Super Furry Animals, 'Dark Days/Light Years' (Rough Trade)

Madcap Welshmen decide to don their sanity caps.

The quality of a Super Furry Animals record usually increases in proportion to its ebullience. So with an opener titled "Crazy Naked Girls," the Welsh psych-pop band's ninth studio disc initially appears to be a career-best candidate. In reality, Dark Days/Light Years is surprisingly subdued: Affecting a newly laid-back, yacht-rock delivery, frontman Gruff Rhys presides over streamlined arrangements that emphasize rhythmic repetition rather than the wild textures and sticky melodies of yore. Flashes of fun appear -- dig the glam-Sabbath stomp of "Inconvenience" -- but most of Dark could use more color.

Comments

Got something to say?

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • No HTML tags allowed
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Use <!--pagebreak--> to create page breaks.

More information about formatting options

Are You Human?
If so, enter the four-letter code below.
Image CAPTCHA