dotmusic - reviews - albums - 'Phantom Power': "Super Furry Animals
'PHANTOM POWER'













Released on Mon 21 Jul 2003
Label : Sony
Super Furry Animals artist area
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It's absurd, but Super Furry Animals have long been regarded as something of a novelty act. A superior novelty act, maybe, but - despite having five albums under their belt - one not properly deserving of admission to the pantheon of British Rock Greats.

Maybe it's their fluffy name, or the fact that they're unashamedly fond of weed; perhaps it's their championing of Howard Marks or the fact they once bought a tank to drive around festival sites, blasting out techno at The Kids. It might even be - although one hopes not - the perceived 'strangeness' of their individual names. Whatever. 'Phantom Power' is proof that it's time for SFA to be recognised as one of this country's finest pop bands.

Their sixth album is a dreamy, sun-dappled delight, blending pastoral folk, psychedelia, free-wheeling, West Coast Americana and orchestral pop with such apparent effortlessness that its darker lyrical themes - the workings of sinister, invisible forces and the destruction wrought by war - are uncovered only by careful listening.

It's a sweet and heartfelt, politically impassioned record, but never once mawkish (SFA couldn't do cheesy if they moved to the Cheddar Gorge and changed their name to Fondue) or hectoring. Gruff Rhys's idiosyncratic lyrical imagery is a delight, all the more so because lines like 'Stop, said the puppy, when I met him at the zebra cross' (in the hammering 'Golden Retriever') and 'she came in smelling of cabbages' (on the fragile 'Cityscape Skybaby') surface as if from the fug of a dream.

The frequent post-techno eruptions of 'Rings Around The World' are here as faint traces only, most notably the Orbital-like intro to 'Slow Life'. Lachrymose, pedal-steel guitar washes throughout, while a steel drum rings, trumpets are muted and strings soar. One of the album's many charms is that it races away from you the very moment you think you have it pinned down: 'Liberty Belle' is like a sun-struck Supergrass tackling 'Twist & Shout'; 'Out Of Control' flashesSFA's love of punk; 'Valet Parking' (complete with revving, mic'd up cars) blends bossa nova and the breezy funk of Steely Dan; and the sublime 'Piccolo Snare' recalls Simon & Garfunkel's 'Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme'before then swerving off into trippy rock and Balearic modes.

'In honesty,' sings Rhys touchingly on 'Hello Sunshine', 'it's been a while since we had reason left to smile.' 'Phantom Power' has just provided the perfect excuse for us."