More than a decade after these blissfully genre-bending Welsh popsters burst through a rip in the space-time continuum with all the self-assured ambition of five guys in a (soon literal) armored tank, Super Furry Animals are presenting symptoms of a band about to re-enter the ether: a suddenly human album, 2003's Phantom Power; a solo project, singer Gruff Rhys's just-released Yr Atal Genhedlaeth; and now a career-spanning singles compilation. Marrying a Japanese avant-garde artist can't be far off.
For those of you just joining us: Super Furry Animals were the most life-affirming British pop group of the late 1990s, retaining their yen for sunny melodies even as Radiohead perfected gloomy computer-age ennui and Blur's buoyant choruses sank into heartbreakingly dissonant sad bastard music. Since landing on this watery, sun-scorched planet, SFA have gleefully mish-mashed influences that include the Beach Boys, the Beatles, David Bowie, and Chemical Brothers. With 2001's Rings Around the World came 70s soul and widespread acclaim. Even Phantom Power added a touch of Byrdsian country-rock.
Songbook spans all those sounds and more, cramming 21 perception-twisting singles on one disc. Yes, that means the band's plentiful instrumentals are absent, as are some of keyboardist Cian Ciárán's electronic contributions. But while Songbook contains a few sops to obscurity-seekers (the non-album gem "Ice Hockey Hair" and "Blerwytirhwng", from the band's pre-Creation debut EP), the disc aims more toward awing neophytes with the group's unbridled pop prowess than sating completists. The management is not responsible for hats, purses, or hipster poses lost during the ride.
My sources assure me that Wales is a real place, but I prefer to think of it as an imaginary kingdom, like Oz or Narnia or a sovereign Iraq. Its national anthem would be this album's irrepressible opener, 1996's "Something 4 the Weekend", which somersaults down puffy cloudscapes like "Mr. Blue Sky" for the eclectic decade. "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" is Supergrass's "Pumpin' on Your Stereo" armed with 52 f-bombs, a Steely Dan sample,and leftist politics; the proggy quasi-Britpop of "Do or Die" very nearly cops its guitar line from the Allman Brothers' "Jessica". Quoting "Juxtapozed With U" might not get the girl from Poli Sci class out of that halter top, but its goofy vocoder come-ons will give you something to smile about as you stumble home wearing her Long Island iced tea.
As with 1998 b-sides and rarities compilation Outspaced, Songbook is built like an album, not a retrospective. In other words, forget anything resembling chronological order. Thus the voluptuous bombast of 2002's "It's Not the End of the World" (which, to confuse matters further, wouldn't sound out of place on Blur's The Great Escape) fades into the "Deadweight"-era Beck tropicalia of "Northern Lites", from 1999's Guerilla. Fortunately, the art-punky "Hermann Loves Pauline" and flange-laden "Play It Cool"-- two of the most weirdly inventive songs from 1997's Radiator-- show up consecutively, albeit in reverse order from their original appearance. Wales has ways of making you think.
Yeah, Super Furry Animals sure were a great band. Maybe you can catch them in 10 years when they go on their reunion cash-in tour and get the hype they deserve. Wait, what's that? You say the title is portentously denoted Volume One? That the Super Furries have already recorded much of their next album, due for release later this year? Shit, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. TO BE CONTINUED...
