Supagroup Rules Foodchain Records www.supagroup.com

If they’re a joke no one seems to be laughing; if they’re serious, well, that just makes things that much more pathetic.

Supagroup is the musical equivalent of Tenacious D, only without the tongue implanted in the cheek.  Lacking the catchiness of the similarly inclined Andrew W.K. or the smirky wink of The Darkness, Supagroup comes off as a tribute band celebrating music that was intentionally abandoned 20 years ago.  There’s a reason Journey fell out of vogue, a fact lost upon the members of Supagroup.

However, the release is well-produced and sounds clean, the instruments are all in tune and flow well with the singing.  There’s no question that Supagroup is good at what they do, but they don’t bring anything new to the 80’s rock sound that they love so much.  They wallow too long in the clichés of the era, most evident on the drum-callout-response of “Ruling (Is Its Own Reward).”  As such, they come off as a stale homage to an old musical form.  Unfortunately their music won’t stand the test of time as it was dated the second that it was recorded.

The good news is that for everyone that thinks that music peaked in 1981 there is a lot to enjoy, but that crowd gets smaller and smaller every day.

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Copyright © Michael A. Diaz