Super Furry Animals -Dark Days/Light Years

Fri 12th Jun, 2009 in Music Reviews

As far as bands go, Super Furry Animals haven’t been particularly faithful. Since their previous album the members have been spreading their musical seed far and wide with projects ranging from the electro-tinged Neon Neon, the techno-themed Acid Casuals and the actor-musician transition facilitating The Peth and also spent some ‘me time’ on solo projects.

It is no surprise then that DarkDays/Light Years, the ninth album from the Welsh lads, is an eclectic album touching many musical tones. The various detours have been allowed to be steered back onto the SFA highway, although road blocks have been placed across the ‘Country’ and ‘Jazz’ exits in the form of banning the use of lap steel guitar and saxophones for this album.

The songs were also written collaboratively between all band members, meaning not one single style dominates. Guitarist Huw Bunford lends his voice to two tracks while keyboardist Cian Ciaran contributes lead vocals to three songs, adding even more diversity to the twelve tracks herein.

Kicking things off is a dingy, dark and skuzzy number Crazy Naked Girls, which would be quite aptly enjoyed in the surroundings of such things, but in ticking in at more than six minutes, may test the depth of the pole-trick repertoire and aerobic capacity of your every-day stripper.

Mt sees the ‘Furries take some stoner liberties with Mt Everest conqueror George Mallory’s famous response regarding climbing the world’s biggest summit – “Because its there”—which becomes “I wasn’t looking for a mountain/ there was the mountain/it was a big fucking mountain/so I climbed the mountain”.

From this lofty height, the album veers into wobbly-electro territory with Moped Eyes before scaling back up to spectacular heights with the public-transport praising single Inaugural Trams, which should be lauded for not only the cracking initiation of the word ‘inaugural’ to the world of popular songwriting, but also for allowing the listener the opportunity to learn to count in German.

Things get a bit platform-heeled stomping glam and glitter on Inconvenience, which certainly isn’t one, and we are then lulled into a sprawling musical ode to a sunny day in the band’s hometown of Cardiff.

They’ve even quite fantastically named a track The Very Best of Neil Diamond. Good Lord! An ode to the contribution of Europeans to foot-wear faux pas is explored on the futuristic disco-strut of White Socks/Flip Flops before the band pose the question Where Do you Want to Go?.

If your answer was Wales, then you’re in luck as the next song Lliwiau Llachar (or Intensely Bright Colours to save you a trip to Google) is sung in the band’s native tongue. Instead of the reassuring nurse’s phrase “Just a small prick then you’re all done” the ‘Furries instead give us a nine minute-fifty two second Pric, and then we’re all done having experienced the dark and light and many vivid shades in between.

Dark Days/Light Years is now available through Rough Trade