8 July 2008 :: Listravahungover.

Record Review

Super Furry Animals

Songbook Volume 1 Comp
(XL; 2004)

Rating: 93%
Combined Rating: 91%

It’s no secret that the act of suffering for one’s art, or at least the illusion of same, can do wonders for instant credibility in rock and roll. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the United Kingdom, where broad based music tabloids like the NME seem to pick glamorous pariahs on a weekly basis. The recently disbanded Libertines were middling Clash imitators with a mere two records to their name, but that shouldn’t keep their crappy swan song from achieving legendary status should junkie-du-jour Pete Doherty keel over tomorrow. At least Ian Curtis and Richey Edwards could both have claimed to be legitimately disturbed.

The circumstances needn’t always be as fatal. The man on the street will tell you that the two most seminal bands of '90s Britpop were Blur and Radiohead --- something which I’d argue has as much to do with their much publicized hand wringing as it does the uniform quality of their catalog. Of Blur’s seven full length albums in thirteen years, the only one I’d classify as less than excellent is Leisure, but would they be as popular were it not for Graham Coxon’s well documented alcoholism, Damon Albarn’s ego/linkage to Elastica’s Justine Frischmann, and the notorious Oasis battle of ’95? Would Radiohead releases be met with as much fanfare if they simply hit the shelves, as opposed to being accompanied by much wailing about the tyrannies of fame and the grossly unrealistic expectations of a rabid fanbase?

Unless I’ve been missing something over the past eight years, the biggest blow to the popularity of Welsh pop wunderkinds Super Furry Animals (their impossible to pronounce Welsh names notwithstanding) is that they seemingly haven’t suffered whatsoever; stumbling on the unique idea that being in a British rock band is arguably the greatest job in the world, and they should just kick back and savor their fortune because their next record could suck. But judging from the astounding quality of Songbook’s 21 tracks, I’d say that isn’t bloody likely. While they don’t cause as nearly as big a stink in the tabloids as their rowdier brethren; Songbook should put to rest any arguments that Super Furry Animals were the best British singles band of the latter half of the '90s and beyond.

This is hardly to say that the band doesn’t make good albums; rather, they just somehow manage to do it without breaking a sweat. Mercilessly spitting in the face of Nasir Jones’ "one hot album every ten year" average, SFA have actually accomplished the impressive feat of releasing six critically acclaimed full length discs in a mere eight years --- leading our esteemed EIC to once portray their output as “so predictably great that [it's] starting to be just taken for granted.” Fans and critics alike have become so accustomed to waiting an eternity between most albums that when a band has the nerve to be prolific (within the realm of quality control, that is), the masses aren’t quite sure how to react. I can’t help but think that personal favorite Phantom Power would have made a bigger splash had it been released three years after 2001’s Rings Around the World as opposed to a little less than two, but this is the epitome of a healthy problem. Practically each Super Furry Animals record since 1999’s Guerilla has been suite-like in structure, containing a variety of instrumental pieces for purposes of flow and cohesion.

But the focus of Songbook is on their singles, in addition to a handful of non-album essentials (e.g. the epic “Ice Hockey Hair” being rescued from its parent UK-only EP). And such singles they are. While pinning down the sound of Super Furry Animals is a bit of a thankless task; call them a psychedelic folk-pop band with an equal love of feedback and laptop beats and you’re off to a decent start. Maybe even a little like the sadly defunct Beta Band in their approach to densely layered production and frequent use of electronics, but far more prolific, and considerably less surly.

Songbook isn’t sequenced chronologically, and such is the eclectic nature of this band that no single running order could make much sense; their most tender power ballad (“Fire in My Heart”) is sandwiched between a seven-minute laptop epic (“Slow Life”) and a balls out rocker featuring a sample of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen reduced to dropping an endless stream of F-bombs (“The Man Don’t Give a Fuck”). Performed live, the latter is usually preceded by a Bill Hicks rant, accompanied by footage of ruthless dictators, generally morphing into a twenty-minute plus house/IDM/breakbeat manifesto that continues long after the band has left the stage. (Like I could even begin to make that up.) The unabashed exuberance of tracks like “Something 4 the Weekend” and “Play it Cool” is very ELO, and apparently even Josh “Deathcab” Schwartz is a fan, as “Hello Sunshine” was clearly audible during one of the O.C.’s hotter Seth and Summer encounters from last season.

So yeah, you really do need to hear every song from every album, but I can’t imagine anyone purchasing Songbook Vol. 1 not doing exactly that after a few weeks of fervent listening. Then you can throw down for their stellar Under the Influence mix, frontman Gruff Rhys’s very good (UK only) recent solo record, an upcoming compilation of surprisingly excellent early material, and wouldn’t ‘cha know, a new record in May. In all likelihood it’s going to be an ass-kicking effort serving to enhance their already significant legacy, but the pessimist in me is just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Super Furry Animals absolutely deserve to be spoken of in the same breath as the so-called "important" British-pop bands of the last decade, and Songbook Vol. 1 goes a long way towards explaining why. Long may their cup continue to runneth over.

David M. Goldstein :: 9 February 2005 |                

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