Hotrats

Turn-ons EDSEL

Supergrass pair’s labour of love expanded for tenthanniversary reisue.

It must be nice to be secure enough in your own enduring success as purveyors of original songs that you can afford the luxury of making an album of carefree, feel-good covers. So you had to both envy and indulge Supergrass’s Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey when they went into the studio with Nigel Godrich to record this one-off project, with Bowie’s Pin Ups as their inspiration.

But Turn-ons is by no means just a throwaway lark. The inventively plaintive reading of the Beastie Boys’ Fight For Your Right is backed up with a feistier live version on the second disc, and a likeably fey, indie-pop take on the Sex Pistols’ EMI is another unlikely highlight.

A few nice extra touches are added on this expanded package, including a curious quiet-loud version of Kelis’s Milkshake, and an amusing, pilot-announcement style introduction to the live set on the second CD. Given that they evidently weren’t gilding the lily too much in the studio in the first place, it’s no surprise to find that many of the live tracks sound barely distinguishable, but they do have an extra energetic edge. And while you suspect the ‘Karaoke with the Hotrats’ instrumentals disc is basically filler, it’s another agreeably