Supergrass' debut is a wonderfully eclectic and energetic affair, generally taking the Britpop formula and injecting it with a healthy dose of punk-pop enthusiasm.
On the track listing it's divided into an "Easy Listening" side and "New Wave" side, but generally it's a babbling-brook intellectual update of 1970's Krautrock.
Often pigeonholed as a novelty act thanks to the one-hit wonder status Stateside of "Venus" - it wasn't their fault Bananarama filtered it down through a fogscreen of noxious 80's synth sounds and machines. The real deal was a garage-heavy foursome with Jefferson Airplane overtones thanks to their striking lead singer and her surprisingly versatile pipes. There's bit of James Brown-style rhythms, Americana-inspired themes and riffs, Middle Eastern instrumentation (mainly sitar), lots of psychedelic keyboards - in all, a neat grab bag of insubstantial pop played in a direct yet intriguing manner.
Despite what I think is an average start to the album, 12 x 5 is overall a moderate leap from the debut in a variety of ways. It's still the same batch of R&B and/or 50's covers, but there's more bite and vitriol to this collection, starting right from "Good Times, Bad Times" and rolling on from there. "It's All Over Now" reeks of classic Stones swagger and nastiness. Elsewhere, there are tons of little touches and imprints which make them stand way above the rest (the ultra-spooky twang-echo at the end of every measure of "Grown Up Wrong" for instance). Unfortunately, over in England they could only get this in EP format back in the day - hence, "Five by Five" - whereas…well, you get the idea.
