But, in the process of listening to everything I intend to write about for a few weeks in advance, it became very clear to me - Gruff Rhys and the Super Furry Animals win! They win pop. They win rock'n'roll. They win the Song Contest. Sorry Bob Dylan, sorry Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney and David Bowie, you can all go home now.
Whaaaaaat, you say? Just like that. Without word of explanation? Of course there'll be a few words of fatuous, unrigorous explanation, fear not, I won't let you down.
I should probably have come in a little lower and you'd be on board. If I'd suggested that SFA were the finest Welsh tuneful indie-rock combo of the post-Britpop era, you'd almost certainly agree, unless you classify the Stereophonics as tuneful ... but, try as I might to deny it, I think more than that. I compare the Furries to The Beatles and I think they're better. I compare Gruff to Damon and I think he's more eclectic, imaginative and masterful. I compare them to Wilco and think they're more consistent. I compare them to Joni Mitchell and they tell me more about the world, more that I trust and believe in. Gruff Rhys and his buddies are a joyful gift to the world which far too little of the world knows about.
What really gives the lie to my grand statement is, of course, success. Success, whether in sales or influence, means something in popular music. The Super Furry Animals have not, by the way, sold as many records as the Beatles. Or as Ed Sheeran. Or The Stereophonics. And how much have they influenced ... not all that much. But it's kind of hard to be influenced by a band who does absolutely everything and does it brilliantly. Easier to be influenced by a one-note, one concept act like the Libertines or The Strokes. Oh yeah, the Libertines and The Strokes, they're so influential ...
Having said that, they hardly wallowed in complete obscurity and do hold a chart record of their own, albeit a slightly unwelcome one, which is the longest run of Top 40 hits which didn't make the Top 10. That says a lot really. It says they're a band which could do singles, which sought success, which maintained a high standard of likeability, which fans stuck with, but that they never quite compromised enough to do anything which "the masses" cottoned on to. Probably their most famous single is 'The Man Don't Give a Fuck' - never going to get all that much airplay ...
Why else didn't they become wildly successful? Yes, they were too offbeat, Gruff's voice is not as such a pop voice, they were always five men who didn't look like pop stars, past the first flush of youth. Gruff Rhys is himself the most striking-looking but he does speak English ... in the most .... unusual way ... that it was probably .... quite hard work ... having him on ... TV shows ... selling his wares.
Why else? Because there is no stand-out moment in their career, because music journalists had no option but to be a little complacent about their mastery. Another great Furries album, the story went. Where's the story?
Their first five English language albums are almost faultless. That's why they win pop. I listen to them all, all the way through, and I find them almost faultless more than anything else in the history of pop music. Relentless tunes, more per song than most people manage in a career, brilliant ideas, humour, every genre effortlessly blended in - soft rock, prog rock, techno, calypso, punk, folk, hard rock, close harmony, sampling, Americana, country, tropicalia, balladry, Nick Drakey instrumental, Spiritualizedy instrumental - it is all there and not in a showy, aren't we clever way. They just could do it all and make it sound great. Within that time, they also released two of the greatest stand-alone singles of all time, The Man Don't Give a Fuck and Ice Hockey Hair, which distils all their genius into 7 minutes, a great album of b-sides and extras, and, of course, a fine Welsh-language album that made the Top 20 and was mentioned in parliament.
Gruff is like a seer, or an alchemist - his songs so full of complex, bold ideas boiled down to something funny and palatable. As a lyricist, his propensity for humour perhaps sees him underestimated, but his skill for setting words to music is unquestionable. Even a simple line like "I really need to get some energy in me" from Fuzzy Birds, the way he uses it to propel the song forward count as great lyricism for me. I wonder if another reasons why the Furries are underrated is their iconography - the wonderful illustrations of Pete Fowler are so tied in with their sound, it is possible to view SFA as almost a cartoon band. Like Stevie Wonder, there is so much bright colour in the music, it can almost be overwhelming. Oh, the Furries, they're fun ... like the Coen Brothers ... not weighty enough ... nonsense ...
I described those first five albums as "almost" faultless. There are perhaps two major faults I identify in their career path, both at the time when major label stardom was closest, when signed to the label Epic. Their two albums within that period, Rings Around the World and Phantom Power, are a tiny bit undervalued compared to the first three. To me, they're amongst their strongest, but 'Rings' begins, oddly, with two of its least catchy songs, and the lead single of 'Phantom Power', 'Golden Retriever', is the weakest of their career for me, just too obvious a steal from 'Son of my Father'. It's their Roll With It moment. I have come to love everything else on Phantom Power. Everything. It's also Gruff Rhys' favourite.
That's the thing with the Furries - listen back to the songs you've forgotten from the albums you've forgotten and they'll blow you away with their tuneful lushness or rocking power - 'Out of Control' from Phantom Power, 'Bass Tuned to DEAD' from Radiator, 'Helium Hearts' from Dark Days/Light Years. The list goes on.
This here album, the one I'm writing about, is 'Guerrilla', their third English-language album, the one that actually really got me into them in a big way, never off the stereo for a couple of years at university. Perhaps, critically, just, the most acclaimed, though there's not much in it. Personally, now, it's my 3rd or 4th favourite, but that is personal - the slight mentalness of the second half with all its squelches was wonderful at the time for drunken students but less so now.
But the album is still such a rich gift - Gruff Rhys has said he hates to write songs which lure audiences in with poignancy, yet this album contains a couple of true beauties, Turning Tide and Fire in My Heart, the faultless Northern Lites, Do or Die, Keep the Cosmic Trigger Happy and, the special treat, Citizen's Band as a hidden track, which is almost as good as anything else on the album. It's quite a disconcerting album, really, it's still got the tint of madness to it. If they lost anything as they got older, it was that.
I found the album inspiring, genuinely inspiring, the seriousness and coherence of ideas, the virtuosity all wrapped in the cloak of humour. They're never trying to persuade or manipulate you into liking them, they're just entertaining you on your own terms.
I've seen articles writing Gruff off as a dope-addled joker but, hell, like, say Gram Parsons or Damon Albarn, he hasn't half kept up a prodigious work rate. This has carried on into his increasingly tremendous solo work, where he has really found his feet on the last couple. He is a true renaissance man, a cross-media master, has been for years - albums come with DVDs or films, books, travelogues, apps. He has become the world expert on the subject of his latest solo album (the masterful 'American Interior'), John Evans. And all the time, the tunes keep coming. Such a great ballad man for someone who tries not to write poignancy songs.
There was a waning of the Furries. It began with 'LoveKraft' and carried on through 'Hey Venus!' and 'Dark Days/Light Years'. I did not like LoveKraft at the time, hated the fact that songwriting duties were being shared round, that they'd slowed things down tried to make a lusher album. Listening to it recently, it's much much better than I remembered - it was a change, but it holds up. Not their greatest, but a worthy addition to their canon.
'Hey Venus!' and 'Dark Days/Light Years' less so, sadly. They are both albums made by a band trying to recapture some element of its identity, not sure of itself. 'Hey Venus!' is POP Furries, look, we can still do tunes, 'Dark Days/Light Years!' is jamming heavy rock Furries, too loose and casual. To be honest, it was probably mainly a brief dip in Gruff's own songwriting mojo. It happens. He's got it back now. Will he ever bring it back to the Furries? I hope so. Those are decent albums but you'd want something more to be left with.
I once came across a guy who hated the Furries - he was a massive twat and he was a massive fan of The Killers. Apart from that, I've been lucky to spend time with other people who love them, and am slightly baffled that anyone who really paid any attention wouldn't.
I enjoyed reading all the cooler-than-cool Pitchfork reviews of them. Pitchfork is often very sniffy about substandard British acts. Not the Furries, of course Furries Reviews
Because Gruff and the Furries are the winners, I've indulged myself (and them) by giving them a 40-son compilation, just to show how many good ones there are - i've taken them from every part of Gruff's career. Nothing ... nothing ... beats this.
| American Interior - Gruff Rhys |
| Northern Lites |
| Chupacabras |
| Helium Hearts |
| Calimero |
| Ymaelodi A'r Ymylon |
| Demons |
| Atomik Lust |
| I Told Her on Alderaan- Neon Neon |
| Something 4 the Weekend |
| If We Were Words, We Would Rhyme - Gruff Rhys |
| She's Got Spies |
| God! Show Me Magic |
| Bad Behaviour |
| Out of Control |
| Fuzzy Birds |
| Hometown Unicorn |
| The Undefeated |
| Sex, War and Robots |
| Presidential Suite |
| Now that the Feeling Has Gone - Gruff Rhys |
| Liberty Belle |
| Citizen's Band |
| The Last Conquistador - Gruff Rhys |
| Run, Christian, Run |
| The Turning Tide |
| Keep the Cosmic Trigger Happy |
| Hello Sunshine |
| Fire in My Heart |
| Hermann Loves Pauline |
| Run-Away |
| Mountain People |
| Slow Life |
| Venus and Serena |
| Walk into the Wilderness - Gruff Rhys |
| Christopher Columbus - Gruff Rhys |
| It's Not the End of the World |
| Ice Hockey Hair |
| The Man Don't Give a Fuck |
| For Now and Ever |
More Neon Neon!
ReplyDeleteGruff Rhys wins pop, no question.
I feel a little Guacamole would really tie your playlist together.