Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft poll

like, don't love this

cloudberries

After the 'Radiator' and 'Phantom Power' polls, I feel it's time to discuss possibly the most underrated Super Furry Animals album of all. Admittedly, all Super Furry Animals albums have their lovers and haters, but no Super Furry Animals album quite was greeted with such a mixed reaction as this one did when it was first released six years ago.

i loved this one to death when it came out! cannot decide between Zoom and Cabin Fever.

I think I'm going to go for 'Cabin Fever' for this one. No, you probably won't find it on any 'Best Of' collections, and you're certainly not likely to ever hear it live, but it's simply beautiful to my ears. It's a track that is just full of 'moments'. The echoing piano part and distant voices in the intro giving way to its beautiful melody, that shift into the dramatic "we said goodbye today, don't need you anyway" section, the way the entire track flanges and phases near the end as it fades out and leaves that naked, panning xylophone part, and just when you think it's over it finishes off with a gorgeous piano piece. One of their most accomplished, yet overlooked tracks in my opinion - and I feel it never gets mentioned in the same breath as 'Slow Life' and 'Ice Hockey Hair' because it's not as catchy as those. But it's not that kind of track, and 'Love Kraft' just isn't that kind of album.

Zooom! Definitely their best opening track.

Have listened way to little to this album.

SO close to voting for Cloudberries (other runners up: Ohio Heat, Psyclone, Cabin Fever), but had to go with Zoom. It's just unstoppably immense.

I have such mixed feelings about his album. I do love it as a whole, but some of the tracks simply leave me cold (The Horn, Back On A Roll). However, I do agree that it's wildly underrated.

Man, Walk You Home is great too!

Cool! I have no idea what to pick. This album has serious breadth and all the songs feel of a piece. I love them all so much, excepting possibly Lazer Beam which has always kind of annoyed me. It's probably got to be Zoom, it's such a major statement, but I feel more inclined to vote for a smaller song, felt the same with Phantom Power. I'm sitting here sampling all the songs and I want to vote for them almost all of them! This album was hard to get into, but it grew on me in a big way over time.

Yeah, this album wasn't instant love for me either!

The best SFA album for me. I voted Cabin Fever, but honourable mentions for Atomik Lust, Walk You Home, Frequency (should have been the single), Cloudberries...

That run of Oi Frango, Psyclone! and Back On A Roll really put me off this record for a long time. I think also it's the only one I haven't bought in release week except for Fuzzy Logic.

Will have to listen again but it's probably between Zoom! and Cloudberries. Atomik Lust has an outside chance.

Zoom!

atomik lust. gorgeous.

Atomik Lust is the only one I can remember without checking youtube. Last SFA album I bought.

Voted "Atomik Lust" for that awesome crushing riff that always sends the hairs up on my neck. I also love Daf's vocal performance, which sounds stoned-out in the best way. There is a definite cribbing of "Feel Flows" in the introduction, but people act like the whole song's informed by that when it's really not the case. Cian's Dennis Wilson-esque background vocals also make the song for me. That same Dennis Wilson quality is what makes most of his singing so nice... particularly on "Cabin Fever," which is a song that made one of my friends say, "Woah, this band actually makes like, real music."

"Psyclone!" is another favorite. It is a bit jarring, but I think it makes more sense than "Lazer Beam," which is a song that seems to implode by carrying way too many ideas w/ way too little payoff. That song really disappointed me when I first heard it, but the space-fiddle element of it is kind of fun... like a futuristic hillbilly jamboree. "Psyclone!" sounds like a disco tune to me. Just listen to the bass and strings play against each other. I think it'd do well on a dancefloor, but I doubt anyone's tried it out that way.

Never heard this album's 5.1 mix. Some tell me it's incredible. There are definitely bits on this album that stand out with deep listens. The Roland on "Zoom!" amazes me every time. It sounds positively jazzy and sometimes I hear a completely different song when I focus too much on it. I also love the erratic, choppy guitar playing that goes throughout. I'm a big fan of SFA's guitar, though... I think it's one of their most ignored qualities.

"Back on a Roll" sucks. I hated that song when it came out and now I merely tolerate it. The lyrics are dumb and the whole thing feels like a very uninspired b-side. Even the production feels different to my ears. Never really gonna figure out why SFA wanted this on the album. Even Bunf, the guy singing it, didn't want it on there. It was the rest of the band that wanted it.

Did anyone ever hear Danger Mouse's "Lazer Beam" remix? That one was pretty cool. It's slowed down and very, very interesting.

Oh yeah, "Cloudberries" is amazing. I don't have much to say about it. That's a shining Gruff moment I think a lot of people missed out on.

This album fuses two of my favorite forces in the world: Sean O'Hagan and the Super Furry Animals. They never sounded better together. The string arrangements are the luscious chocolate syrup on top of most of these songs. Listen to "Walk You Home," a song I know Turrican doesn't like, if only for those strings alone.

Oh yeah, the bass on this album is probably the best of all their albums. I think the reason I don't like Gruff's albums as much as his proper SFA work is because his proper albums lack the incredible talent of his bandmates.

This was probably the only SFA album I was disappointed with when it came out, it took me a few years to really fall in love with it, well most of it. As stated in other SFA threads I hated Lazer Beam when it came out as a single and still do.

I'm torn between the two last tracks. I'll have to give them another listen before voting.

I was deeply disappointed with the last one, and with "Hey Venus!" to some extent. This album I always found great, but I guess maybe it drowded in so many other great albums from that year.

Afriendlypioneer, if you're talking about that chiming piano when you say the Roland in Zoom!, it's actually a fender rhodes electric piano. I love it too! The mellow tone is great for ballads (and also jazz fusion!) I actually own one, it's a wonderful instrument. It's also used to great effect on the song Ohio Heat.

this album is so terrible but zoom is one of their best songs

this album is so terrible

― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, November 2, 2011 5:33 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

While I'd be the first to admit that 'Love Kraft' has its flaws, the music/production on this album is far from terrible.

"Afriendlypioneer, if you're talking about that chiming piano when you say the Roland in Zoom!, it's actually a fender rhodes electric piano. I love it too! The mellow tone is great for ballads (and also jazz fusion!) I actually own one, it's a wonderful instrument. It's also used to great effect on the song Ohio Heat."

You're right. I was totally thinking of the wrong thing. Thanks for the correction.

Voted "Atomik Lust" for that awesome crushing riff that always sends the hairs up on my neck. I also love Daf's vocal performance, which sounds stoned-out in the best way. There is a definite cribbing of "Feel Flows" in the introduction, but people act like the whole song's informed by that when it's really not the case.

OTM. It's difficult to call 'Atomik Lust' a 'Feel Flows' rip-off when the only element of 'Feel Flows' that it cribs is the organ at the beginning!

Best Love Kraft B-side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orJAH4jvn7A

I never quite understood the disdain some people had for this record when it came out -- I loved the sound of it almost instantly, if, in truth, less so the songs themselves, given that all the lazy mid-tempo cuts started to blend together for me (making it hard to do a poll like this). But upon review, particularly as I dig back thru Fuzzy Logic's taut little pop tunes, I think this is more about getting lost in the sound than songs and performances. The warm, analogue 70s production--the sumptuous O'Hagan strings, the dry, tight snares, phased guitars, and tinkling Fender Rhodes--almost makes this feel like some lost Isley Brothers record in places. But as an album, it's more of a tribute to records like Smile and Spirit of Eden and every other band that had the courage to abandon their fanbase to explore the open spaces of the studio (love of the craft, indeed).

Specific impressions, some less profound than others:

Zoom -- As noted upthread the Rhodes here is an awesome thing and in of itself. But so is the very dark choir at the end, which sounds to me like a blend of Mellotron and real voices.

Atomik Lust -- Probably the first song that clicked for me. Yes, the riff is awesome, but the the way the chorus just opens up with a touch of gospel piano before the french horns come in is pure gorgeousness.

The Horn -- The songs by the other guys on this record all stick out -- but unlike, say, Wings at the Speed of Sound, they're kind of charming. This one feels like some mutated drinking song to me.

Ohio Heat -- One of the more straightforward things on the record -- which in itself makes it also kind of stick out. Most SFA songs make no sense lyrically to me, but this one really hits.

Walk You Home -- As noted above,this arrangement is pure cotton candy, particularly the female bgd vocals. But there's also a great, winsome feel to the whole thing -- the 6/8 coda, the lyrics. The through-composed structure makes this song a minor gem.

Lazer Beam -- Guess I get why people would dislike this -- but for a song so utterly stuffed full of production tricks, from synth farts, string melodies, claps and vocoders, to spacey fx and dub delay, I'm sort of fascinated by what an open sound it has.

Frequency -- The verse is pure silliness but the chorus to this is awesome.

Oi Frango -- Fun bachelor pad tribute. An interlude on an album that perhaps doesn't need one. Or does it?

Psyclone! -- One of the things I love about this record is how it mimeographs sounds from other records and then goes in a completely unexpected direction with them. Like the Feel Flows rip at the beginning of Atomik Lust that Turrican correctly points out leads to a song that sounds nothing like Feel Flows, this one has Bennie Maupin's stalking bass clarinet on Bitches Brew warring with string counterpoint nicked from Mike McNaught's work on Harry Nilsson's Knnillssonn.

Back on a Roll -- Understandably maligned I guess for unbearable lightness. But I like the roadhouse groove, the fuzzy guitars and synths -- and it tees up the weight of the last two cuts quite nicely.

Cloudberries -- This song, for me, is all about the rising vocal melody on the middle-8 which just takes off and never comes down. All the other stuff is counterpoint - the shimmering guitar in the background, the reversed guitars, the tempo shift. And, of course, more Knnillssonn arrangements again at the end, including the choral stuff in the last 1'25".

Cabin Fever -- The album's raison d'etre -- about the lonely search for a higher truth and the permanent damage it inflicts. Beach Boys allusions galore: the Dennis Wilson comparisons upthread are spot on, and the title itself feels like a nod to the Beach Boys' Cabinessence. I love that the stunning opening piano is playing while somebody's girlfriend is laughing about pizza or something.

I agree that the 5.1 surround mix of this must be incredible.

Sean O'Hagan is a dick, but his string arrangements are great.

What, how's he a dick?

And that's an awesome write-up, Naive Teen Idol. Very thoughtful--especially concerning an album many quickly dismiss.

my band supported him about six months ago, he didn't realise we were on the bill which upset him, so he proceeded to be a bit of a cunt towards us. Annoying as I would have liked to have asked him about this album.

That's terrible. I really know nothing of his personality, but I'm a huge fan of his.

I think this is more about getting lost in the sound than songs and performances.

This is precisely how I feel about the record, and I feel that they deliberately chose the material for 'Love Kraft' with this in mind. Not that the songs aren't there, of course - to me, this is easily a much more 'song based' record than 'Dark Days/Light Years' is, for example, although I'd be the first to admit that hardly any of the tracks here would work as singles. When listening to this album, I like to have the headphones on and the lights out, relax, and just let my ears explore what's going on - and there's so much to take in beneath the surface of these tracks it's unreal, even if it may not be apparent at first.

I kind of feel that way about most of the band's albums and even their b-sides. There's so much studio trickery going on in most of their songs... background vocals that never jumped out before, little effected bass and guitar riffs, synth lines that come in and out of nowhere. They're a really fun band to devote a lot of time to.

Well yeah, but I think it's especially true of this particular album.

I love the whirring bg vox in "Venus in Serena."

Ah, I completely forgot about Frequency, and couldn't place the title against a song from memory, but I love this one. Chorus is great, beautiful strings, that synth cascading all over the place about 3:12.

Oi Frango's maybe not as bad as I remembered either, but it's clearly not going to win this..

I do really enjoy the sound of this album.

"Oi Frango" is a pretty good song for cruising down the street with your windows open, like your own little personal cartoon theme song for those three or four minutes it lasts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUMBAZfkJr4&feature=related

You ever hear that? It's the "Lazer Beam" instrumental, which honestly sounds pretty cool.

Also interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9o6MUbw4jE

Yeah, those are both from the infamous "lost SFA techno album" bootleg. In interviews from around the time 'Guerrilla' came out, the band said they were working on a couple of other projects: a Welsh language album (which eventually became 'Mwng'), and a techno album. The techno album didn't see the light of day, but it appeared as a bootleg about five years ago. They used the best bits of the material on other Super Furry Animals songs, like obviously 'Slow Life' and 'Lazer Beam'. 'Miniature' from Rings Around The World is on there as well, I think. Most of the rest became the Acid Casuals album, 'Omni'. There's one or two that I don't recognise from anywhere else, though. It wouldn't be the last time they'd salvage parts of scrapped projects for other releases, anyway!

I wish they'd gone through with this, speaking of aborted projects:

Ok, I got the story on this from the source today: Mr. Gruff Rhys and Bunf. I told them of the leak of this "album" and asked them what it could be. They weren't entirely sure (as they didn't hear it), but Gruff told me SFA recorded a joke album as "Das Coolies", a "band of their imagination", which would dress up in sci-fi jumpsuits. They talked of a massive 20 minute track with steel drum. Damn if I can't remember what they called it ("Steel & ____" or "_____ & Steel"). You can hear a version of it on this leak. (The longest song, toward the end.) Bunf told me that a sound guy of theirs, "a mate", had tons of tapes of them fucking around in the studio. He believes he's the guy who's leaking this stuff. They were cool with it. You know, they're really laid back. Well, high. So this is not "an album". It's demos of the band fucking around with Cian then manipulating it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocTH63vd4e4

Yeah. People often give the impression that they think the 'lost' Das Koolies album and the 'lost' techno album are the same thing. I don't think they are, because I remember them being billed as very separate things in the music press years ago. 'Steelwerks In Stone', the album was supposed to have been called. The idea was that they'd do what XTC did with The Dukes Of Stratosphear and form a different band with the same members.

I do feel though that some of these projects didn't get finished for a reason... lack of time, or maybe they just weren't working out. It's hard to get hung up on their aborted projects, though, when they usually end up keeping and recycling all of the best bits to use for other things. Like, these more than a handful of Gruff solo tracks which were originally written for the band, for example... the 'Pwdin Wy' songs... 'Take A Sentence'... 'Space Dust #2'... there's a few from Candylion as well. And 'The Very Best Of Neil Diamond', which was salvaged from the orchestral project... I think they always get used eventually.

Many years ago I recall Gruff talking of an hour-long song they had worked on that was "terrible".

I believe it's the same as Das Koolies. He mentioned how they used charts and spreadsheets to prove how they were the best band in the world. Anyway, "Charge" is subtitled "Theme from Das Koolies" and I'm pretty comfortable saying it's an awesome song.

Yeah, he was talking about the Das Koolies project there as well.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

voted "Ohio Heat"

Salty Maurine had a bun in the oven!

Love the Ennio Morricone-inspired bits.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Bit more of a mixed bag this time. Don't really have much problem with 'Zoom!' being in pole position, but I can't get on board with 'Cloudberries' being in second place over 'Cabin Fever'. 'Frequency' seems to be a bit of a fan favourite ususally, so very surprised to see it so low. And 'Lazer Beam' over 'Atomik Lust', 'Ohio Heat' and 'The Horn'!? I really like both 'Psyclone!' and 'Back On A Roll', but not entirely surprised that they didn't get any votes - they're probably two of the least "epic" things here.

"ususally"!?? USUALLY.

Lazer Beam suuucks

Walk You Home is really great. I would've voted for it if I hadn't voted Atomik.

Well, this poll completely passed me by. Love Kraft gets such a kicking but does have some truly wonderful moments. If I'd been able to vote, however, it'd have to be "Zoom!". Fantastic opener, and also a really nicely-done Jean-Claude Vannier homage (rip off, even? No, let's stick with "homage") in one.

What in particular is it ripping off? I've heard that before. Is it the Gainsbourg stuff?

And if we're talking about "homages," how about this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPl11lh1wBk

If we venture off the road to Love Kraft, how about this? At least Gruff admitted they ripped this off...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgsTZT64hGM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bih629U_LUE

Wow. "TRR" is one of my POX SFA trax; never realized it was indebted so strongly to the Captain!

Yeah, Gruff's already admitted to that one - in fact, he admitted to it around the time of Rings Around The World's release. I couldn't call it a rip-off, since its they've clearly written a new song around the sample and SFA would have had to get clearance for the sample anyway.

True... But I'm pretty sure most who've heard the song don't realize it. It's definitely their most blatant sample. The song goes in a completely different direction, of course, and it's integrated perfectly.

@afriendlypioneer: The JC Vannier comparison lies more with his album "L'enfant Assassin Des Mouches" (sp?). There's references to the album sprinkled throughout Love Kraft, but Zoom! contains the more obvious homages, like the choral bits etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0KHQ_onGWY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

(Mind you, I think "Y Gwyneb Iau" borrows quite a bit from "Space Oddity", so YMMV and all that)

I just listened to that album (the Jean-Claude) today and it is indeed phenomenal. Not sure if I hear anything blatant, but I see your point. That said, the band seems to have amazing taste.

So when do we do the Fuzzy Logic poll?

This album (Love Kraft) is really great. I think it's something everyone who thinks highly of SFA needs to revisit occasionally. It never sounded so good to me.

I don't know who the hell this is, but it's interesting: http://secretsoundshop.com/2011/11/07/my-favourite-album-luke-woolley-uk/