Super Furry Animals - Radiator (CD)

Vih-dyo.

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Apr 9, 2002

Every so often an album comes along that just dares you to describe it without reverting to gushing streams of praise. The Super Furries have recorded most of the recent ones, and Radiator marks the high-water mark.Opening with the instrumental "Fur...ryvision", this album encompasses every feeling that music can inspire. The simple beauty of the opening track leads right into "Placid Casual", a song which dares to namecheck Sierra Leone guerilla leader Valentine Strasser, who overthrew the government in Freetown and demanded that the new national anthem be "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now". From here there is no let-up as the mood swings violently from the psychotic pop of "The International Language of Screaming" to the breathtaking heart-string tugging of "Demons". Four songs in, you're wondering where it'll hit a low point. It never does. It peaks, and then it peaks some more.Songs about bats which suck the blood out of goats? Check. A Welsh-language song which extols the virtues of growing your hair long? Got it (this song, "Torra Fy Ngwallt Yn Hir" might have sounded out of place, but it slides in like a neatly-greased otter into a handbag). How can this album get better track by track, and then improve with every listen? There is only one conclusion - Gruff is a genius, backed by men way too talented to be human. As it draws to a close, the pace gets slower. This is no bad thing, as the songs become more beautiful. "Download" is a disconsolate lament about how "the people who lie are the ones who get by" and when I heard it was the most beautiful song I'd heard in years. It soon became the second most beautiful, as this album lives up to the cliche of "save the best for last". "Mountain People" is a sumptuous, beautiful lullaby that will melt hearts a full fifty years from now.And that's the point. I bought this CD three years ago, and for approximately 1000 days it has been the best I've ever heard. SFA songs are about a diverse range of subjects, Gruff's alertness to the world around him never lets you down. He really can write a song about anything, and for this we must offer thanks.Five stars? An entire galaxy would still be insulting. Read more Less