Supagroup has never lacked personality. For years, set lists were comprised of songs that used “rock” in every title as a noun, verb or adjective, and it had the attitude of a band that sold triple platinum and the sense of humor of one that knows what it really sold. When Chris Lee boasts, “We’re Supagroup from New Orleans, Louisiana / and we’re here to kick your ass,” it’s clear he’s more interested in making the claim than doing anything about it. That doesn’t mean the threat is empty, though. When Supagroup finished a set at Voodoo by saying, “Top that, Shinedown,” a member of Shinedown threw up trying to do so.

 

There are two ways to approach the new Supagroup album. The more interesting is to think of Fire for Hire as a meta-hard rock album—an album about being a hard rock band that includes songs the band would play. It has self-mythologizing songs “Lonely at the Bottom” and “Bow Down,” but it also has the more conventional “Promised Land” and “Mourning Day,” the latter a ballad that strays true to the band’s muscle car rock ’n’ roll heart without becoming a power ballad. In the past, the songs about being rock ’n’ roll cads dominated the albums. Here, they frame it, making Fire for Hire less about the ha-ha and more about the rock.

 

Without less smartass on the album, it’s easy to hear just how good a hard rock band Supagroup has become, and how far it has moved from its early reputation as the home for wayward AC/DC riffs. It still wears its influences on its tour T-shirt sleeve, but the songs are an ADD rocker’s dream—dynamic with something to grab your attention every 30 seconds whether the song needs it or not. And, they’re tight enough make such moves pay of in songs that constantly surge.

 

If that all sounds too high-brow and un-rock ’n’ roll, another way to think of Fire for Hire is that it rocks like crazy with songs you can remember, lots of big guitars and shit like that.