Rings Around The World (Expanded Edition)

Super Furry Animals | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 29, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: XL Recordings Ltd
• ASIN: B000060MMJ
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,113 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #80 in Music > Alternative Rock > British Alternative > Britpop

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Alternate Route To Vulcan Street

2. Sidewalk Serfer Girl

3. (Drawing) Rings Around The World

4. It's Not The End Of The World?

5. Receptacle For The Respectable

6. (A) Touch Sensitive

7. Miniature

8. No Sympathy

9. Juxtapozed With U

10. Presidential Suite

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Tradewinds

2. The Roman Road

3. Patience

4. Happiness Is A Worn Pun

5. Gypsy Space Muffin

6. Edam Anchorman

7. All The Shit U Do

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The fifth album from Welsh pop prodigies Super Furry Animals is their most ambitious work to date. Featuring everything from status quo-style boogie-rockers to technofied drill and bass meltdowns, this is an immaculately conceived pop masterpiece that has more in common with the excitable genre-crushing of 1999's Guerrilla than with their previous album, the respectable but defiantly firework-less Welsh-language folk outing Mwng. One of the great joys here is that, though the lyrics are imbued with dippy fun, closer inspection reveals a satisfyingly off-kilter--and frequently inspirational--intelligence. The gorgeous "Presidential Suite"--which, incidentally, features John Cale tickling the ivories--marries the classic SFA psychedelic shimmer to a weary lyric concerning the Monica Lewinsky scandal that rocked the Clinton presidency. Frontman Gruff Rhys questions the event sadly, as if it's the most passé thing he can comprehend. Perhaps that's so: when you're playing with the sort of magic that's scattered liberally over Rings Around the World, even the salacious exploits of world leaders pale into tedium. --Louis Pattison

Product Description

Super Furry Animals' leap to a major label in the U.K. with Rings Around the World isn't that drastic of a change -- Fuzzy Logic was also released on Epic in the U.S., Creation was subsidized by Sony, and they never were exactly wanting of money on their previous records -- but the band nevertheless seizes the opportunity to consolidate their strengths, providing an introduction for listeners that may not have been paying attention before. As such, it's hard not to consider it as a bit of a missed opportunity, since this is the first SFA album not to progress from its predecessor, or offer the shock of the new, and that's hard not to miss -- but, if this is the first SFA record you hear, it'll likely intrigue, even dazzle, with its kaleidoscopic blend of pop, prog, punk, psych, and electronica.

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cripes, This Is Good!, April 24, 2002

By 

Ben C-F (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rings Around The World (Expanded Edition) (Audio CD)

You know, with this release and the last couple Gorky's Zygotic Mynci albums, I'm starting to suspect (nay, hope) that the best, and most influential, pop music right now is coming from strange Welsh bands with brilliant names. Not only is RINGS AROUND THE WORLD a teriffic album, it's arguably the best new album I've heard in a very long time (maybe since Sigur Ros). Everything about this album is great, from the production to the vocals to the pop culture references, to the songs themselves, it's all top-notch.

The most intriguing thing about this album is the way it combines so many different influences, from so many different genres, and makes it all sound both unique, and perfectly natural. Beyond the obvious Beatle/Beach Boys nods, I pick up references to Elvis Costello, Beck, Neil Young, Harry Nillson, the entire Stax catalogue, the list goes on and on. Basically, any semi-popular, semi-influential band in the last 30 years seemed to make an impression on this band, and they turn up here in various ways, sometimes within one song ("Receptacle For The Respectable," for instance, opens with a bouyant 1964-era Beatle romp, then slows things down to a nice mid-70's Elton John ballad, takes a brief excursion into "Cool Cool Water"-era Brian Wilson-- complete with Sir Paul McCartney munching on veggies-- before finally bringing it home with Chemical Brothers-esque sonic textures and a bit of Korn grumbling), and the effect is both staggering and really, really neato.

The lyrics are a treat as well, usually inventive wordplays ("You came to me in piece, and you left me in pieces"), a couple very nasty turns ("Don't try me for sympathy; I don't feel sorry for thee; You deserve to die"), and really interesting takes on religious fanatacism ("Run Christian Run," a somewhat cynical tome set to a tune that's pure Pink Floyd) and even the whole Monica Lewinsky debacle ("Presidential Suite"). There are a few moments when the music does get rather cheesy ("Juxtaposed With U" has some nice lyrics but the melody is quite gewwy), but by and large this is a remarkably consistent album. The second CD of bonus tracks is great to, icing on an already gourmet cake.

So, in other words, I really reccommend this one! You won't be disappointed, unless you're expecting something like Radiohead, which this isn't (it's better, frankly), or if you're not really into impossibly catchy ear candy with substance. There's nothing really new here, and other bands have attempted this before, but one thing's for sure-- these guys got it right.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars completely deranged...one of the year's best, September 6, 2001

By 

sask - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rings Around the World (Audio CD)

My favourite new albums are the ones that are both instantly pleasing to hear as well as being challenging at the same time, records that throw convention out the window, great pop music that's a bit off-kilter, with clever lyrics to boot. Super Furry Animals' new album Rings Around The World is the first new album of 2001 to completely blow me away, a soaring, aural mindfunk of a pop album.

Where should I begin? Every track is musically vastly different from the other and is punctuated by Gruff Rhys's oddball lyrics, the first five songs getting the album off to a flying start. The mellow piano ballad 'Alternate Route To Vulcan Street' kicks off the album with the enigmatic line "sometimes I ponder/what if the Caspian Sea/should merger/over my shoulder", 'Sidewalk Serfer Girl' lampoons the Beach Boys with a bit of a glam twist, the irresistable electropop of '(Drawing) Rings Around The World' perfectly mirrors the sound of ELO, and Rhys's impeccable singing on the plaintive ballad 'It's Not The End Of The World' sounds as good as the best work by Blur. The album's best moments, though, are in the amazing 'Receptacle For The Respectable' (talk about the song title of the year). It starts at a midtempo, acoustic guitar-driven pace with harmonies that sound lifted straight from Wings, then suddenly breaks down to half the speed in an Abbey Road-styled segue before slowing down even more, with a gentle, horn-driven melody that also features the sound of Paul McCartney eating celery and carrots, then builds up to the final section where, over faux-industrial keyboards, Rhys belts out the song's title in his best death metal impersonation. All this happens in less than four exhilerating minutes, making it one of the most stunning songs you'll hear in a long time.

There are no low points on the rest of Rings Around The World: '(A) Touch Sensitive' is an effective stab at trip-hop, 'Shoot Doris Day' sounds a lot like Elvis Costello and just might hint at someone's great dislike of The Man Who Knew Too Much ("Sentimentality pause/as Jimmy Stewart ignores her question"), the grim, folky 'No Sympathy' that metamorphoses from a Crosby, Stills & Nash homage into a boisterous exercise in electronic knob-twiddling, the Marvin Gaye-influenced 'Juxtaposed With U' that combines biting social commentary with bizarre humour ("I'm not in love with you/but I won't hold that against you") and makes Rhys sound like a Welsh Jarvis Cocker, the hilarious lampooning of the Clinton-Lewinsky controversy in 'Presidential Suite', the Pink Floyd sounds of 'Run Christian Run', and the gentle "doo doo-wah"'s of 'Fragile Happiness that evoke the Velvet Underground.

Super Furry Animals have made a major statement with this spectacular album, which was close to a year in the making, and as a result they have emerged as one of the best bands on the planet. You can't go wrong with this flawless piece of work, which will end up close to, or perhaps, at the top of my best of 2001 list.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is just flat out awesome music, March 5, 2005

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rings Around The World (Expanded Edition) (Audio CD)

I have to admit to coming to Super Furry Animals rather late in the game. I am unfamiliar with their earlier albums (though I plan on rectifying that very soon), so I didn't know what to expect except that the album had come highly recommended by my brother. There are so many very good things that I would like to say about this one. First and foremost, it is immensely enjoyable, and by that I mean that a large number of the cuts engender a sense of joy while listening. I hate metaphors that cut across genres, but you know the way that champagne fizzles in the mouth when you drink it? Well, that is almost how I feel when I hear these great songs. Second, although all the songs are great, each one manages to be great in a way that depends in no way on the other songs. For instance, the title cut sounds like the Beach Boys processed through alternative, punk, and power pop. It both sounds like the Beach Boys, and doesn't, but either way does not sound like any other song on the album. Similarly, the boys in the band see fit to raid at random the entire rock and roll songbook. In a couple of spots they actually use the same guitar/voice synthesizer that Peter Frampton popularized. They constantly sound completely original and yet very much like someone else. This willingness to create new syntheses from a huge range of musical influences is one thing that a host of the more creative current bands in rock have in common.

This is also one of those rare albums that completely justifies being issued on two CDs. This is not a function of insufficient discipline in editing: there simply is a lot of great music. From the very first song with the enticing title "Alternate Route to Vulcan Street" through a host of superb songs, this is just great stuff. Some of my favorite include the title track, the stellar "Receptacle for the Respectable," or "Juxtaposed with U" (which uses the Peter Frampton synthesizer, and in other ways sounds as if it warped straight out of some seventies soundtrack), and "Sidewalk Serfer Girl." The bonus disc contains many cuts just as excellent as those on the original disc, making the American version of the album an amazing bargain for the price.

What especially intrigues me about these guys is that several things I have read indicates that many people prefer some of their earlier albums. If they have done stuff better than this, then I can barely wait.