SUPER FURRY SUNDAYS (aka The Singular Adventures of Super Furry Animals)

A guest series by The Robster

#13: Northern Lites (1999, Creation Records, CRE314)

One of the main tracks on the Super Furry Animals’ last release was a reggae track. On their return the following year, they stayed rooted in the Caribbean as they adopted a calypso sound for a song about the weather.

mp3: Northern Lites

Northern Lites was written by Gruff Rhys, and was particularly inspired by news coverage of El Niño throughout the previous year. The song’s title refers to the Aurora Borealis, which the band believed they had seen but, as no one else was present, they could not get confirmation that what they had witnessed was not simply a “Furry fantasy”. Gruff has said that the song is “about asking Jesus if he decides to seek his revenge on us, to get it over with as soon as possible and blow us away to the Northern Lights” but denied it as being about questioning one’s faith. “It’s just about the weather,” he would confirm.

While the embryo of Northern Lites had been written some years previously, the band’s inspiration of the weather phenomenon affecting Latin America, led to them playing along to a preset calypso rhythm track. The steel drums were added on the spur of the moment after seeing the instruments lying around Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios while recording the new album. Despite having no knowledge of how to play them, Cian gave them a go and created that distinctive Caribbean feel that runs through the final song.

The result is a track that was much loved and well received by the critics, gaining favourable comparisons to Burt Bacharach and the Beach Boys. It’s true, those backing vocals are wonderful. It became – and has remained – the highest charting single in SFA’s catalogue, reaching #11 in the UK in May 1999. It’s one of those that, while I may not immediately pick it out as a career highlight, each time I listen to it, I do find it kind ofirresistiblee. The rhythm, the tune, those harmonies, the steel drums, the blasts of Tijuanana brass – it all seems to meld perfectly together. Perhaps I really should rate it higher.

The 7” and cassette contained this as it’s flip side:

mp3: Rabid Dog

Not on a par with the A-side, obviously, but definitely something that made you realise how good this band was, that a track like Rabid Dog would be relegated to mere b-side status. It’s a bit of fun, with echoes of the band’s earliest sound alongside their trademark psychedelic tendencies. And there’s a bit about cuttlefish in there, which merely adds to it, I reckon…

The CD single format added a third track, which could also be found on a 12” promo in place of Rabid Dog:

mp3: This, That And The Other

This one is a 6-minute, laid-back, keyboard-led bit of psychedelic melancholy. Hazy, lazy, tripped-out summer vibes, which is completely instrumental for its first half, before Gruff’s vocal comes in, does its bit, and ends on a continuous loop of “are we dying” through the minute-long fade. Yes, b-side material of course, but more interesting than many bands’ a-sides throughout 1999 for sure!

Your bonus tracks over the next few weeks will be from the demos recorded for the third Super Furry Animals album ‘Guerrilla’. Today, you get the demo of Northern Lites – which as you can hear, wasn’t half the song it turned out to be – and a silly little solo Gruff thing that came to nothing, but has a certain charm.

mp3: Northern Lites [demo]
mp3: Vermillionaire [demo]

‘Guerrilla’ was released in June 1999 and was a very different SFA record in many ways. One of its very best songs would be issued as its next single…

The Robster