‘Guerrilla’ by Super Furry Animals

‘Guerrilla’ was my entry point to the Super Furry Animals. At the time, I found it a fascinating record. It was made, intentionally, to mix as many musical ideas together as the band could come up with. This, perhaps inevitably, is both its charm and its curse. It’s a hugely enjoyable album, but a difficult one to pin down.

Running through the album are some fairly mainstream-style tracks. The three singles – ‘Northern Lites’, ‘Do Or Die’ and ‘Fire In My Heart’ are all a pleasure to hear. ‘Northern Lites’ in particular manages to be a good mix of the accessible and the quirky. ‘The Turning Tide’, ‘Night Vision’ and ‘The Teacher’ would have been comfortable fits on previous Super Furry Animals records. Beyond these, the album strikes out in a variety of directions, some of which are more successful than others. ‘Something Comes From Nothing’ is pleasingly hypnotic, and ‘The Door To This House Remains Open’ is well constructed. ‘Wherever I Lay My Phone’ hasn’t stood the test of time ever so brilliantly – a song based around a late 90s mobile ringtone was unlikely to date well. Still, it’s a good indication that the band were willing to give anything a try, and that’s to be admired.

Notably, the band hid a secret track at the beginning of the album. ‘Citizen’s Band’ could only be heard by rewinding the CD from the start of track 1, and doubtless lots of listeners would have missed it altogether. A shame – it’s a classic.

‘Fuzzy Logic’ by Super Furry Animals

Released in 1996 at the height of the Britpop era, the triumph of ‘Fuzzy Logic’ is that it still sounds fresh now. As a debut album, it contains the odd misfire, but on the whole, this album holds up really well fourteen years on.

‘God! Show Me Magic’ is a blisteringly energetic beginning, the beginning of a vein which runs through tracks like ‘Frisbee’ and ‘Bad Behaviour’. Better still, though, are the mid-tempo tracks – ‘Fuzzy Birds’, ‘Hometown Unicorn’, ‘If You Don’t Want Me To Destroy You’, ‘Mario Man’ – which allow the bands harmonies to shine through, as though band are creating a Californian corner of Wales. Other notable points include the circular and evocative ‘Gathering Moss’, the gentle ambient ‘Long Gone’, and extraordinarily confident ‘For Now And Ever’, a track which shows the band had no reservations about creating anthems, even at such an early stage in their career. A very fine listen indeed.