I know the new Super Furry Animals album leaked a few weeks ago, but I didn’t rush out and get me a dodgy copy. I don’t do file sharing, and I couldn’t really find it anywhere else. There were some blogs with tracks, but I left off listening till yesterday when I got some tracks sent to me. All three of them were great, so I spent some quality time streaming more of Hey Venus! on the Hype Machine. It’s as good as I’d have hoped for.
In short, Super Furries are one of my favourite bands of all time. They’re possibly my top live band ever, and I’ve seen them more times than I care to remember. They were one of the things that Mrs Growl and I bonded over, way back in the day, and we go to see them pretty much every time they’re in town. Though with the Baby Growl around now, that’s going to take a bit more organising.
All their albums are good. Some of course are better than others, and it remains to be seen where Hey Venus! will sit within the SFA canon of greatness, but so far the signs are good. It seems to be a more stripped down affair than the previous albums, with less emphasis on electronic trickery and more on just the pure, simple great songs that always lie at the Furry heart of things. This back-to-basics approach is going to be also evident on stage this time around – none of the fancy video screens and surround sound of yore. “We’re going through a Willie Nelson tax period” explained Gruff Rhys in an interview in this week’s Sunday Times. But that shouldn’t matter. With Rhys and co, it’s always about the songs.
Here are a couple of them to whet your appetite if you too have failed to grab the many tracks currently resident in cyberspace. But they’re coming to CD and vinyl near you soon anyway. I can’t wait for that, or for End of the Road Festival, or for The Roundhouse in November. Because even if the new album turns out to be less great than their best, it’ll still be streets ahead of so many more British bands. They’re a national treasure.
Download: Super Furry Animals – Into the Night
Download: Super Furry Animals – Run Away
Pre-order Hey Venus!
In short, Super Furries are one of my favourite bands of all time. They’re possibly my top live band ever, and I’ve seen them more times than I care to remember. They were one of the things that Mrs Growl and I bonded over, way back in the day, and we go to see them pretty much every time they’re in town. Though with the Baby Growl around now, that’s going to take a bit more organising.
All their albums are good. Some of course are better than others, and it remains to be seen where Hey Venus! will sit within the SFA canon of greatness, but so far the signs are good. It seems to be a more stripped down affair than the previous albums, with less emphasis on electronic trickery and more on just the pure, simple great songs that always lie at the Furry heart of things. This back-to-basics approach is going to be also evident on stage this time around – none of the fancy video screens and surround sound of yore. “We’re going through a Willie Nelson tax period” explained Gruff Rhys in an interview in this week’s Sunday Times. But that shouldn’t matter. With Rhys and co, it’s always about the songs.Here are a couple of them to whet your appetite if you too have failed to grab the many tracks currently resident in cyberspace. But they’re coming to CD and vinyl near you soon anyway. I can’t wait for that, or for End of the Road Festival, or for The Roundhouse in November. Because even if the new album turns out to be less great than their best, it’ll still be streets ahead of so many more British bands. They’re a national treasure.
Download: Super Furry Animals – Into the Night
Download: Super Furry Animals – Run Away
Pre-order Hey Venus!
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