Review Summary: For Tomorrow: A Guide to Contemporary British Music, 1988-2013 (Part 83)
For the one or two of you that were waiting for me to cover
Radiator,
Guerrilla,
Mwng, or
Rings Around the World, here is your consolation prize. My writing off of Welsh natives Super Furry Animals is a sad but common fate for the eclectic freak-rockers. Maybe they have a more prominent reputation in the UK, where they’ve logged four top ten albums, but in the US they’re usually written off as a quirkier Flaming Lips, if they’re written about at all. It’s a shame because, if you can tune into their esoteric brand of prog-indie-calypso-rock, they’ve never released a bad album.
That comes with a caveat because the Super Furry Animals wavelength is a specific one. This is never clearer than when listening to their first compilation album
Songbook: The Singles Vol. One, which jumps from straightforward power-pop, to swooning balladry, to tropicalia, back to swooning balladry, and onto long form experimental electronic rock in the first five tracks. Because of this
Songbook can actually be something of a frustrating listen, as each individual track is something special but sequenced back to back can feel exhausting as you struggle to catch up to the band’s ever shifting attention span.
Still, with a little effort
Songbook becomes a toybox of styles tied together by Gruff Rhys’ keen melodic sense. Damon Albarn must have consulted with his lawyers when he heard the gorgeous choruses of “It’s Not the End of the World?” and “Juxtaposed With U” while you can almost hear Jarvis Cocker monologuing something about birds, bees, and legs over the top of “Slow Life”’s seven minute odyssey. If opening number “Something 4 the Weekend” and “Play it Cool” are the Super Furry Animals at their most straightforward then “The Man Don’t Give a ***” is the Super Furry Animals at their most audacious. Cramming 50 ***s into five minutes, “The Man Don’t Give a ***” rides a Steely Dan sample until the word “***” feels outrageous again. Seven minute love opus “Ice Hockey Hair” might be the SFA at the height of their powers, a sweeping rock song that boils over into a triumphant refrain to fade.
Eccentric without lapsing into quirk, the Super Furry Animals ground their wilder desires in pure talent and focus, managing to span a multitude of sounds but making them all sound unmistakably their own. Truthfully, the SFA aren’t a singles band either. While
Songbook makes for a great primer to the intimidated American, it’s only a primer and one that should necessitate the eventual purchase of their full lengths assuming their greatest hits piques your interest.
