World’s Strongest Man – Hot Fruit masculinity under pressure

Hot Fruit, third solo, pressure in the voice

World’s Strongest Man arrived on 4 May 2018 as Gaz Coombes’s third solo studio album, issued on Hot Fruit Recordings with Caroline. It followed Matador (2015) and put the former Supergrass frontman back in the UK Top 15, peaking at No. 12. Coombes co-produced with Ian Davenport; tracking centered on Courtyard Studio in Oxford, with Craig Silvey mixing and Bob Ludwig mastering.

The title sounds like a boast. The record undercuts it. Coombes talked about Grayson Perry’s writing on masculinity, Frank Ocean’s Blonde, Neu!, hip-hop drums, and British woodland walks. Synth beds, drum loops, and textured guitars replace the bright Britpop rush of the 1990s. Hooks are there, but they unfold slowly under quiet vocals and stacked synths, not stadium choruses.

Lead single Deep Pockets set the tone in January 2018: paranoia, late-night motion, a clipped groove. Coombes shot and edited the video himself on a small budget in Los Angeles, staging a surreal car-pool ride to match the lyric. Walk the Walk and the title track keep that medium pace. Deeper cuts like The Oaks, Oxygen Mask, and Weird Dreams stretch into quieter pieces where anxiety and ego sit in plain view.

Caroline International handled wider distribution while Hot Fruit kept the indie stamp on the sleeve. Critics noted the shift from the lighter Supergrass rhythm toward adult unease: fewer shout-along choruses, more attention to how a loop and a vocal phrase share a bar. The album holds up on a second listen.