I think it’s time we had some SFA magic on this thread. It’s a close call in terms of which album to go for. It could easily be Radiator or Rings Around the World, (which has an exquisite last four songs) or the mysterious, at times ancient sounding Welsh Language masterpiece -Mwng. For me though, Phantom Power just edges it as their most accomplished album. Released 20 years ago last month, it was their 6th album and contains a few of my favourite tracks by them. The trademark trippy artwork by Pete Fowler depicts a pair of horses on the cover, like noble gatekeepers of power, whilst on the inside is a resigned looking, about to collapse horse, not unlike the cover of the Beach Boys ‘Surf’s Up’ which is an obvious influence on their love of harmony and melody.
Gruff Rhys was quoted as saying that the band wanted to make a warmer, more human record after it’s predecessor Rings Around the World. Which, although an exceptionally good album, was partly about them impressing their new record company (Epic Records - owned by Sony) and trying to make an over the top, ambitious record, using all of the available technology at their disposal while they felt they still had the chance. Phantom Power was the first time the band had produced themselves. For this one, “we didn't really feel any pressure to show off, we just wanted to impress ourselves” said Gruff.
I find it hard to be objective about Super Furry Animals. I love them and have seen them live loads of times over the years. By the time this album was released, their former label mates Oasis had pursued their cliched rock and roll fantasies into a turgid, dead end. Meanwhile, this quirky band of Welsh lads (called Gruff, Huw, Guto, Cian and Dafydd) had caused a security scare by driving a tank past a police van down the A4 to the Eistedfodd Druidic festival; befriended Howard Marks who gave them the advice that the greatest human asset is enthusiasm; narrowly escaped the ire of drug cartel bosses in Bogota after been caught filming where they shouldn’t be AND released five brilliantly inventive, neo-psychedelic, political and at times mystical, harmony drenched pop albums.
Why the comparison with Oasis? Well, their massive success enabled Creation records to do silly things like give SFA ten grand to buy the aforementioned tank from an arms dealer they’d managed to get in touch with called Baz. By way of contrast, in the same year that Oasis released the cocaine addled tedium of Be Here Now, SFA released the wonderful ‘Radiator’ which has a song about Einstein’s mam and dad on it (Hermann ♥'s Pauline") with the infectious, repeated line of “WE HAVE WAYS OF MAKING YOU THINK!”. It also has the song Demons on which has the brilliant line “And by the year four million, our skins will be vermilion”. Very SFA that.
Back to Phantom Power then. A few highlights: Hello Sunshine is a great opener. Starting with a sample by Wendy and Bonnie’s “By the Sea” before launching into it proper. If you ever see anyone with a t-shirt on with the word “Minger” emblazoned across it, the chances are they are an SFA fan and this is where it comes from. Coca Cola wanted to buy this song for an advert but the band turned down a “seven figure offer” for it.
Liberty Belle is effortlessly lovely. Despite the upbeat melodies, like many songs on this album, it’s a critique of the dark, shadowy powers that were shaping the world in the early 2000s. “You know you’re digging to hell, drowning in your oil wells”. Depressingly, those same powers seem less shadowy and utterly brazen twenty years on.
Golden Retriever is one of their best, big, daft, pop records. The old blues song template done SFA style with ‘roundabout’ replacing the devil at the crossroads scenario. That drumming by Daf! Watch the video if you haven’t already seen it. It spawned the phase of their live set where they change into yeti costumes.
KEY POINT HERE: - If you think that SFA are not really for you, I would suggest listening to just two songs from this album. Piccolo Snare followed by Venus & Serena. According to Gruff, Piccolo Snare is about “societies torn apart by war and the waste of human life for nothing”. As is often the case though with his songs, the music is melodic, uplifting and joyful. The song shifts gear three times and each time it changes, it sounds like the aural equivalent of the sun suddenly bursting through the clouds. By the end of the song, I never want it to stop. Then it does for a second or so before segueing into Venus & Serena which is possibly my favourite song by them (alongside Northern Lites) and absolute peak SFA. Gruff makes no secret of his love for Surf’s Up and Sunflower era Beach Boys. The harmonies here are a delight. They make me feel great. Of course, in true SFA style you initially think it’s about the Williams sisters but apparently it’s about a child, who can't communicate with his elders, growing up with two pet tortoises called Venus and Serena, who he feels understand him. Gruff was typically quoted as saying “I’m not really interested in tennis”.
Also worthy of mention is Valet Parking which would be great driving music if you were on a road trip through Brazil in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on mild hallucinogens. By the Undefeated, you’ve got to Rio and it’s party time. That sound of gunfire at the end is two actual Uzis and two Kalashnikovs which they somehow acquired from “two blokes from Yorkshire” and the band had fun firing in the woods.
Sex, War and Robots, Bleed Forever and Cityscape Baby are all good songs and have a mellow, melancholy feel that indicates a growing maturity within the band. Sex, War and Robots features pedal steel guitar and was written and sung by Huw Bunford. These songs might be seen as filler by some but to me they are real growers. I’ve had the haunting melody from Cityscape baby in my head all week and it just refuses to leave. If I were a milkman, I’d be whistling this regularly. This song was inspired by a time when the band were invited to a Marxist village in Columbia where they were having a five-day fiesta to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the murder of the local landowner. The setting of this song was moved to pre-revolutionary Russia and conjures up some captivating imagery of the morning after a vigilante woman has taken the same action. It develops into a sort of ELO-esque climax which sounds better than you’d imagine.
The closer “Slow Life” has become a much- loved part of their live shows. Starts off mellow whilst referring to the ‘phantom powers’ that are a recurrent theme throughout the album and grows into an all-consuming, pulsating, techno-classical hybrid beast. Heard live, it always feels like ‘an experience’. Thank goodness for neuroplasticity. Heard often enough, at adequate volume in a live setting, this could probably re-wire your synapses and change you for the better.
So there we have it. The band’s goal of wanting to make a ‘warm’ and ‘human’ record is achieved here for me. The warmth just shines through it, in spite of the subject matter of a lot of the songs. I’ve tried to keep this concise but could write about this band all day. Phantom Power is one of many fantastic albums by one of the most inventive, talented, unique, witty, affable and ultimately brilliant bands of the last few decades. If they ever tour again and you get the chance, go and see them live.
https://spotify.link/ZwM3ZjO0DDb
