How anyone could not love Super Furry Animals is sometimes beyond me. Sure, not loving everything they’ve ever done, I can understand - they could be too eclectic for a lot of people, mixing techno and folk and glam rock and whatever else they fancy doing at any given time - but that eclectic nature is why I think that everyone should be able to embrace just one of their songs, take it home and want to cuddle with it every night.
Like every great band in history, they had a period where they couldn’t do any wrong - and they tried, even remixing tapes of Beatles rehearsal sessions into weird cut-up techno poetry that should’ve been unlistenable - but what was surprising was that it was such a long run. From 1997’s Radiator through 2003’s Phantom Power (That’s four albums, a compilation, an ep and some awesome B-Sides, if you’re counting), there really wasn’t a bad song in their discography. By the time that 2001’s Rings Around The World album managed to define the post-9/11 zeitgeist despite coming out before the attacks, it seemed as if they could do no wrong… which, of course, just meant that they’d disappoint so much more when they did.
There’s nothing actually wrong with their next three albums - Love Kraft, Hey! Venus and Dark Days/Light Years - but they’re just not as… I don’t know. Catchy? Immediate? Good? as what came before, and because of that, they somehow seem flawed and unfinished. I still bought them, of course, but in the same way that you half-assedly support something for the wrong reasons - Hoping for the old magic, but knowing that you’re going to be disappointed.
I’m going to institute a new rule for all bands I like, called “Quit while you’re ahead so that you can never disappoint me like all the rest.” Do you think it’ll catch on?
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Content © Graeme McMillan, 2008-2009.
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