Fuzzy Logic (1996)

The world’s proper introduction to the Super Furry Animals remains their most purely guitar-orientated effort. An artful collision of catchy late ‘60s and early ‘70s guitar-pop with more subversive elements of punk, folk and psychedelia – equal parts Syd Barrett and Beach Boys – Fuzzy Logic fizzed with creative energy without even hinting at the techno tendencies that lay ahead. Inspired by a scrapbook of cultural icons beloved by the band, Fuzzy Logic featured lyrical references to weather girls, UFOs, Howard Marks, stand-up comedians, Isaac Newton, Super Mario and their pet hamster Stavros.

The way the Furries flitted between speedy surf-pop-punk, on the likes of ‘God! Show Me Magic’ and ‘Bad Behaviour’, and existential psychedelia on ‘Gathering Moss’ and ‘Long Gone’ is a marvel to behold, putting them well ahead of their more established contemporaries. But it was the sound of a band only just hitting their stride – much weirder and more wonderful stuff was yet to come. Tellingly, the band themselves soon came to regard the album as a missed opportunity. However, in a year dominated by jingoistic flag-waving and lumpen, post-Morning Glory dadrock, Fuzzy Logic was the debut album of 1996, and a timely reminder that the greatest indie music comes from the sidelines. (8/10) (LISTEN)

Singles: ‘Hometown Unicorn’, ‘God! Show Me Magic’, ‘Something 4 The Weekend’, ‘If You Don’t Want Me To Destroy You’

Radiator (1997)

Arriving just 15 months after their debut, Radiator managed to both double down on the musical and cultural mayhem of Fuzzy Logic and expand their sound, building in elements of the madcap techno that had been their original mission statement back in 1993. Conceived of as a euphoric, multi-coloured reaction to their debut, which they regretted had played it too safe, it was an evolution of their ‘soundsystem’ ethos that had been hinted at with ‘The Man Don’t Give A Fuck’ single the previous year, cramming experimental sounds and techniques into accessible pop structures and timeframes.

In lesser hands, such methods would have led to a mess, a brain-dump of ideas, but what made Radiator a triumph was that it contained the band’s strongest and most vibrant songs to date. Their electronic tendencies blended seamlessly into retro/futurist gems like ‘The International Language Of Screaming’, ‘Hermann ♥’s Pauline’ and ‘The Placid Casual’. Other tracks like the beautiful ballad ‘Demons’, the heartbroken ‘Download’ or the gonzo-punk of ‘Chupacabras’ see the Furries play it with a straighter bat. Gruff Rhys’ songwriting was consistently inventive, and this was matched by the musical ideas his band was coming up with. Melodies and counter-melodies intertwine, brightened with dense, detailed production quality and pieced together with an expert eye, making for a swirling, kaleidoscopic experience. Most spectacular of all is the pastoral indie-folk of closer ‘Mountain People’, which explodes into a firestorm of techno effects courtesy of Cian Ciaran’s wizardry.

The main difference from Fuzzy Logic was its sense of adventure, and the advantage they took of the expanded arsenal of instruments and equipment at their disposal in the studio this time around. Radiator is still an utter joy to listen to, revealing new treasures and instances of clever wordplay nearly two decades and countless dozens of plays later, with Ciaran’s complex digital sequences offering great depth. With no weak point and several stunning highlights that demonstrate the utter uniqueness of SFA, it’s one of three records that could conceivably be called their best – that there are so many contenders is testament to their brilliance. (9/10) (LISTEN)

Singles: ‘Hermann ♥’s Pauline’, ‘The International Language Of Screaming’, ‘Play It Cool’, ‘Demons’

Out Spaced (1998)

A collection of B-sides released to house the stand-alone single ‘The Man Don’t Give A Fuck’ from two years before, Out Spaced was a way of drawing a line under the first phase of their career. Containing material dating back to 1994 – the mellow electronica of ‘Dim Brys Dim Chwys’ being the earliest – it contained more than enough strong material to justify a stand-alone release. Essentially acting as a spillover vessel for songs that couldn’t be fitted on to Fuzzy Logic and Radiator, as did the four-track Ice Hockey Hair EP earlier in 1998, the tracks here share the same spirit of experimentation as those two albums, encapsulated by the bonkers ‘Blerwytirhwng?’ that contained more than five minutes of looped sci-fi samples. (7/10) (LISTEN)

Singles: ‘The Man Don’t Give A Fuck’ (released in December 1996)

Guerrilla (1999)

In what would turn out to be the Furries’ final album on Creation Records, the band expanded their sound even further. Produced by the band themselves for the first time and with the use of a sampler at their disposal, Rhys and his bandmates set out to create an accessible, 45-minute commercial pop record, Guerrilla was a futuristic record embracing the possibilities of new technology, mass communication and internationalism, inspired by the internet, Rhys’ new mobile phone and sessions watching the 1998 World Cup finals. SFA were simply brimming over with ideas at this point, but one gets the feeling that a decision was made to focus that into something more conventional.

Fronted by the group’s highest charting single ‘Northern Lites’ (UK #11), a calypso-flavoured love song inspired by the El Nino weather system, Rhys’ songwriting had become even sharper, but this time around each idea was explored fully on an individual track, as opposed to the more schizophrenic approach of Radiator. The tropical, languid drum ‘n’ bass of ‘The Door To This House Remains Open’ and the lonely, mysterious electronica of ‘Some Things Come From Nothing’ are more open and expansive than anything they’d done before. The incredible torch song ‘Fire In My Heart’, the delirious Beatles-esque stomp of ‘Keep The Cosmic Trigger Happy’ and the sleek surf-pop of ‘Do Or Die’ were more straightforwardly constructed but no less inventive.

In typical Furries fashion, they played around with the album format on Guerrilla by including the song ‘Citizen’s Band’ as ‘track zero’, found by rewinding the CD backwards from the start. This hidden gem is one of the highlights of their discography. The messiest blowout on the album is the incredible ‘Wherever I Lay My Phone (That’s My Phone)’, which sampled and looped interference sounds and Nokia mobile phone sound effects. Guerrilla is an adventure playground of an album, with no track being even remotely similar to any other musically, but all are of a piece thematically in the spirit of freewheeling experimentation, it was their second consecutive masterpiece. (9/10) (LISTEN)

Singles: ‘Northern Lites’, ‘Fire In My Heart’, ‘Do Or Die’

Mwng (2000)

SFA’s fourth studio album in a little under five years showed no sign of breaking their hot streak of creativity, but they were thrown a curveball when their record label Creation went out of business at the end of 1999. Forced to set up their own label Placid Casual, buy their forthcoming album for £6,000 and become their own managers, the fact that Mwng came out at all was impressive. But given that it was sung entirely in Welsh and hit #11 in the UK charts was quite astonishing. Given the Furries’ previous decision to eschew singing in Welsh, this return to their native tongue was not some political statement nationalistic feeling but instead signalled the group’s quixotic attitude to globalisation. Having travelled around the world with Radiator and Guerrilla, this was the sound of a band coming home, but just for the holidays.

This language factor makes Mwng completely inaccessible on the surface, but given repeated listens it becomes another discography highlight. Combining an all-Welsh album with the kind of wall-to-wall experimentation that had characterised their last two albums might have proved too difficult for their fanbase, so it’s fortunate they chose to make an album of stripped back, melodic yet noticeably downbeat pop. Recorded quickly in just 10 days with a consciously lo-fi feel, the band having gone on ‘pop strike’ with the comparative underperformance of Guerrilla and its singles, its themes include disused Roman roads in Wales (‘Sarn Helen’), changeable weather, war and destruction, and the death of rural communities. The production is bare and wintry, but this just gives more space for the inner beauty of the songs to radiate through. ‘Ymaelodi Â’r Ymylon’ is the very best example, indebted to the lush pop of Love, ‘70s Beach Boys and Ennio Morricone soundtracks. Given a deluxe re-issue in 2015 upon the Furries’ reformation, Mwng is a firm favourite with hardcore fans. (8/10) (LISTEN)

Singles: ‘Ysbeidiau Heulog’

Rings Around The World (2001)

SFA’s persistence and ingenuity in the face of disaster with Mwng was rewarded by a contract with major label Epic, a division of Sony that had bought the rights to the defunct Creation’s catalogue. Fearing compromise of their artistry, the Furries resolutely defended the degree of control to which they’d become accustomed at Creation – incredibly, given the lavish PR stunts with which they’d become associated (see Ric Rawlins’ book…), Epic trusted them with it. Rings Around The World, the world’s first ever DVD album, for which a video was commissioned for every one of its 13 tracks, was the result: another embarrassment of riches.

Their experimental bent and keen sense of melody were streamlined and economised to make something both artistically and commercially ambitious. Continuing with the themes of mass communication and globalisation from Guerrilla, the band were perfectly placed to soundtrack a new society where mobile phones were common – the double entendre of the Beach Boys-esque ‘(Drawing) Rings Around The World’ being the most effective. The four-part album centrepiece ‘Receptacle For The Respectable’ has a good shout of being the best song the Furries have ever written, a part-indie pop, part-torch ballad, part-death metal extravaganza that features Paul McCartney chewing celery and typically brilliant lyrics like “subtle as a nail bomb in the head / you came to me in peace and left me in pieces”.

Musically, the group had a major label budget and resources at their disposal for the first time, and weren’t about to let the opportunity go to waste, the results of which you can hear on the spectacular techno meltdown of ‘No Sympathy’ or the chasms of bass on ‘(A) Touch Sensitive’ or the distorted, mellifluous pop of opener ‘Alternate Route To Vulcan Street’. Elsewhere, they kept things uncluttered for the sultry ‘Juxtapozed With U’, the harmonics of ‘It’s Not The End Of The World?’ and the spectacular country-influenced ‘Run! Christian, Run!’

This was the Furries in surround sound, their grandest statement yet, but that sense of connection with their fans remained intact as the group rolled out ‘Furrymania’ to promote Rings Around The World, a series of weekend events in various cities that included club nights, cinema screenings and ambitious audio-visual gigs. Bagging them their first (and so far only) Mercury Music Prize nomination, the album put their stock at an all-time high, and it remains one of the most eccentric and distinctive pop visions of millennium so far. (9/10) (LISTEN)

Singles: ‘Juxtapozed With U’, ‘(Drawing) Rings Around The World’, ‘It’s Not The End Of The World?’

Phantom Power (2003)

Phantom Power, group’s sixth studio record in ten years, saw them step behind the production desk themselves for the second time, albeit with assistance from regular collaborator Gorwel Owen. Like its predecessor, it was co-released as a DVD and a passable remix album, Phantom Phorce, was commissioned. The full arsenal of Furry styles and instruments was on display yet again, from lap-steel guitar to sequencer, though many tracks were based around the acoustic guitar, giving everything a mellow, clean-sounding quality. Gorgeous opener ‘Hello Sunshine’, the hopelessly forlorn ‘Bleed Forever’ and the country blues of ‘Sex, War & Robots’ typified the overarching style of the record, though there were plenty of gonzo moments like ‘The Piccolo Snare’ and ‘The Undefeated’, the latter containing some actual machine guns being fired!

Phantom Power is a lovely record, and it certainly houses some of their best songs – the sci-fi techno trip-out ‘Slow Life’ being the very best – but it suffers slightly from overfamiliarity in places. The summery vibe serves to mask a handful of tracks that represent the band treading water – the glam stomp of ‘Golden Retriever’ and ‘Out Of Control’ being played rather too conservatively for all their raucous noise-making, and ‘Cityscape Skybaby’ was the kind of thing they had simply done better elsewhere before. It was hardly a critical flaw, with more than enough quality to keep fans pleased and their profile up, with the band’s live set-up probably the most mind-bogglingly fun it had ever been – anybody who remembers their UK tour in autumn 2003 will testify to this! (7/10) (LISTEN)

Singles: ‘Golden Retriever’, ‘Hello Sunshine’, ‘Slow Life’

Love Kraft (2005)

In 2004, SFA drew a line under the first decade of their career with the ace singles compilation Songbook and decided to move in a slightly different direction with their next album, wanting to make something more musically cohesive than the all-out experimentation techniques had yielded in the past. Recorded in the small Catalonian city of Figueres, Love Kraft was another summery record but was noticeably slower and more mature than anything they’d done before. Their trademark humour was played down in favour of resplendent melodies and harmonies indebted to classic Fleetwood Mac, ‘70s Beach Boys, and all the band members contributed songs and lead vocals, not just Gruff Rhys.

This pays off brilliantly in the opening half of the record, with sumptuous indulgences in the shape of ‘Zoom!’, ‘Ohio Heat’ and ‘Atomik Lust’ that are worth the admission price alone. However, it petered out slightly towards the end, with the entirely forgettable ‘Cloudberries’ being particularly disappointing. However impressive Love Kraft was in places, it clearly lacked anything in the way of a single, something that all their previous albums except Mwng had been able to boast in spades. Sony’s merger with BMG hadn’t helped, removing SFA’s allies within Epic, and the knives were out for this misfit band on their roster. They released the appalling ‘Lazer Beam’, an attempt at a sort of string-laden rap singalong that fell flat on its arse, and refused to commission any more music videos and didn’t promote it properly. The album underperformed in the national charts, hitting a lowly #19, and it represented the end of SFA’s major label era as they were soon dropped. (7/10) (LISTEN)

Singles: ‘Lazer Beam’

Hey Venus! (2007)

Finding a home with the revived indie imprint Rough Trade after suffering rejection from the big leagues, SFA changed tack again, moving away from the sometimes excessive arrangements of Love Kraft to make something much more straightforward, with 11 songs taking up under 36 minutes. It also represented another parting of ways, this time from graphic designer Pete Fowler, who had created all of the band’s memorable front covers and stage designs dating back to Radiator. Rough Trade had requested a ‘rowdy pop’ like the ones they used to make, and the Furries met them halfway – Hey Venus! is a direct pop record, but it most definitely isn’t rowdy.

After a lethal one-two-three combo of great singles, in the form of the Phil Spector-esque ‘Run-Away’, the Neil Diamond / Beach Boys influenced ‘Show Your Hand’ and the stunning harmonies of ‘The Gift That Keeps Giving’, the Furries blow their load rather early on, and the rest of Hey Venus! is conspicuous in its lack of inspired material. The over-repetitive ‘Baby Ate My Eightball’, ‘Neo-Consumer’ and ‘Suckers!’ are the worst offenders, sounding terribly phoned-in, and the sultry ‘Into The Night’ or Burt Bacharach homage ‘Let The Wolves Howl At The Moon’ can’t really disguise this inconsistency – something that no previous SFA record could ever have been accused of. Not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely the least forward-thinking record in their catalogue. (6/10) (LISTEN)

Singles: ‘Show Your Hand’, ‘Run-Away’, ‘The Gift That Keeps Giving’

Dark Days / Light Years (2009)

Before they mothballed the group in order to pursue solo careers, SFA pulled out the stops once more to remind everybody of their capabilities. The reason why Dark Days / Light Years was such a success was that it felt like a collision of the old and the new, taking the mature, mellower SFA sound of Love Kraft and Hey Venus! and applying the more adventurous song structures of the Creation years. This produced some of their most impressive psychedelic blowouts to date, such as sprawling closer ‘Pric’ and shimmering centrepiece ‘Cardiff In The Sun’, as well as the slightly questionable ’70s sleaze rock homage of ‘Crazy Naked Girls’. Shorter but no less experimental nuggets come in the shape of glam-stomper ‘Inconvenience’ and the Kraftwerk-tinged euphoria of ‘Inaugural Trams’.

A song called ‘The Very Best Of Neil Diamond’ says it all, built around an infuriatingly catchy hook that exudes menace and fun in equal measure. This album was the sound of five people taking stock of their careers and exploring their influences, getting together in a room, jamming and having loads of fun, but with none of the laurel-resting or aimless noodling that such an approach implies. Sadly, the wider public didn’t get to hear too much of DD/LY, as their potential for commercial radio exposure had long since passed, plus the band decided not to tour the record in any conventional sense, playing a very select handful of festivals. As a result, it’s something of a fan favourite only, but proof that SFA’s powers had not diminished since their formation 15 years before. (8/10) (LISTEN)

Singles: ‘Inaugural Trams’