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

A guest series by The Robster

#18: (Drawing) Rings Around The World (2001, Epic, 671908 6)

The fifth Super Furry Animals album, ‘Rings Around The World’, was, and remains, my favourite SFA record. This, despite me really disliking its first single. The band really took advantage of the bigger budget they were afforded by their new label and the result was an album full of lush strings and orchestrations, coupled with an ambitious cinematic production. And, of course, some wonderful songs.

The original idea was to go all-in and make a double album called ‘Text Messaging Is Destroying The Pub Quiz As We Know It’, which, lets face it, is a brilliant title for a record. While that idea was scaled back somewhat, Gruff admitted he still wanted to go to excess. “We were trying to make a blockbuster album that was going to be like The Eagles. We were trying to make utopian pop music that had pretensions of being progressive and exciting.”

However you’d describe it, it cannot be denied that it still, to this day, sounds like a real triumph. It’s the band’s high-point, in my opinion. While we’re talking about my opinion, I think ‘Rings’ works as a whole, a wonderful album that should always be played from start to finish. It’s the sort of record that only really makes sense that way. This may be the reason then that I’ve always been disappointed by the choice of singles released from it. They don’t really cut it on their own. Of the three songs lifted, only one really ticks my boxes, and that’s today’s – the title track.

mp3: (Drawing) Rings Around The World

I love this one. On the surface, it sounds like a lot of fun, but actually has a rather concerning message. Following a discussion with his girlfriend’s father, Gruff wrote (D)RATW about an idea that came up regarding “all the rings of communication around the world. All the rings of pollution, and all the radioactivity that goes around. If you could visualize all the things we don’t see, Earth could look like some kind of fucked-up Saturn. And that’s the idea I have in my head – surrounded by communication lines and traffic and debris thrown out of spaceships.”

The song came together following a number of demos involving different members of the band (more on that later), and a collection of excerpts of phone calls the band made randomly to people around the world. See what they did there?

The critics gushed, as usual, though the one thing I’ve noticed in the course of writing this series is how music journalists love to compare whatever they’re reviewing to other things. Maybe it’s laziness, maybe it’s just to make it easier for readers, but quite often it can be very confusing if you read multiple reviews. That’s certainly true of (Drawing) Rings Around The World – no one could agree what it sounded like. Status Quo, ELO (again!), Beach Boys (again!), The Beatles, Wizzard, Cheap Trick… all were cited in the music press. Yet, to me, it’s the Super Furry Animals, no one else. OK, maybe a bit ELO, who have proven to be one of the band’s biggest influences…

Released in October 2001, it reached a disappointing #28 in the UK singles charts, but this should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following this series. Maybe it would have got higher if people had heard the b-side.

mp3: Edam Anchorman

Without a doubt, one of the band’s best b-sides, a big bold, anthemic tune which really deserved more than being tucked away on the flip of a single. It’s one for any mixtape/playlist if you’re looking for something that’s not obvious. Its lyrics also contain the title of the other b-side.

mp3: All The Shit U Do

This is basically a section of Edam Anchorman with the words “With all the shit you do” looped over and over, and some added bleeps and bloops from Cian. A bit of an odd one, all told.

A radio edit of the title track was issued on some promos, which simply shortens the intro and fades out early. You might as well have it for completion’s sake:

mp3: (Drawing) Rings Around The World [radio edit]

Which brings me to this week’s bonus track. I mentioned that several demos were made of (D)RATW during its composition. Each one is rather different, so rather than choose one, or post all three, I thought I’d pull together some bits and pieces of them and edit them together so you can hear the constituent parts of the song and how it all came together. It starts off with Cian’s electronic riff, followed by Gruff’s early solo take, then another run through with the full band. I’ve finished off by adding some of the phone call bits as well. It’s another Super Furry Sunday Exclusive!

mp3: (Drawing) Rings Around The World [demo amalgam]

Next week, the final single from ‘Rings Around The World’, and I’ve got another exclusive lined up for you…

 

The Robster