ALWAYS the most likeable of the Britpop bunch, Supergrass. By striking a balance between being accomplished musicians with a love of retro rock and being the cheeky popsters who brought you the hit single Alright, they avoided being typecast as either terminal dullards or wacky one-hit wonders. Plus being a fine live act, who obviously just live to play music, has helped them survive, although they've never quite come up with enough essential material on record to escape often being overlooked. Returning to action for 2002, Life On Other Planets finds them on form and churning out their exuberant mix of pop, psychedelia and full-throttle rock'n'roll.

And rather than seeming like a remnant from the mid-1990s, the Supergrass sound is not a million miles from bands-of-the moment such as The Vines and The Hives, who also owe big debts to 1970s rock, pop and punk.

They throw in some John Lennon (Za), lots of T-Rex - with added sheep noises - (Seen The Light) and anything else that takes their fancy. The influence of producer Tony Hoffer, who also worked with Beck and Air, is apparent - vintage synth sounds abound, and harmonised closing track Run echoes Air's Gallic charms, while the ramshackle folk pop of Evening Of The Day drops references to both the Rolling Stones and This Is Spinal Tap. The single, Grace, is a pounding Supergrass classic, but where the album does fall down is its lack of anything else as instant.

As ever, Supergrass aren't taking things too seriously and aren't on this planet to change people's lives. They're here to cheerfully bang out their singles three-quarters of the way up a Glastonbury bill on a sunny day, for ever. And what's wrong with that?

Updated: 08:58 Thursday, October 03, 2002