Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Yann Tiersen - ALL 2 days ago
  • DiScover: IYEARA 3 days ago
  • Two’s Company: Asta Bria & John Metcalfe @ The Playground Theatre 3 days ago
  • Methyl Ethel - Triage 3 days ago
  • “Music as a personal outlet really isn’t all that interesting”: DiS Meets Lewsberg 4 days ago
  • Panda Bear - Buoys 4 days ago
  • Mercury Rev - Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete Revisited 5 days ago
  • TBC: Sign Of The (Stage) Times 5 days ago
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

Super Furry Animals

Rings Around The World

Label: Epic Records Release Date: 23/07/2001

ransell by Rachelle Ansell June 4th, 2001

Now I’m afraid that this will be a slightly biased review. Super Furry Animals could release an album with the magnified sound of a cheese melting and reforming in an interesting fashion and I’d love it. If they went and recorded the sound of paint drying to plonk in their tracks I would still go googly-eyed over the result, they could EVEN record an ex-Beatle munching celery…oh, they have already.

Time to go googly-eyed then.

After the pared down blip that was Mwng SFA have rounded up the contents of their instrument arsenal and scraped together the funds for a string section. The result, at times, makes them sound as though they had parked themselves in the London Palladium to put on a full blown, all singing, all dancing, hats, canes and silly headresses musical. Shoot Doris Day has the sort of cinematic, Hollywood sound that features in any heart-strings-pulling story from Lassie Come Home to Annie to Pearl Harbor. You could actually tap dance to the album’s opener, Alternate Route to Vulcan Street and I defy anyone not to take their partner for a waltz around their living room on Presidential Suite. Gruff Rhys doesn’t sing for quite a bit of this album, he doesn’t scream, squeal or sound like a strangled cat either. He croons and warbles, with the exeption of (Drawing) Rings Around The World which is the sound of the Beach Boys and Status Quo driving in a pop mobile whilst playing with their mobile phones and the end bit of Receptable for The Receptacle which is as vocally near to Slipknot as SFA are likely to get.

Of course there is crooning and there’s crooning. The forthcoming single Juxtaposed With U (released 9th July) is more Marvin Gaye with Bond film strings than Burt Baccharach, Presidential Suite is more on the tin pan alley than Frank Sinatra and Run! Christian! Run! is more country/ folk than Fred Astaire.

However is any of you are looking for Guerrilla mark II you’ll be disapointed. The lyrics are no longer jokey and good natured, but rather bitter and fed up with the world and its contents to a certain extent. Musically SFA’s sound is fuller and more melodic. Dare I say it, it could even make it onto radio 2….which can only be a good thing for radio 2.

  • 9
    Rachelle Ansell's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Yann Tiersen

    ALL


  • DiScover: IYEARA


  • Two’s Company: Asta Bria & John Metcalfe @ The Playground Theatre


  • Methyl Ethel

    Triage


  • “Music as a personal outlet really isn’t all that interesting”: DiS Meets Lewsberg


  • Panda Bear

    Buoys



Left-arrow

Phil Doleman

Match of the Day EP

Mobback

The Vines at Camden Electric Ballroom, Camden, Thu 19 Feb

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    review


    Yann Tiersen - ALL

  • 106053
  • Interview


    DiScover: IYEARA

  • 106046

    Live Review


    Two’s Company: Asta Bria & John Metcalfe @ ...

  • 106052
  • review


    Methyl Ethel - Triage

  • 106051

    Interview


    “Music as a personal outlet really isn’t all th...

  • 106049
  • review


    Panda Bear - Buoys

  • 106048

    review


    Mercury Rev - Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete ...

  • 106047
  • Column


    TBC: Sign Of The (Stage) Times

  • 106045
MORE


    Albums of the Year


    The ‘Official’ Drowned in Sound.com Top 41 Albu...

  • 1725
  • feature


    (This Is) The Dream Of Jimmy and Ben: 10 years ...

  • 93514

    Interview


    "I don’t mind connecting with as many people as...

  • 98457
  • feature


    Another band dies at the discotheque: DiS remem...

  • 20732

    feature


    DiS meets Deftones

  • 17401
  • Interview


    Billy Corgan: "I have a problem with the way po...

  • 98775

    DiScover


    DiScover: My Brightest Diamond

  • 38509
  • news


    DiS curates the #IndependentMusicMonday Playlist

  • 101788
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2019 DROWNED IN SOUND