Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	73
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Drowned in Sound	(3/10)
The Guardian
Mojo
MusicOMH	(very positive)
NME	(7/10)
Pitchfork Media	(7.2/10)
PopMatters	(7/10)
Q
Uncut

Road to Rouen is the fifth studio album by English rock band Supergrass. The album was released in the UK on 15 August 2005 by Parlophone, and in the US on 27 September 2005 by Capitol Records. The title refers to the city in northern France where the album was recorded, as well as the 1978 album Road to Ruin by punk rock band Ramones.

Road to Rouen was a difficult album for the band due to personal reasons, including Danny Goffey's tabloid ordeal and the death of Gaz and Rob Coombes' mother. The album reflected a rough period for the band and was oriented towards longer, looser, more orchestral material. The record was highly acclaimed and well received by most fans of the band; it reached a respectable number 9 on the UK Album Charts. Three singles were released from the album: "St. Petersburg" in August 2005, which peaked on the UK Singles Chart at number 22; "Low C" in October 2005, which peaked at number 52; and "Fin" in January 2006, which failed to enter the Top 100.

In 2004, the band opted to move away from Sawmills Studio in Cornwall, where their first three albums had been recorded, and settled at Studio St. Mard, a converted barn in Rouen, Normandy. Supergrass claimed to have been more "focused" despite the rural surroundings and rudimentary recording equipment. Aside from their traditional instrumentation, the band used zithers, ukuleles, brass, strings, and a drum machine. The album's first single, "St. Petersburg", was recorded in one take and features no overdubs. Drummer Danny Goffey said of the album's more acoustic, streamlined recording: "It was a kind of conscious decision to make an album that didn't have a three-minute single, something that had more of a mellow vibe about it. There have been those obscure tracks that have been on the albums that no one probably had heard, because people just buy our singles or see just what's on the charts or on the radio. So yeah, we wanted to make sure that that side of us come out of us a bit more, you know, and that we didn't just pick some radio friendly song to release."

...
Wikipedia