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Super Furry Animals 'Songbook: The Singles Volume 1'
For more than a decade the Super Furry Animals have built a back catalogue both fearsomely challenging and stunningly accessible. Consistently brilliant, ‘Songbook’ highlights the band’s place as the jewel in the UK’s indie crown.
The first thing that strikes you is just how good a singles band the Super Furry Animals are. While the band have always produced consistently strong albums, ‘Songbook’ is purely a celebration of the band’s A-sides, and what a collection. An ‘end-of-career-money-spinning-final-album-to get-out-of the-contract’ Greatest Hits it most certainly isn’t.
From the band’s major label debut ‘Hometown Unicorn’ to the most recently re-released ‘The Man Don’t Give A Fuck’ over 21-tracks it’s a flawless collection with the irrepressible ‘Northern Lites’, ‘Fire In My Heart’, ‘Juxtaposed With U’ and ‘Play It Cool’ among the highlights. As purely a collection of the band’s singles to date there’s thankfully no customary knocked-off-in-five-minutes new material to ensure sales are high and even ‘Blerwytirhwng?’ (lifted from their first EP) can be found on the band’s 1998 ‘Outspaced’ rarities compilation.
At the pop end of the band’s spectrum ‘Golden Retriever’, ‘Something 4 The Weekend’ and the sub-two minute ‘God! Show Me Magic’ sound fresh and exciting while the trippy cut-up of ‘Slow Life’ and the seven minute prog workout ‘Ice Hockey Hair’ showcase the band’s more experimental side. For a band that have evolved considerably since their mid 90s conception, the only matter for dispute is whether or not the singles should have been ordered chronologically. However, with quality like this on show it matters little: quirky, unique and utterly essential.
If you’re a Furrys fan already, there’s no new material here and little reason to buy this collection aside from the typically splendid packaging. However, if you always quite liked the band but never really knew where to start with the back catalogue, ‘Songbook’ is an outstanding introduction to one of the most exciting groups of a generation. Roll on Volume 2.
Super Furry Animals 'Songbook: The Singles Volume 1' (Sony) released October 4 2004.
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Tagged as Super Furry Animals, archive
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