love Britpop. Look no further for their influences than… Elastica (Certainly in their latest single TV), Blur, and dare I say it, Dodgy. They are endearing in that way but one wonders how long and how well that will sit on the pallet.
Although opinions may be divided, this album is very well constructed, as is each individual track but that is what it feels like; a collection of pop songs, rather than an ‘album’.
At their best, they show real glimpses of class. You Can Believe is reminiscent of The Sunshine Underground in their pomp when they broke through and delighted on the utterly contrived ‘nu rave’ scene. The beat is consistently provoking and even songs such as Right On Satellite fuse that undeniable energy with a hint of much needed restraint, especially when the chorus comes along. Here, there is an ounce of mystery in the anthemic exhalations that Superfood so readily insist on.
Superfood’s talent is used wisely, they do what’s expected and well, but whether you believe it or not is up to you. Another single, Mood Bomb, attempts an intrinsically two tone undercurrent but like the dead sixties long before them, the authenticity of attitude is arguably devoid of punk.
Surely Superfood’s debut, brimming with vitality would have bookended the bright, warm summer perfectly rather than the contextual mistake of introducing them to the wider world under the blanket of Britain’s late October precipitative fog?
All in all this is a more than decent first outing for a band clearly enjoying their music and this time. Listen upon listen, Superfood persuade you to buy in to them, as so many have thus far. Time will surely tell for this band but the early signs certainly bode well despite the bandwagon rolling on.
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