Super Furry Animals: Mwng : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

In an era of cloned commercialism, it takes guts for a band to cultivate a distinct identity, let alone record its fourth album entirely in a dying language. Super Furry Animals specialize in that kind of gumption, but unlike many gallant kooks, this quintet from Wales has the pop chops to make its experimentation catchy. Tight arrangements of melodic bliss cross the Welsh-language barrier -- singer Gruff Rhys croons "Gwreiddiau Dwfn" ("Deep Roots") with a bittersweetness a baby could comprehend. Minimizing their usual production trickery in favor of live-in-the-studio ensemble thrust, these merry pranksters swim in classic-psychedelia grooves while offering oodles of art-rock allusion. The spunky, sax-spiked bop of "Ysbeidiau Heulog" ("Sunny Intervals") suggests early Roxy Music, while "Ymaelodi a'r Ymylon" ("Joining the Periphery") recalls swirling, Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys. But SFA's own offbeat self remains the core ingredient of their sonic soup. (RS 847)

BARRY WALTERS