SUPER FURRY ANIMALS

I'm not much interested in hearing it - not unless there's stuff on there that's "proper" songs that I haven't heard before.

"Smoke" is an alternate mix of "Smokin'." I swear I heard this years ago on a compilation of some sort. But yeah, there's nothing AMAZING AND UNRELEASED on here. I think their vault is spent unless you want to go searching for some crumbs.

The new El Goodo album Strangetown just released is great. Good follow-up to their last one, which is also great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq27wwtEkvg

Liked that, will check out the album

https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/news/latest-news/gulp-return-with-glittering-track-morning-velvet-sky

New Gulp song/album produced by Luke Abbott. Prob. best SFA spin-off in my opinion.

Cian's orchestral album is out now if you've preordered. It's pretty breathtaking stuff!

Here's a short video snippet:

Fersiwn glasurol @CianCiarán o chwedl Rhys a Meinir
A classical composition of the love story Rhys a Meinir by @CianCiarán#rhysameinir | Nos Iau | Thursday | 9.30#chwedlau #chwedloni@superfurry pic.twitter.com/MDhCWnB8fA

— S4C (@S4C) November 26, 2017

https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/cian-ciaran-rhys-and-meinir

http://www.apessimistisneverdisappointed.com/2017/11/a-brief-review-of-rhys-meinir-from-cian.html

The album is, frankly, a revelation. A listener shouldn't be surprised that Cian Ciaran is a man of prodigious talent but, rather, that he is so easily capable of branching out so effectively. Rhys A Meinir is a record that alternates between lush orchestral passages, and stark, soundtrack-like pieces of music that convey the sadness and lyricism of the Welsh tale to a listener. In my interview with Cian Ciaran, he mentioned an appreciation for the music of John Barry, Bizet, and Ennio Morricone, an appreciation that one can hear here in the selections on Rhys A Meinir. A track like "Haul o rywle'n tywynnu" early in the record even bears a faint trace of Randy Newman's soundtrack work about it, while the lighter-than-air "Safodd yn stond" offers a rich abundance of harp figures. The more direct "Marwydos" brings a kind of folk music to the classical work, while the absolutely stunning "Rhedeg" chills and moves the soul in the style and spirit of the best Bernard Herrmann film scores. It's not entirely a surprise that this is an affecting work, but that it's so atypical of what one would expect from a Super Furry Animal. The band used strings before but never quite like this, Ciaran here embracing the larger forms and offering up something both Modern and Romantic.

Playing "Zoom", the 2cd best-of in the car at the moment.

It's so good!

They were/are so good. I fear they'll never be back. They're still hawking merch, though. There's always hope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIbS4ekCNmY

There's a good shot of a Hey Venus! preliminary studio track list in the documentary. "Upside Downers" from Cian's first solo album appears on it. The orchestra's motif took form during these sessions as well; he plays it during the studio session recordings and calls it "Lick My Love Pump" *lol*.

I enjoyed the doc. Good watch. V. relaxing, too.

http://beta.s4c.cymru/clic/e_level2.shtml?programme_id=794828413

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y6VLjIKwqQ

Ah! Greetings my friends,

- I’m happy to announce that my new album of 10 songs ‘Babelsberg’ is coming out on Rough Trade Records on 8th June. It features the BBC NOW orchestra with Kliph Scurlock, Osian Gwynedd and Steve Black on drums, piano, bass and I’m singing and playing guitar.

i did add my name to do a Super Furry Animals artist poll on ILM. not sure if i will actually do it. i ask, is there enough interest on ILM do actually do a poll?

I'd vote

I'd vote too

me2

Also me.

yes.

might be quite nice to have another thread on them which isn't THEY"RE SHIT REUNION BAND NOW every post

As true as that may be in 2018.

They are the rare band where I know more than half their albums, so I'd vote in a poll too

Dark Days/Light Years is a great album. Hope it gets some love in a poll. Bing Bong wasn't half bad, either. ;-)

I can think of a couple of tracks from Dark Days/Light Years that are worth voting for, as patchy and backloaded as that album is. 'Bing Bong' was so bad that it pretty much was the final nail for me.

The top 2 tracks are pretty much a lock, but there's such an embarrassment of riches from their golden decade of 1994-2004 it should be interesting.

Still throw on 'Bing Bong' once in a while. My son loves it. Hot bassline, too. *`<:^)

Not bad for a track they probably threw together in an hour or two.

Inaugural Trams is my European holiday anthem :)

'White Socks/Flip Flops' is one of the best things they've done post-2004.

Just take out Mt. and Moped Eyes and Dark Days/Light Years ends up being one of their best albums

'Mt' might be their worst song, otoh, it is an odd album

― imago, Monday, 16 April 2018 17:40 (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and yeah, agreed, it dips early

but recovers splendidly!

I love 'Moped Eyes.' I can leave 'Mt.' behind, but I think they've done far worse--all of which can be found on Love Kraft.

*hey venus

I'd take out 'Where Do You Wanna Go?' and 'Lliwiau Llachar' too. SFA on autopilot.

I guess 'Inconvenience' fits that category as well - I'd forgotten about it until I looked at the tracklisting.

I like Inconvenience and Lliwiau LLachar. 'Where Do You Wanna Go?' admittedly goes nowhere but it's short so I don't really mind it much

i really didn't think there would be that many people wanting a poll, so a nice surprise.

Love Kraft has always been my favourite SFA album, I suspect I might be alone in that. It gives off such a warm and quirky lovely vibe.

My 2-year old daughter recently wanted to listen to Phantom Power 1-3 times a day for over a month (it's now gradually being replaced by other albums, including Gruff's Candylion).
Even though it got overplayed, I did get to give it proper attention which I never gave it before, and actually got to appreciate it more and more. It's a truly fantastic album, which I think would also benefit from removing a few tracks - IMO Venus & Serena, Bleed Forever, Valet Parking could all go, leaving their best album.
Slow Life is probably their masterpiece.

I've never been very impressed by Dark Days/Light Years. Hey Venus! has extremely strong moments and is a highly enjoyable listen, but there's a little too much repetition within songs on that album for my liking to rank it among their best.

I wouldn't change a thing about Phantom Power and as you said, it contains probably their best ever track in 'Slow Life', which would have made for a great swan song. In hindsight, their last truly great album before it all went tits up.

Phantom Power is 15 years old, come to think of it!

Occassionaly I don't mind any of those three songs I mentioned at all, but other times I find them whiny or annoying. Valet Parking might maybe have been better as a fun strong B-side than as a relatively weak album track.
I do think that Phantom Power suffers a bit from some pacing issues - too much slow stuff in succession.

As I adore Love Kraft I can't really agree to the 'last great album' thing, but my patience for them does decrease after that and I am really hoping for them to return some day with a quality comeback album.

"Slow Life" is the closing track on their "Greatest Hits Vol 1"

They could compile a Vol 2 by now, but, well...

Just checked - it's not the closer. Whatevs.

I do think that Phantom Power suffers a bit from some pacing issues - too much slow stuff in succession.

I couldn't disagree more, and it's strange you say this of Phantom Power when Love Kraft is sluggish from beginning to end.

honestly I think all the albums up to Kraft are almost front to back great, and only the last two are significantly patchy. LK does have a few duff tracks but as Valentijn says the persistent warmth and lushness makes up for it.

if we do a poll we better get at least 30 track slots

I couldn't disagree more, and it's strange you say this of Phantom Power when Love Kraft is sluggish from beginning to end.

Love Kraft honestly always gave off more variation to me throughout.
I found Phantom Power a bit difficult to warm to as tracks 4 and 5 are slow (gorgeous, though!), followed by Venus and Serena which tries to get some energy in but ends up as a bit of a drag for me, then it slows down again with an instrumental and Bleed Forever (which, as I said, I occassionally find a bit too whiny).
I have to say I used to have more problems with Phantom Power than I do now, it just took me a long time -and the help of my 2-year old- to really get into it. I certainly consider it one of their best now! Perhaps 1-3 tracks too many but I don't truly dislike those either.

I saw your older post on Love Kraft, it's funny to me how much you dismiss that album while otherwise my overall album ranking would be fairly similar to yours.

Sometimes their stuff works for me the one time, then not at all the other time, then it does the trick again later. With Radiator, I loved it when it came out, then somehow got annoyed with it and disliked it for years, then revisited it and found myself loving it again and thinking of it as possibly their best.

Actually, I think my SFA album ranking would be exactly the same as the one you (Turrican) posted three years ago, except with Love Kraft moved from the bottom to the top!

(Which would be:
Love Kraft
Radiator
Phantom Power
Rings Around The World
Mwng
Guerrilla
Fuzzy Logic
Hey Venus!
Dark Days/Light Years )

Hey Venus! might climb the ladder if I would listen to it some more. The presence of Slow Life on the latter may mean that Radiator and Phantom Power should switch places.

Love Kraft doesn't really feel like a "warm" record to me - I don't get any kind of emotional warmth out of it, and it doesn't strike me as being a sunny kind of record. It feels more like a night time record, but the kind of night where you're tired and can't sleep because it's too hot and the air conditioning is fucked.

if we do a poll we better get at least 30 track slots

― Simon H., Tuesday, April 17, 2018 1:04 PM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes - a 25 song ballot would be too brutal.