Phantom Power (Super Furry Animals album)

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Phantom Power
Studio album by
Super Furry Animals
Released21 July 2003
Recorded2002
Studio
GenreIndie rock
Length52:32
LabelEpic
ProducerSuper Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals chronology
Rings Around the World
(2001) 		Phantom Power
(2003) 		Slow Life
(2004)
Singles from Phantom Power
  1. "Golden Retriever"
    Released: 14 July 2003
  2. "Hello Sunshine"
    Released: 20 October 2003
  3. "Slow Life EP"
    Released: 12 April 2004

Phantom Power is the sixth album by

engineering themselves for the first time.[1] The album features a range of musical styles, from country rock to techno, although many of the tracks are based around the acoustic guitar.[3][4][5] According to chief songwriter and vocalist Gruff Rhys, the album's lyrics deal with "broken relationships and war".[6]

The album, like their previous record

vinyl and DVD. The DVD featured a surround sound mix of the album along with animations, commentary by Mario Caldato Jr. (who mixed the record) and remixes. The majority of these remixes were re-released as the album Phantom Phorce in 2004. Phantom Power was well received, with many critics suggesting it was the best album of the band's career.[7][8]

Origins and recording

Phantom Power was originally conceived as a ten-song cycle in the "unconventional" D-A-D-D-A-D guitar tuning.[5][6] Singer Gruff Rhys wrote many of the songs on the album in this tuning and in the key of D major during the space of a few days. These tracks, which included the "Father Father" instrumentals, "Golden Retriever", "Hello Sunshine", "Valet Parking" and "Out of Control", were then demoed at the house of regular producer Gorwel Owen with overdubs added at the band's own office-block based studio, AV Happenings, in Cardiff.[9]

The group took a hands-on approach to the actual recording sessions for Phantom Power,

engineering and producing themselves for the first time.[1] Recording largely took place at AV Happenings during the second half of 2002,[6] with the band working through the night so as not to disturb staff who worked in other parts of the building during the day.[10] According to bassist Guto Pryce this involved a fair amount of trial and error as the band "didn't really know what [they] were doing". Soundproof booths were improvised by setting up tents in the office corridors: "we'd record a guitar and it'd sound rubbish and we had to figure out why. So we started experimenting with different tent designs. In the end it was the wigwam that was easiest to put up and sounded best".[1] The band had to take these booths down before office workers arrived in the morning, a process that guitarist Huw Bunford has described as "ghosts in the night ... a bit clandestine".[10] A brief two-week session with Gorwel Owen at Rockfield Studios saw some of the album's more "straight ahead" tracks recorded with live vocals before the band returned to AV Happenings and "messed around" with them.[9] When the album was almost finished the band enlisted the services of Tony Doogan who engineered sessions during which several vocal parts were recorded.[11]

Huw Bunford playing guitar while looking to his right, away from the camera. The guitarist has a large beard and is wearing a brown jacket.
Huw Bunford wrote the track "Sex, War & Robots" for Phantom Power and also provided lead vocals.

The ten song D-A-D-D-A-D concept was eventually abandoned with Pryce stating "we don't like constraining ourselves and if you've got a concept, you're doing that. And we had some other really nice tunes so we just chose the best songs".[1] According to Rhys the only plan the group stuck to was to make a "more coherent" record: "In the past ... we'd put ideas kind of side by side, and on this record we wanted all those sounds to be more blended".[2] Following arguments over the track listing of previous album Rings Around the World, after a "lot of songs" were recorded necessitating four months worth of discussions about which tracks to leave off the record, the group recorded just 16 largely acoustic based songs during the sessions for Phantom Power.[5][9] Rhys's initial batch of songs were augmented by, among others, the Huw Bunford penned "Sex, War & Robots", the first time the guitarist had had one of his songs included on a Super Furry Animals album and also the first time he had sung lead vocals for the group, "Slow Life", which grew out of an electronic piece of music keyboardist Cian Ciaran had been working on for several years and "The Piccolo Snare" which was partly written in the studio.[2][9]

Music

Super Furry Animals "Venus & Serena" (2003)
"Venus & Serena" is one of several tracks on Phantom Power to exhibit country rock influences and showcases the band's use of harmony vocals.[12][13]
Super Furry Animals "Slow Life" (2003)
Short clip from "Slow Life", which merges techno with guitar pop, to illustrate the difference in styles between many of the tracks on Phantom Power.[4]
Problems playing these files? See media help.

After the more produced Rings Around the World, which relied heavily on computers and electronics, the group were keen to make Phantom Power "a little more human" with

electronic loops into several tracks after Ciaran bought a large number of "sound effect and light music" vinyl records from a man who worked in the same building. According to Rhys: "he knocked on the door just as we were beginning the album: "hey, I've got these records to sell, are ya interested?" And Cian went down to check them out and gave him a hundred pounds on the spot and carried 700 albums back to our tiny room".[9]

The album showcases an eclectic range of sounds from the

keyboardist Cian Ciaran several years earlier.[4][9] Ciaran encouraged the band to jam on top of his original track to produce a fusion of techno and guitar-pop.[3][9] "The Undefeated" is inspired by ska and reggae music, although the group removed a "cheesy white reggae" section from the song because it sounded "fucking horrible" and actively tried not to make it sound too much like a ska or reggae track as they felt they "couldn't pull it off".[9][14] Many tracks feature close vocal harmonies, with all the band apart from Pryce contributing.[4][5] These harmonies give the album a California / West Coast of America feel, with comparisons being drawn to the work of The Beach Boys, particularly on the song "Venus and Serena".[13][15][16]

Lyrical themes

Chief lyricist Gruff Rhys describes Phantom Power as a record about "broken relationships and war" with "a positive outlook to the future".[6]

Singer and chief lyric writer Gruff Rhys has claimed that Phantom Power is about "broken relationships and war" with "a positive outlook to the future".[6] As "BBC News 24 addicts" Rhys and the band absorbed "fucked up war images" from the Iraq War during the making of the album which affected the way songs were written: "We seem to be living in such a heavy time. We're just absorbing all the words thrown at us from the TV and regurgitating them back."[6][17] Frustration with the George Bush administration and its foreign policy influenced the record with Rhys claiming that he feels qualified to address the subject as United States foreign policy "effectively decides what the foreign policy is in the UK".[11]

The two most overtly "political" tracks on Phantom Power are "The Piccolo Snare" and "Liberty Belle".

Skyhawks etc.) but Rhys claims it is applicable to any war. "Liberty Belle" tells the story of two cartoon characters devised by Rhys, 'Liberty Belle' and 'Memory Lane', the former representing the "bells of freedom", specifically the American Dream, and the latter representing "history's harsh lessons" which Liberty Belle has failed to learn. The song is told from the perspective of a "bird living almost in a parallel universe to humans, oblivious to the gravity of the games which are being played around us", something which Rhys admits to feeling himself much of the time. "Venus and Serena" uses a story of a child who talks to his pet tortoises, Venus and Serena, as he can't communicate with his elders to make a similar point: that people feel alienated from their elected leaders. Both "Out of Control" and "Slow Life" feature regurgitated media buzzwords, with "Out of Control's" "flippant" lyrics designed to create the feel of "an over-dramatic theme to a current affairs programme". "Bleed Forever" deals specifically with the nuclear fallout from the Chernobyl disaster which fell over North Wales, allegedly causing an increase in incidents of leukaemia among children in the area.[19]

However, Rhys has been keen to point out that the record is not a forcefully political one, claiming that most of the band's songs are "fragments of daily life; occasionally politics are a part of that. Super Furry Animals is about exploration, not political campaigning".[17][18] "Valet Parking", for example, is a song about "the glories of pan-European travel", documenting a road trip from Cardiff to Vilnius, "Golden Retriever" is about "the relationship between [Gruff Rhys's] girlfriend's two dogs - a male and a female" and "The Undefeated", inspired by a poor run of results for the Welsh football team, is about "underdogs and overdogs".[18][19]

DVD

Phantom Power
Video by
Super Furry Animals
Released21 July 2003
GenreIndie rock
LabelEpic
Super Furry Animals chronology
Rings Around the World
(2001) 		Phantom Power
(2003) 		Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1
(2004)

The DVD of Phantom Power contains the 14 songs featured on the CD version of the album in surround sound, 16 remixes, commentary by Mario Caldato Jr. who mixed the record and provided one of the remixes, and song lyrics.

According to singer

platform games: the listener can play the album as if it were a game and spend "months ... instead of weeks" exploring the content.[14] Unlike the DVD version of previous album Rings Around the World, which featured videos for every track, the songs on the DVD are accompanied by slowly moving animations. Rhys has stated that the Super Furry Animals wanted to use "really bland images" as viewers began to place too much emphasis on the videos on Rings Around the World and the band wanted them to concentrate on the music.[20]

Keyboardist Cian Ciaran stated at the time of Phantom Power's release that the band would issue a DVD with every future album, claiming that "this is just the way we make records now". However, the band's next two albums, Love Kraft and Hey Venus!, were not made available on DVD and, in a 2008 interview with Uncut, Rhys suggested that the release had been something of a failure: "no one gave a shit because people just want to rock n' roll!"[21]

The remixes on the DVD version of Phantom Power vary from radical reworkings such as

royalties, promised to release an album featuring the tracks on their own label, Placid Casual.[26]

Hidden footage of the band firing machine guns can be reached by selecting the song "The Undefeated", waiting 22 seconds until the lettering starts to blink and pressing 'Enter' ('Enter' must be pressed before the lettering blinks for a second time at 24 seconds). Guitarist Huw Bunford has described this footage as being "exactly how it looked on the tin ... noisy, full of testosterone, with pumped up guys in the woods trying to kill furry animals!"[27]

Release

Phantom Power was released on

certified silver in the United Kingdom, denoting sales of more than 60,000 copies.[30]

Region Date Label Format Catalogue
Japan 21 July 2003[31] Epic Records Japan Compact disc EICP-229
United Kingdom 21 July 2003[32] Epic
Vinyl record
 5123751
Compact disc 5123759
DVD 202072 9
United States 22 July 2003[32] XL Recordings/Beggars Banquet US Compact disc BXL 035 CD

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic87/100[33]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[15]
Entertainment WeeklyB[34]
The Guardian[12]
Mojo[35]
NME9/10[13]
Pitchfork8.9/10[36]
Q[7]
Rolling Stone[37]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[38]
SpinA[39]

Phantom Power received generally positive reviews from critics with a score of 87 on Metacritic, denoting "universal acclaim".[33] Drowned in Sound described the album as "another fine, esoteric wonder of an LP",[16] while the NME claimed it is the group's "most focussed, energetic pop record since Radiator" and went on to state that "for a band to be hitting such form six albums into a steady career is astonishing".[13] Q called it "the band's best work to date, as accessible as it is inventive";[7] The Times agreed, calling Phantom Power "the Furries’ most satisfying album to date ... one to cherish."[8] Several critics commented on the "summery pop" nature of the record with Tiny Mix Tapes likening the album to "the sun shining through following a large and brooding thunderstorm" and The Times calling it "mellow summer listening" despite the "grim view of the world" expressed in Gruff Rhys's lyrics.[8][40][41] The NME found that Phantom Power compares favourably with the band's previous release, Rings Around the World, losing some of that album's mainstream polish.[13] AllMusic agreed, expressing relief that the band had loosened up following Rings..., which the website described as "often sounding constrained by its polished widescreen aspirations".[15] Irish website entertainment.ie saw Phantom Power as "a highly polished affair, filled with the widescreen classic pop that Gruff Rhys and co. carry off so effortlessly ... thankfully free of the techno experiments that marred so much of their previous work".[42]

There was some criticism of the album with The Guardian accusing the band of "treading water", the album suffering from overfamiliarity as the group's sixth release despite being a "lovely record".[12] Stylus Magazine expressed similar views, claiming that Phantom Power "feels very much like business as usual for the Welsh wizards, as if they've made just another album".[3] In a 2008 interview with Uncut Rhys described Phantom Power as his favourite Super Furries album, although he conceded that all the band's records "have their moments".[43]

Accolades

Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Tutto Musica! Italy Best 100 albums of the year 2003[44] 2003 56
Iguana Music Spain Best albums 2003[45] 89
Mondo Sonoro Best records 2003[46] 11
Bang United Kingdom Bang albums of 2003: Best of the rest[47] *
The Face Albums of the year 2003: We also loved[48] *
NME
Albums of 2003[49]
 27
Mojo Mojo albums of 2003[50] 16
Q End of year lists[51] 24
Record Collector Best of 2003: New albums[52] 9
The Village Voice United States Pazz & Jop Albums of 2003[53] 87

* denotes an unordered list

Track listing

CD/Vinyl

All tracks are written by Super Furry Animals

No.TitleLength
1."Hello Sunshine"3:35
2."Liberty Belle"2:58
3."Golden Retriever"2:25
4."Sex, War & Robots"3:50
5."The Piccolo Snare"6:08
6."Venus & Serena"3:24
7."Father Father #1" (Instrumental)1:54
8."Bleed Forever"3:40
9."Out of Control"2:42
10."Cityscape Skybaby"4:34
11."Father Father #2" (Instrumental)1:30
12."Valet Parking"4:35
13."The Undefeated"4:08
14."Slow Life"6:59
Japanese CD release bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
15."Summer Snow"2:30
16."Blue Fruit"4:42
DVD
No.TitleLength
1."Hello Sunshine"3:35
2."Liberty Belle"2:58
3."Golden Retriever"2:25
4."Sex, War & Robots"3:49
5."The Piccolo Snare"6:08
6."Venus & Serena"3:24
7."Father Father #1" (Instrumental)1:54
8."Bleed Forever"3:39
9."Out of Control"2:43
10."Cityscape Skybaby"4:34
11."Father Father #2" (Instrumental)1:30
12."Valet Parking"4:35
13."The Undefeated"4:07
14."Slow Life"6:59
15."Hello Sunshine (Freiband Remix)"10:31
16."Hello Sunshine (
Brave Captain Remix)"
6:12
24."Out of Control (Zan Lyons Remix)"4:56
25."Cityscape Skybaby (Minotaur Shock)"5:55
26."Valet Parking (Force Unknown Remix)"5:06
27."Valet Parking (Sean O'Hagan Remix)"5:06
28."The Undefeated (Llwybr Llaethog Remix)"3:43
29."Slow Life (Bench Remix)"5:29
30."Sir Doufus Styles (Elec. Logoland Duih)"5:06

Personnel

Additional musicians

  • Jonathan 'Catfish' Thomas – pedal steel guitar on tracks 4, 13
  • Kris Jenkins –
    percussion
    on tracks 1, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14
  • Rachel Thomas – backing vocals on tracks 3, 4
  • Gary Alsebrook – trumpet on tracks 6, 7
  • Savio Pacini – trombone on tracks 6, 7
  • Rico Rodriguez – trombone on track 13
  • Eddie Thornton – trumpet on track 13
  • Ray Carless – saxophone on track 13
  • Marcus Holdway – cello on tracks 4, 7, 13, 14
  • Sally Herbert – violin on tracks 4, 7, 14
  • Brian G. Wright – violin on tracks 4, 7, 14
  • Gill Morley – violin on tracks 4, 7, 14
  • Ellen Blair – violin on tracks 4, 7, 14
  • Pete Fowler – Kaoss flanges on track 14
  • Neil McFarland – Kaoss flanges on track 14

Remixers (DVD)

Production

  • Super Furry Animals –
    engineering, surround sound
    mix
  • Mario Caldato Jr. – mixing
  • Jeff Knowler – mixing assistant
  • Gorwel Owen – engineering (Rockfield Studios)
  • Jason Harris – engineering assistant (Rockfield Studios)
  • Tim Lewis – engineering assistant (Rockfield Studios)
  • Tony Doogan – engineering (Monnow Valley Studios)
  • Sir Doufous Styles – engineering assistant (Monnow Valley Studios and AV Happenings AKA The Sauna), engineering (Wings for Jesus)
  • Stuart Hawkes –
    mastering

Design

Charts

Chart Peak
position
Ireland Albums Chart 12[28]
Norway Albums Chart 36[28]
UK Albums Chart 4[28]
Top Heatseekers
 17[54]
U.S. Top Independent Albums 14[54]

References

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  2. ^ a b c d Singer, Maya (18 September 2003). "Power Plants". Dallas Observer. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
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  27. BBC Wales. 2003. Retrieved 30 March 2009. [dead link
    ]
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  38. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8
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External links

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