A guest series by The Robster
#9: The International Language Of Screaming (1997, Creation Records, CRE269)
A month before the second Super Furry Animals album hit the shelves, a second single from it was released. It has the longest title of any of the band’s singles (excluding the debut EP, of course), yet it is the third-shortest single in the band’s catalogue. That’s not significant at all, I just thought it was interesting. Sorry.
mp3: The International Language Of Screaming
This was more like we’d expect a single to sound like, following its rather odd predecessor. Short and snappy, with a proper earworm of a tune, lots of la-la-las and a wooo or two thrown in for good measure. And that’s not to mention the actual screaming towards the end. The line “If I scream it, I mean it, I hope you will understand me” is one I think everyone can relate to, regardless of the language you speak. Releasing a scream is an expression of passion that everyone has done at some point in their lives. Screaming is an international language, in that sense.
It was released the week of my 26th birthday in July 1997. Despite the obviously singleworthy nature of the song, it only reached number 24 in the UK charts, confirming that, while Britpop was still all over the place and making guitars more prominent in the hit parade for the first time in many years, Super Furry Animals perhaps didn’t quite fit with the pervading trends. I’m OK with that, and I don’t think they will have lost a lot of sleep over it either – if they wanted a number 1 single, it’s likely their music would have suffered greatly.
The b-side of the 7” and cassette single boasted another big tune, but it was so very different to the a-side, both in sound and style. A bit of Welsh glam rock, I suggest.
mp3: Wrap It Up
The CD single added two other decent tracks.
mp3: Foxy Music
mp3: nO.K.
Foxy Music is a lot of fun, Gruff tells a story about how a ginger-haired friend was once mistaken for a fox by a farmer and got shot! It’s awfully silly, and who knows if there is any truth to the story (I very much doubt there is…). The closing track is also a bit daft – essentially the English and Welsh alphabets being recited over an acoustic version of the title track, along with some bom-bom-boms and coughing.
All in all, The International Language Of Screaming is probably the most fun single in the Furries’ catalogue. To wrap it up this week (see what I did there?), here’s this week’s bonus demo, recorded in Cardiff in 1996:
mp3: The International Language Of Screaming [demo]
August 1997 would not only bring me a new Super Furry Animals album, but also my first child. Two hugely significant events, I still can’t decide which one was the most important…
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 