A couple of years later SFA released an album titled Radiator, prior to the official release, they let us hear two singles, “Hermann Loves Pauline” and “The International Language of Screaming”. Both are fun bouncy songs written with catchy guitar riffs and electronic fuzziness but I’d like to show you my favorite song from Radiator, “Demons”. Overall I still think this is one of their best albums from start to finish.
But they
weren’t done. The next two albums came
less than a year apart in Guerilla
and Mwng, the later mostly sung in
their native Welsh tongue. I’ll focus on
Guerilla, mostly because I can
understand what they’re singing about and it simply kicks ass. Guerrilla was deliberately conceived
as a commercial-sounding 'pop' album; a "jukebox sort of album, where you
listen to it and every song is different," according to singer Gruff
Rhys. It also has an over-the-top
happiness to it, lyrically and musically.
If you want to start listening to SFA and need a push towards a good
starting album, this is it. Check out
“Northern Lights” whose music video teaches us how they make stones for
curling, weird.
Moving on
we get to the release of Rings Around the
World in 2001. This album was much
more epic (I hate that word) in musical scale, taking advantage of string
sections and electronica samples and sounds throughout. Along with the album the group also released
a pretty cool DVD with visuals to each song.
I think this was the height of the group’s popularity in the US , people
seemed to eat this album up. I can’t
find a bad song here so picking one to show you is a toughy. Try on “Sidewalk Surfer Girl” for size.
Two years
later we received Phantom Power, an
album that pairs with Rings Around the
World like milksteak and jellybeans.
Seems the SFA boys found something they liked sound-wise and decided to
give it another go. They also released a
DVD with this one. “Hello Sunshine” is
an awesome opening track but my favorite song is buried at the end of the
album, it’s called “Slow Life”.
You still with me? Good, only a few more to go. Love Kraft debued in 2005 and has my absolute favorite SFA song on it, “ZOOM!” This album is also cool because Gruff sits back a bit and the other guys from the group take turns writing and singing songs. We are now seven albums in and SFA is still going strong. Listen to “ZOOM!” here, the whole thing, totally worth it.
You still with me? Good, only a few more to go. Love Kraft debued in 2005 and has my absolute favorite SFA song on it, “ZOOM!” This album is also cool because Gruff sits back a bit and the other guys from the group take turns writing and singing songs. We are now seven albums in and SFA is still going strong. Listen to “ZOOM!” here, the whole thing, totally worth it.
Now we’re starting
to get towards the present, in 2007, SFA released a very short album called Hey Venus!. The band wanted the audience to listen to the
album and imagine the band all playing together live in a room, which now that
I read that and think about, they pulled off.
It’s just over a half hour long and follows the story of Venus, a
heroine who deals with modern consumerism and accidentally feeds a baby an 8-ball
of cocaine. Lets listen to that one!
Lastly, if
you’re still reading this, I present Dark
Days/Light Years. This album simply
rocks. It shows how far the guys of SFA
have come while still holding onto their roots, something I commend after about
20 years of making music. The songs are
all loosely based off of jams the band had been working on through the years and
the result is a fun and fast album.
“Helium Hearts” is my favorite track off this album. As usual, thanks for reading, I’ll see you
next week when I discuss another band from “Across the Pond”.
~Adam Smith
