SUPER FURRY ANIMALS

Oh yeah, minor setlist changes on the second Cardiff date. Setlist essentially the same as the first except the order of the songs shuffled slightly, with 'Bad Behaviour' and 'Bleed Forever' being dropped for 'If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You' and 'Juxtapozed With U'.

Pretty good prediction on "Juxtaposed." That's been a setlist mainstay for over a decade. They played "IF You Don't Want Me to Destroy You" at the last gig I went to (Hey Venus! tour). They were also starting to play ""Blerwytirhwng" around that time. That's one I would've loved to have experienced live. I'm so glad they uncovered "Arnofio/Glo in the Dark." Those spacey Welsh b-sides that ended up on Out Spaced are some of my favorite SFA tunes. I wish they'd traveled further in that direction instead of going towards glossier production and more anthemic songs.

Obviously I love both sides of the band, but I feel those Out Spaced tracks really took the band in a unique direction: the synths, the guitar riffs, and vocal layering in a song like "Pam V' really do it for me.

Hey Venus! b-side "That's What I'm Talking About" and "Cardiff in the Sun" somewhat revisit that territory.

There's a few other B-sides that could fit that mould. 'This, That and The Other' tends to get overlooked quite a bit.

Something for the Weekend and International Language were the new ones tonight.

Right, so they kept 'Juxtapozed With U' and dropped 'God! Show Me Magic' and 'If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You'. Yeah, I guess the way they're approaching this tour is a mostly static setlist, but with the occasional change in places where they're playing more than one gig. I'm unsure how many songs they've rehearsed for this tour, but suspect it's not many. It's possible they might do 'Calimero' at some point, but struggling to think of any other potential songs they may have rehearsed up. I suspect if there was nothing from Hey Venus! or Dark Days/Light Years played in Cardiff, then it's pretty much going to be that way for the rest of the tour.

Had a listen to Out Spaced on headphones last night before I went to sleep and was really impressed this time around at just how well the tracks they chose for it fit together, which is no mean feat considering the tracks on the album were recorded over a period of four years and weren't recorded with the idea of a B-sides album in mind. I guess having the same producer (Gorwel Owen) on all of the tracks helped the compilation inadvertently have a cohesive sound. In particular, I love the segues: it's now difficult for me to imagine the recorded version of 'The Man Don't Give A Fuck' not flowing effortlessly into 'Dim Brys Dim Chwys' - even though they were recorded a couple of years apart it feels like that segue was, weirdly, always meant to be. I love the way they extended the endings to 'Fix Idris' and 'Blerwytirhwng?' specifically for Out Spaced, too.

Oh yeah, here's a bit of crazy SFA trivia: the versions of 'Focus Pocus/Debiel' on Out Spaced and Moog Droog are different in a non-obvious way. Not only are the drumstick clicks edited out on the Out Spaced version, but the gap between the two parts is slightly longer. I don't know why this is the case, but it's proof (alongside the extended endings) that some studio tinkering went down when compiling Out Spaced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Ry8TLGDts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyocFTk2iGI

Further to my post above about listening to SFA's back catalogue with a fresh pair of ears, I decided to spend a little more time with the post-Phantom Power albums last night and... I'm incredibly surprised to be saying this, but I seem to have changed my mind on Love Kraft completely! While I still think it's got some incredible production work on it, and it sounds great, my view on it nowadays seems to be that it's an excellently produced album of mostly shitty songs. I came away from last nights listening session pretty much deciding, even though I love the production work on it, that it's their weakest album. Hey Venus!, and now Dark Days/Light Years are both sounding pretty good to me right now, however I'd be lying if I said that there wasn't a couple of moments on both of those records that I disliked. I certainly don't consider any of these albums to be anywhere near as good as their "classic" run of 1994-2004. Maybe those solo projects affected the quality control of the "main" band... I don't know.

Love Kraft

Good-to-great:
'Zoom!', 'Atomik Lust', 'Ohio Heat', 'Cloudberries', 'Cabin Fever'.

Absolute shite:
'The Horn' - Bunf's strained vocal sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me now, and the song feels underwritten, in particular the middle 8. Shite!

'Walk You Home' - A confused mess of a song, almost completely hookless, the outro in particular feels melodically bland. Shite!

'Lazer Beam' - Their worst ever single. There's a reason why the band choose 'Zoom!' to play live to represent Love Kraft and not the sole single from the album, and that reason is that 'Lazer Beam' is absolute fucking shite. The lyrics in the second verse must be some of the laziest lyrics Gruff has ever written, come to think of it.

'Frequency' - A fan favourite, but it's totally confusing to see why. Yeah, it's SFA in ballad mode, but it's a fucking weak ballad, and if you don't think it's a weak ballad then do me a favour. Listen to 'Demons', and then listen to 'Frequency' - I rest my case. Shite!

'Oi Frango' - Completely pointless romp through an obvious chord progression with some synth effects and Portuguese words grafted on to try to make it sound interesting. It's not interesting, it's shite.

'Psyclone!' - Takes an idea from Gruff's solo track 'Ni Yw Y Byd' (basically one melodic theme repeated across several key changes) and marries it to the drumbeat from Queen's 'We Will Rock You'. Thing is, though, the melodic theme chosen isn't actually all that great, and the lyrics in particular fucking suck. I've decided I never want anyone to ever catch me listening to a song that features the lyric "take the turbulence and twinkle your toes... OH! OH!" - very cringeworthy. Shite!

'Back On A Roll' - I actually used to really like this one, but now it grates on me in the worst way possible. Bunf sounds incredibly strained when hitting the high notes on this (he seems to have refrained from doing this in songs he's sung for the band after this album) and it's lyrically not up to the standard you'd expect from an SFA track. Performance wise, it has the feel of a band trying to nail an upbeat track when they're perhaps not in the mood to do so, and the result feels like a kind of "laboured fun".

Hey Venus!

Mostly good, aside from 'Suckers!' which is a very pedestrian power ballad which Gruff himself quite rightly hates, and 'Battersea Odyssey' which starts off well with that great guitar intro but descends into a tedious stompalong. Personally, I would have had 'These Bones' on the album instead, which is ace and deserves to be heard by more people. Here's hoping that it's a contender for a future B-sides compilation.

Dark Days/Light Years

Good-to-great:
'Crazy Naked Girls', 'Cardiff In The Sun', 'The Very Best Of Neil Diamond', 'Helium Hearts', 'White Socks/Flip Flops', 'Pric'

Tolerable-but-meh:
'Inaugural Trams', 'Inconvenience', 'Where Do You Wanna Go?', 'Lliwiau Llachar'

Absolute shite:
'Mt.' - Why the band felt like this track in particular was worthy of representing the album is a complete mystery. They were obviously banking on radio play, why else make a censored version of the track? It's yet another SFA shuffly glam stomp, and one may well ask themselves "does anyone need another SFA glam stomp, especially one as weak as this!?"

'Moped Eyes' - A tarted-up joke song and nothing more. Thought it was crap in its early form and still think it's crap.

ranking:
Radiator
Phantom Power
Rings Around The World
Mwng
Guerrilla
Fuzzy Logic
Hey Venus!
Dark Days/Light Years
Love Kraft

SFA 1994-2004 = Classic. One of the best bands of that period.
SFA 2005-2009 = Patchy. Some underrated work, but definitely not the force they once were.

It'll be interesting to see what happens next.

Interview with Gruff on DiS today although he doesn't really say much about "the future"

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4148963-vote-furry--gruff-rhys-on-politics-mwng-and-the-future

I love "Moped Eyes." Don't know why. It seems like the exact kind of SFA song I'd hate. I dig the little stabs of guitar and bassline, I guess.

I got the Mwng reissue the other day and quickly downloaded it as well so I could listen to the alternate takes/mix of the album. It's not drastically different, but there are subtle differences, like the background vocals on "Dacw Hi" being out of sync and more pronounced. Well worth seeking out if you're a completist.

I haven't even bought the Mwng reissue and I'm not particularly interested in hearing alternate takes/mixes of the Mwng sessions, either. I'm perfectly happy with the original Placid Casual release that I've owned for the last 15 years, and it's not like they've remastered it or anything, so I don't really see the point. It's good that it's out there again on vinyl, though, because original copies are so expensive. I can't see the value of the original vinyl going down because the original was self-released, and this new edition isn't.

The vocal on 'Moped Eyes' during the verses in particular gets on my wick. Yeah, I get that Gruff's going for some kind of drugged out Sly Stone circa 1971 delivery, but it would have helped if he'd written a decent vocal melody to go with it. It doesn't hold up for me as a song at all, musically or lyrically, and it wouldn't have made the grade as a B-side "back in the day", let alone an album track.

Fair enough. I own the original Placid Casual CD as well as the American reissue that came with Mwng Bach. I only recently started, selectively, purchasing vinyls, so I figured it'd look nice in my collection. The bonuses definitely reeled me in. I still think the alternates are worth listening to if you somehow stumble across them online.

My ranking would be similar to yours Turrican but Rings has always been my least favourite. It's way too much style over substance apart from a few stand outs (Run Christian Run, Juxtapozed, Sidewalk Serfer Girl)

Radiator
Phantom Power
Mwng
Guerrilla
Fuzzy Logic
Dark Days/Light Years
Hey Venus!
Love Kraft
Rings Around The World

Interesting to see how you rate Love Kraft.

I'd agree that Zoom!, Atomik Lust, Ohio Heat, Cloudberries and Cabin Fever are all great but I'd also put Walk You Home and Frequency in there too.

Oi Frango and Back on a Roll are decent but do feel like filler.

The Horn, Psyclone and Lazer Beam are all terrible songs. Completely agree that Lazer Beam is their worst single ever.

I prefer "The Horn" to "Back on a Roll." I used to really hate Bunf's songs, but I came to appreciate him somewhat. "Sex, War and Robots" is a great song and one he hasn't really matched since. I'm not actually sure that he can sing, but he sure does try.

Cian's backing vocals stand out more to me than Bunf's when I play back most of their albums. He's all over Radiator, for instance.

Sex, War and Robots would make my top ten SFA songs. It's a gorgeous song.

Ah, I love every song on Rings Around The World so I'm not entirely too sure what you mean by the "style over substance" thing. The big, expensive, ambitious production was kinda the point of the record, although I'd like to think that they had the material to back it up. Unlike, for instance, Love Kraft where they got the production spot on but clearly didn't have the material to back it up.

If I recall, the main problem that fans had at the time with Rings Around The World was track sequencing related... from 'Alternate Route To Vulcan Street' up to '(A) Touch Sensitive' featured all the immediate songs, but then they sequenced all the "slow burners" on the second half of the record from 'Shoot Doris Day' up to 'Fragile Happiness' (with the exception of 'Juxtapozed With U', of course)

I remember one or two folks being disgruntled with 'No Sympathy' at the time, saying that it played like a less good 'Mountain People' (standard song turns into techno freakout), and I still come across folks who dislike 'Run! Christian, Run!' and 'Presidential Suite'. I like all of 'em on that record, though, and you must listen to the record in 5.1 if you can, because the band made the record with surround sound in mind and it's therefore considered to be the primary version.

If there's a track or two you don't like on RAtW, a few of the b-sides should make up for it. They're some of the strongest songs the band has recorded. I don't have a problem with RAtW anyway; it's the album that sold me on the band and began my obsession. I purchased Guerrilla and found it a bit inaccessible, but I couldn't stop playing RaTW for the longest time. Its impact has dulled somewhat over the years, but I'll always remember it fondly.

Interesting to see how you rate Love Kraft.

― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, May 6, 2015 2:11 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My opinion of the record has changed quite a lot over the years, actually. When the first leaks came through, I'll admit I wasn't quite sure of what I was hearing, had serious doubts and thought to myself "oh god, I hope that this record isn't going to turn out to be shit", as one does when the preceding six albums were so good. Then the record came out, and I didn't find it too bad and actually sensed it might be a bit of a grower. A lot of SFA fans were down on the record at the time, if I recall. I went through a period of liking the record and saying to other folks to give it time and not dismiss it right away, just in case it grew on 'em.

However, with 10 years of distance from the albums release, and especially after not hearing it for a long while, I put it on the other day in the middle of an SFA listening session where everything from Fuzzy Logic up to Phantom Power sounded as great as ever, only to put on Love Kraft, get three tracks in and think "hmm... this isn't sounding too good" ... and then slap bang in the middle of that run of tracks from 'Walk You Home' to 'Back On A Roll', I start thinking "hang on, I'm not really enjoying this... this isn't doing anything for me..." followed by a realisation of "oh my god, this album is actually fucking wank!"

Like I say, it's produced really well, and it works on an "ear candy" level for headphone listening and those who like burrowing deep into layered productions. As a collection of songs though, yeah, it's atrocious, and I can see why SFA lost listeners with it.

I can never remember half of the songs on Rings. A lot of them just seem to blend into each other. You know how you said Frequency wasn't a great ballad and especially played next to Demons, that's exactly how I feel about Shoot Doris Day and Presidential Suite. I know big production is supposed to be what Rings is all about but the songwriting doesn't seem anyway near as strong as Phantom Power which did that idea a whole lot better.

Juxtapozed is a great single but I always hated the other two singles. The title track is one of their least inspiring tunes, it just goes nowhere. Always frustrates me they insist on playing it live. It's Not the End of the World is too similar to Forever by The Beach Boys and again compared to all their other earlier ballads just seems so bland and kind of hollow.

I definitely wouldn't lose any sleep if they retired "Drawing Rings Around the World" or "Golden Retriever" from their live sets.

I'm a massive High Llamas fan, which I've mentioned before, so I kind of feel at home among the sweeping arrangements that took over from RaTW to Love Kraft. That's another element that doesn't bother me as much as it bothers others.

I need to stop capitalizing the wrong letters in RAtW.

Yeah, I feel the same about Golden Retriever. I don't dislike it as much as Rings but it's probably my least favourite song on Phantom Power.

I disagree that Bunf hasn't topped 'Sex, War & Robots', I think 'These Bones' and 'White Socks/Flip Flops' are of equal quality to that song, if not better. It just seems to me that he went off the boil a little bit around the time of Love Kraft. There were some fine B-sides during the Rings Around The World era: 'Edam Anchorman/All The Shit U Do' (I see them as being one song) and 'Tradewinds' being two very fine songs indeed, and 'The Roman Road' and 'Patience' aren't too far behind. All of those could hav easily made the album itself. On the other hand, 'Gypsy Space Muffin' is a very weak Bunf composition that's probably even worse than his songs on Love Kraft, and 'Happiness Is A Worn Pun' takes the riff of 'The Teacher' and does nothing exciting with it.

'It's Not The End Of The World?' and 'Shoot Doris Day' both touch me in a way that 'Frequency' never will, and 'Frequency' doesn't have a moment in it that even touches the part in 'Presidential Suite' where it goes "You know that when we met there were fireworks in the sky..." etc.

'(Drawing) Rings Around The World', although played to death live, is a great live song, although I wouldn't mind them dropping 'Golden Retriever' every so often. I think those tracks are great, though.

It's heartening to see there's still so many wildly diverse opinions about this band and their albums. That's one thing that has remained consistent.

On the subject of those Bunf songs, I like, even love, both, but "Sex, War and Robots" remains his only song that has an emotional core. I actually really enjoyed The Pale Blue Dots' LP as well, so he's definitely grown on me (I know you thought it sounded like out of tune warbling).

Yeah, you're pretty OTM about 'Sex, War & Robots' being his most emotional song. The thing with Bunf is I like him when he sings in his natural register, like on that song and 'White Socks/Flip Flops', his high register works well for backing vocals but not so well for lead. When he strains to reach those high notes on 'The Horn' and 'Back On A Roll', it's fucking painful. I often wonder why Mario Caldato Jr. didn't say "hang on, Bunf, I think we should change the key on this song to suit your natural range".

I didn't like The Pale Blue Dots' LP, no. I thought Cian's first album was a bit dull, and his second album had some good moments on it. The second Neon Neon album was (IMHO) terrible, and American Interior had some good stuff and some okay-but-not-spectacular stuff. I streamed those albums, but haven't bought any of that stuff, likewise Gulp or The Earth. Last SFA (or related) thing I bought was Hotel Shampoo, come to think of it. I'm just not really as interested in the side/solo stuff as I was with SFA themselves during their "golden years".

Very minor setlist change at the Manchester gig, they played 'Drygioni'.

I'm actually surprised you like "Crazy Naked Girls." I think it could use another verse or two. "Mt." is not my favorite, and I'm surprised Cian couldn't come up with a more interesting song structure considering everything else he's written for the band.

Neon Neon is one of my least favorite side projects. Gruff the clearly SFA's most talented songwriter and vocalist (that goes without saying), but he can go definitely go overboard with his ridiculous ideas when he isn't careful. That instinct has always been there and he can sometimes reign it in and make some really memorable music. Worst of all, though, Praxis Makes Perfect is just kind of boring. I understand the live show was fantastic, but that doesn't really matter when all I've got is a CD with 30 minutes of uninspired synth pop.

"Hoops With Fidel" is also one of the most annoying things he's ever written. More annoying than "Lazer Beam," even.

'Crazy Naked Girls' and 'Cardiff In The Sun' were two tracks I wasn't sure about at first, but they seem to have grown on me. I don't know about another verse or two, but perhaps it could have been one false ending less - they really hammer that riff into the ground. 'Cardiff In The Sun', weirdly, came into its own for me when I listened to outside of the context of the album fairly recently.

'The Very Best Of Neil Diamond, 'Helium Hearts' and 'White Socks/Flip Flops' I think would have made much better "singles" than 'Mt.' and 'Inaugural Trams', and 'Pric' is a great closer.

I thought Stainless Style was fantastic, but in hindsight they really should have left the Neon Neon project after that album because it would have been a neat one-off. Praxis Makes Perfect was definitely nowhere near as good!

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/06/vote-indie-general-election-song-dont-give-it-away-politics-swing

Cian and Steve Mason.

Makes sense, they've both released "political" albums over the last few years.

A bit heavy handed for my taste, but I am a Steve Mason fan as well so I figured I'd share.

Someone deep within the crowd reports that they played "Neo Consumer" tonight.

'Neo Consumer', eh? I guess it wouldn't have taken 'em very long to get that one rehearsed up, but I'm genuinely surprised that they've thrown that one in!

Well they technically played something that was going to be on DD/LY last night... "Earth." That might've taken less practice than "Neo Consumer."

I'd forgotten about 'Earth', always felt that it was a bit of a pointless joke track.

Yeah, I agree. There is a pretty nice version of it Gruff and Bunf performed for a small audience. I always enjoyed their renditions of SFA songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5okLQAYqlo

That really impressed me. Cian does seem to hit a couple wrong notes on his piano (maybe it's just the recording?), but I think the outro is phenomenal.

Christ, that was good! All of the footage that I've seen of the bands gigs this year have shown a band that seemed to have regained something which seemed to be absent in the gigs from 2007-2009. I think I've said this before, but, I guess with the benefit of hindsight, the band were exhausted and just needed to take a break. I know that there's a lot in these shows that was in previous shows (the yeti's and suchlike) and that it's quite a "nostalgic" setlist, but the break seems to have done them a hell of a lot of good as a live unit.

You are on the money.

They seem to have taken this "reformation" a lot more seriously than I anticipated as well. Even though they are relying on old standards, reworking the outro to "Mountain People" or having the whole crew, horns and all, on stage shows they weren't in it just for the money. In a sense, they may have purged themselves of their excesses during the hiatus, which makes me very excited about new music. I don't think you can quite count them out yet.

I have also heard from very reliable sources that they were pretty much thrilled to be together again during rehearsals and back stage.

Yeah, it sounds like they're enjoying playing together again and enjoying each others company. It's fair to say that at this stage, after several years of solo/side projects that I haven't really enjoyed, and after a good five years or so of thinking that this band were dead and buried, that I'm more optimistic of the future of the band and a new SFA album than I have been for a long time. I'm beginning to find myself thinking that a 10th SFA would be a great idea after all, as long as they take their time over it and don't fuck it up.

I was pretty surprised to hear the extended version of Mountain People, back when I used to see them a lot they would sometimes swop that out with MDGAF for the techno blowout finale.

I was at the first Brixton night and there was a natural moment of ovation during a pause in Hello Sunshine (before 'I'm a minger...') they seemed genuinely touched.

Last time I saw them play it, they didn't play any kind of extended ending or anything like that. It felt a bit weird!