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Regrettable Juvenilia

09:52 / 12.10.01

Rings Around The World!

Sleeper album of the year. The Super Furry Animals have outdone themselves. I will comment more in the moaning.

09:52 / 12.10.01

quote:I will comment more in the moaning

Heh, heh, heh.

09:52 / 12.10.01

"I've got some feelings that i can't get through, without resorting to a Military Coup..."

Post 9/11 the Album has seemed, if not prophetic, then ultra-contemporary, especially Presidential Suite, Run Christian Run, No Sympathy...
The Furries are a little pack of Welsh geniuses... Rings and Guerilla are currently neck and neck in my favourite album stakes.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:52 / 12.10.01

It's really grown on me. And you're right about it's relevance.

I love the way that the aggressive revenge-fantasy 'No Sympathy' is followed by 'Juxtaposed With U':

"It's easy when you know how
To get along without biff! bam! pow!
...
You've got to tolerate, all of those people that you hate..."

Pacifist futurist concept album?

Also, going back, the first half is just pure class. 'Sidewalk Serfer Girl' (sic), with the quiet strumming and vocal and then DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH! DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH! 'Rings Around The World', unbelievably catchy, one big chorus, Status Quo guitars, Beach Boys melodies, great opening line, "You expose the film in me...", descent into nonsense at the end. 'It's Not The End Of The World?', relevance again, maybe... 'Receptacle For The Respectable' that goes from catchy and hummable to mellow and lazy to terrifying shouting... The porny '(A) Touch Sensitive'...

I've seen some of the DVD stuff as well - varies in quality but the animated stuff is great.

10:46 / 12.10.01

I didn't buy this album due to money concerns and poor reviews..

Love 'Sidewalk Surfer Girl' and 'Juxtaposed' but the other tracks I heard were a little .. uninteresting..

You'll convince me to get it if you rant enough though.

16:09 / 12.10.01

Yeah, I remember having a spat with E Randy about this just after the album came out - he didn't like it, and I did. (where is E, by the way?)

Having just seen them live, it is incredible just how prophetic a lot of the album seems - especially with the DVD visuals they were using.

Explosions on 'It's not the end of the world', US missiles on Presidential Suite - and a fucking helicopter hitting a skyscraper at the end of Juxtaposed With U! A little chillingly coincidental, nest-ce-pas?

Oh, and it's not on Rings Around the World, but they looped a Bill Hicks sample - 'All Governments are Liars and murderers - on 'The Man Don't Give A Fuck.'

'No Sympathy' is absolutely brilliant - it starts off with you thinking you know what's going on, and ends with a whole barrage of mad techno noises and weird bleeps. Best song of the year.

In fact, and I'm not just saying this because I live in Wales, I think they are one of the best bands in Britain today. Doncha love hyperbole?

And how do they do that Kung Fu drum sound at the start of A Touch Sensitive? I wanna know.....

16:23 / 12.10.01

I wonder if it's out in the States yet...didn't see it in the record store today.

By what's been posted so far, I wonder if it'll get banned here! (

Kidding...I hope)

16:53 / 12.10.01

NMA - regular Internet access doesn't currently exist in my life.

I'm still unconvinced by 'Rings...'. My main problem with the album is that when I try to listen to it, my attention drifts elsewhere and it just fades away into the background. Not something I ever imagined I'd be saying about an SFA album.

'It's Not The End Of The World' is great, though.

17:13 / 15.10.01

BBC Wales interview with SFA

You know, I really like this piece.

It's got some great stuff in it -

SFA against the war:

In 1999, singer Gruff Rhys - who has scuttled about the dressing room but declined to sit - branded Prime Minister Tony Blair a "war criminal" and a "mass murderer" over NATO bombings in the former Yugoslavia.

It is something the band re-iterate as new strikes take place on terrorist targets in Afghanistan.

Adds Ieuan: "America and Britain have bombed Iraq daily and nobody seems to say anything about that.

"What happened in New York was tragic - I had friends there and I didn't know if they were alive.

"I get the feeling they are bombing it to appease public opinion back home. It scares me."

and for Napster:

Even controversial internet music software Napster is warmly welcomed as "superb."

"Our last four albums were hardly available in mainland Europe and South America - they're better free than not at all," adds Ieuan.

plus a review here very similar in parts to my feelings on their Liverpool gig.

[off topic] NMA? God, everyone'll think I like New Model Army now...

[ 15-10-2001: Message edited by: Not Me Again ]

19:51 / 15.10.01

its good to see them returning to more commercial fare after their welsh language album.

20:09 / 15.10.01

Well, I kind of liked Mwng. I guess the fact i couldn't understand the lyrics did take the edge of it, but it adds to the album's dreamlike quality...
Guerilla was for a long time my fave. The sheer energy and madness. Rings around the World has it too, mixing Bacharach with ultra-modern references and making it work. Apparently ROTW was originally going to be called 'Text Messaging is killing the pub quiz as we know it'...

20:36 / 15.10.01

Yeah, I just saw them live. Pretty good, though the backdrop-video to Run Christian Run was fucking insulting. And shot itself in the foot at one point.

But No Sympathy, Juxtaposed are wonderful tracks - No Sympathy live was incredible.

10:53 / 16.10.01

quote:Originally posted by Impending Democracy:
Apparently ROTW was originally going to be called 'Text Messaging is killing the pub quiz as we know it'...

That one phrase just so brilliantly sums up the whole super Furries thing doesn't it..