Super Furry Animals
Fuzzy Logic
»
Super Furry Animals
Fuzzy Logic
Creation, 1996
RiYL: Blur, Supergrass, Olivia Tremor Control |
Super Furry Animals is a monster created from the bones and flesh of four Welsh groups. Lead singer/guitarist/songwriter Gruff Rhys spent his apprenticeship in a pop group called Emily, and also played with drummer Dafydd Ieuan in Ffa Coffi Pawb. Bassist Guto Pryce and guitarist Huw Bunford were mates in an outfit called U Thant, while tapehead Cian Ciaran was toiling away in WWZZ. They all met in the pubs in Cardiff and decided to mesh heads, the fruits quickly resulting in two stellar EPs, the impossibly named Llanfairpwllgywgyllgogerchwymdrobwlltysiliogoy-goyocynygofod (In Space) and Moog Droog. But after a huge deal was signed with Creation, the best was yet to come.
Fuzzy Logic is the first long-player from the pop supergroup, and it melds all that is good and inventive about pop music into an adrenalized (and lysergicized) 12-song trip. You've got hyper-pop workouts like the flaming opener "God! Show Me Magic" and live favorite "Bad Behaviour" that work just as well as calmer fantasies "Fuzzy Birds" (about Bunford's hamster, Stavros) and "Hometown Unicorn" (a happy alien abduction story).They even throw in a bleary ballad to laziness ("Gathering Moss") and a chart-storming love song to LSD ("Something 4 The Weekend") only to close with a pub-stomp singalong ("For Now And Ever").
The album is filled with infectious hooks, but that in itself shouldn't beenough to separate it from the pack. There is something about the way SFA twists the conventions of rock and pop that keeps you coming back for more. Maybe it's in the voice: Fuzzy Logic marks the first time Rhys had recorded songs in English, rather than his native Welsh, and by his own admission, he sings with about seven different accents on the album. Maybe it's the magical gestures of songcraft, like the unexpected "oo-oo-oo-oo" chorus tag on "Frisbee." Maybe it's the strange subject matter, like imagining one's self as the lead character of a Mario Bros. video game ("Mario Man"). Or the off-the-wall rhyme schemes, such as "Will you ever return me / Just like Frankie Fontaine," "Locked in a sorry dream / you know we're drowning in designer ice cream" or "Struggling in the vortex / with my jacket made of Gore-tex."
Maybe it's that the entire band is clearly talented and multi-skilled, and yet is able to come together in the collective support of these songs without getting in the way of each other's talents
It's probably a combination of all of those, and the originality level of SFA, which is always cranked to 11. In 1996, the same year Oasis' catchy, but dull retreads of classic pop rock were storming the airwaves to mark some sort of "british invasion," SFA was, with seemingly much less effort, creating perfect pop songs like "If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You." The tune, one of Fuzzy Logic's two lead singles, has the kind of chorus that not only melodically reels in first-time listeners, it also makes them think ("Gravity / it just pulls me down so quietly"). With a lovingly tendered string section and an unparalleled singalong coda, it's pretty astounding that this one didn't perk up silly American ears alongside "Today is gonna be the day that I'm gonna throw it back to you," whatever that means.
Anyway, Super Furry Animals would go on to hone their sound on subsequent releases like Radiator and stretch it out on 1999's Guerrilla, but their debut remains eerily relevant as a benchmark of pop creativity in the '90s. Originality, thy name is Furry.
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.