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

A guest series by The Robster

#20: Golden Retriever (2003, Epic, 673906 7)

For album #6, Super Furry Animals went back to basics. After the ambitious lushness of ‘Rings Around The World’ and the huge number of songs they wrote for it (which resulted in four months of discussions and arguments over which songs would be included and which ones wouldn’t), the band made a decision not to over-complicate things for the next record. Initially, the plan was to write songs all based around the same unconventional guitar tuning: D-A-D-D-A-D. And while a batch of songs were written to that concept, it was felt to be too limiting over all, so that plan was abandoned. However, the other plan to not write as many songs and not tinker too much with them was adhered to.

Recording took place through the second half of 2002 in a Cardiff office block. The band worked through the nights so as not to disturb the other occupants of the building during the day. The resulting record, ‘Phantom Power’ was unleashed in the summer of 2003. The contrast to its immediate predecessor was stark – it had a much more stripped back sound and a more cohesive style. The one thing it did retain was a stack of great songs.

The public’s first taste of the new album was Golden Retriever, released just one week beforehand.

MP3: Golden Retriever

It was one of those songs written by Gruff on his acoustic guitar in the D-A-D-D-A-D tuning and has real echoes of the blues about it, not just in the musical structure, but in Gruff’s lyrics referencing the devil and the crossroads. It certainly has a more basic, raw feel to it than the songs on ‘Rings Around The World’, but those amazing backing vocals at the end of the chorus, that escalating “dryyyyyyyyyy” really sets the whole thing off for me. It’s that tinge of brilliance that runs through nearly everything the Furries ever did.

As for those lyrics – they’re about Gruff’s girlfriend’s two golden retrievers. Yes, even the lyrics were shorn of their obtuse, complex nature. Well, for the most part.

Golden Retriever remains one of the band’s highest charting singles, reaching number 13 in the UK. It was released on three formats – 7” picture disc, CD and DVD – all of which contained these two b-sides:

MP3: Summer Snow
MP3: Blue Fruit

Summer Snow is a country song which includes the eventual album’s title, suggesting it only missed out on the final cut somewhat narrowly. Blue Fruit, meanwhile sounds like a classic SFA psychedelic odyssey. It also sounds like a b-side, and not one of the quality we’d come to expect of the band over the years. Both these b-sides were issued in the US on a 7” single via Stop Smiling, “the magazine for high-minded lowlifes” according to itself, in 2004.

Now, the bonus tracks for the ‘Phantom Power’ singles will be drawn from both the 2002 demos issued with the 20th anniversary edition of the album, and the 2004 companion album ‘Phantom Phorce’ which contained remixes of each track alongside some cynical mock commentary by the fictional producer “Kurt Stern”.

MP3: Golden Retriever [demo]
MP3: Golden Retriever [Killa Kela remix]

The demo features Gruff solo with his voice double-tracked, one track being one line behind the other. The rest of the band contributes noisily towards the end. The remix comes courtesy of pioneering UK beatboxer Killa Kela, who strips away most of the instrumentation and replaces it with his own vocal-based beats. Kurt Stern can be heard at the end expressing his disappointment at the song’s subject matter.

As far as first singles go, Golden Retriever was a very decent introduction to Phantom Power. Sadly, it has been somewhat forgotten about due to the band’s next two singles becoming among their best loved.

Incidentally, that guitar tuning D-A-D-D-A-D was also used to compose the two short instrumental tracks on ‘Phantom Power’. Their titles? The clue is in there…..

 

The Robster