A guest series by The Robster
#29: Mt. (2009, Rough Trade)
‘Dark Days/Light Years’ had a potential 5 or 6 singles on it, but in the end just the two were released, its second being one of the three songs on the album not written or sung by de facto band frontman Gruff Rhys.
mp3: Mt. [edit]
Despite the abbreviated title, it is pronounced in full – Mountain – and according to the band, it “concerns people turning molehills into extreme sport venues.” Written and sung by keyboard/electronics wiz Cian, the lyrics examine the topic of how some problems appear to be so huge, when in reality they can be solved easily, especially when we all support one another. This lyric sums it up, and there are plenty of lessons our leaders could learn from these lines alone, but never will:
Do we need more than diplomacy
To get us through tragedy?
One thing is for sure,
You can’t beat solidarity.
Ask the likes of Kneecap and Bob Vylan about that last line – that’s something they have been experiencing for a little while, much to our increasingly fascistic leaders’ disdain.
Enough politics! The single was a digital-only release and edited out the profanity, replacing the f-word with “scary”, though I’m not sure it gained much more radio airplay than the uncensored version would have. It’s a decent enough track, but I think it’s about a minute or so too long. A three-minute edit would have made it pretty much perfect.
I’ve assembled another live single for your bonus tracks this week. Two more ‘Dark Days/Light Years’ songs recorded live in New York City in 2009.
mp3: Mt. [live at the Highline Ballroom, NYC]
mp3: Crazy Naked Girls [live at the Highline Ballroom, NYC]
On the album, Mt. followed the wild opening track Crazy Naked Girls, co-sung by Gruff and Bunf. As one reviewer put it: “Crazy Naked Girls signals the band asserting its ambitious, messy, daft, generally inspired side – the side that some of us love the most, to be honest.” He’s not wrong. While it’s far from typical of the songs on the album, it certainly opens proceedings by putting a big, silly smile on the faces of the fans who had stuck with them from the start.
Both these live tracks are officially unreleased, and are my gift to you lot who have stuck with me throughout this series. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and it seemed that Mt. might well have signalled the end of Super Furry Animals. It was the last track they would release until… well, until something of a sporting miracle occurred some years later…
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Brilliant series The Robster – sad it’s soon to come to an end!!
Man, that was a fun ride!