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Album Review
by SashaS
14-9-2001
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More on: Super Furry Animals
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| From Wales with love |
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Super Furry Animals: 'Rings Around The World'
(Epic/Sony)
Super Furry Animals’ move to the major label has allowed them to realise expansive sounds
As another review on the site suggests, in this ‘hood only two Welsh bands are considered to be worth bothering with. One of them is Super Furry Animals, a band that can surprise with every album. (That’s the way it should be, babee!) SFA make their own rules only to break them and it is something we should applaud loudly as the rest of the competition is, well – non-existent.
In the world of common sounds for mass-consumption there are far too few jewel. The band’s fifth album occupies the usual left-of-centre corner of the rock market that has finally been budgeted the way it deserves (years at extinct Creation were too frugal to meet the SFA’s ambition) but at times it feels they did get a bit overwhelmed with plenitude.
At the same time they seem to have refined their irony and the song parade here touches the very basic and simple rock sounding, Status Quo-ish perhaps, ‘(Drawing) Rings Around The World’, a self-tributing ‘No Sympathy’ (a relative to their ‘Mountain People’), the folktronic ‘Run! Christian! Run!’… There is a song entitled ‘Shoot Doris Day’ and if it doesn’t make you smile then you should sue God for cheating on your sense of humour quota!
‘Alternative Route To Vulcan Street’ is an elegiac piece masterfully delivered by Gruff Rhys and ‘It’s Not The End Of The World?‘ is homage to The Beach Boys (check out ‘Forever’). ‘Juxtaposed With U’ invaded radio waves with its catchy clever-popness some months ago and there is more to pick here.
If I were to escape to a littlen island in the mid-Pacific I wouldn’t mind having this for my solar-powered Mini-Disc (alongside Mogwai and Gorky’s latest) and Shirley Manson to bitch about with. Probably not the SFA’s best album but certainly better than 90 per cent of dross collecting dust on the Tower Records’ shelves.
Music to love the world by, a misanthrope might ponder.
8/10
SashaS
14-9-2001
Super Furry Animals’ ‘Rings Around The World’ is released internationally 17 September 2001 on Epic/Sony
Wordage: 346; Thu., Sept. 13, 2001; 11:16:13am
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