Super Furry Animals – Phantom Power 20th Anniversary edition review

For whatever reason, it wasn’t always necessarily important to add context to a Super Furry Animals album. Not that the public’s perception they weren’t taking everything entirely seriously was always inaccurate, but often because trying to make sense of it all felt like too much hard work.

Their sixth album followed respectively the Welsh language only Mwng and Rings Around The World, the latter a big budget affair which Gruff Rhys and co. weren’t keen to directly follow up. Phantom Power instead was released in the wake of 9/11 and war in the Gulf, a multi-headed global conflict which Rhys admitted had coloured some of his ideas.

The most obvious downstream song writing effect was to be felt on The Piccolo Snare, a song which spoke explicitly about the SNAFU of the time, but Bleed Forever and Liberty Belle also dealt with the kind of external things some wouldn’t expect a Super Furry Animals track to deal with.

There’s only so much mileage in that stance though, and Phantom Power‘s handsomely packaged 20th anniversary edition, despite all of the additional material, is lit up by the glam rock paean Golden Retriever, a tune as daft as a brush as your granny would say, but reliably wonderful. Good times have been scarce since we first heard it, but explanations are still definitely in order.

You can read a full review here.