Customer Reviews

Songbook: Singles 1

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

How can this not be five stars, ya know? I have followed them since Fuzzy Logic and really, they've done no wrong. Their b-sides are better than some bands'a-sides. I am about to purchase the dvd instead with the videos and documentary. As much as I am a fan, listening to their full lengths will always sound better. If you are newly keen on this band, the greatest hits is a great start. If you want to try more, "Radiator" or "Rings Around The World" are definite must-owns.

The Super Furry Animals are the most important band in the history of music, everywhere, for all time, forever. NO OTHER BAND has made the kind of musical leaps and bounds from album to album while preserving their very own voice. NO OTHER BAND could make otherwise head-bobbing wastrels sing along to songs in Welsh. NO OTHER BAND could make such joyfully depressing songs and be so very right all the time about everything.

People who do not enjoy the Super Furry Animals do not enjoy music. I feel sorry for those people, because not being able to enjoy music is like not being able to see the sun come up.

Some people say that the Super Furries are merely brit-pop, as if they produced the kind of throw-away trash you'd hear on a Blur or Oasis album. These people are foolish. They have been tricked, or misinformed. Take any two SFA albums and listen to them; expand your mind; and learn to sing Beach Boys-type harmonies, in Welsh. Don't listen to silly people who dislike layered music, who don't bother to listen full to SFA before talking about them.

This collection is as good a place to start listening to SFA as any. Everyone should enjoy listening to SFA once and a while or even more often than that. Listen early, and listen often.

SFA=OK

I had heard about these Welsh guys a long time ago. Entertainment Weekly loved Phantom Power, but I didn't pay attention. Lo and behold, several years have passed and I found out they had a greatest hits cd out. So I preordered it and got it two days ago. Their music has few similarities to bands before them, except for the Beach Boys at times. If the Beach Boys had done this many drugs, maybe I would have liked them too. But Super Furry Animals form very innovative music in the vintage soundscapes they create. I recommend scanning over their razor-sharp witty lyrics while listening. In fact, now I want to learn to speak Welsh just to figure out what exactly they're saying on "Yesbeidiau Heulog", and "Blerwytirhwng?". I'm definitely going to join the SFA cult and if you like music at all, you should too.

Oh, and don't forget to blast "The Man Don't Give A F*ck" down neighborhood streets ;)

A nice catch-all of singles and concert favorites, though it can be a bit of a jagged listen. These songs weren't originally conceived to sit together comfortably as an album, and as such they don't sit all that comfortably. In small doses, every single one is a confectionary delight. As a whole, the album could use a bit more breathing space.

Ok let me start by saying i gave this cd 4* instead of 5 because every single song for the most part in there past cataloge are just as good as the singles presented here, so you might get this and think this is all you need. You are very wrong. That was the mistake i made for about 5 months after i got this cd, then one day i thought awww ill just get a few more of there cds for the heck of it, and man they dont have any stinker songs. Now the only cds of theres that im missing is fuzzy logic and the gurilla one (i cant remember what its called but something like that). They to me are the beatles, they change there styles more times than the beatles can think of and there harmonies are more like the beach boys. They are increddible. Ive been trying to turn every person i can on to them because they are just that good. There should be no reason in the world that they arnt a household name and there shouldnt be a reson for you the consumer not to like them. They are glorious pop music for the masses. They put every other pop band to shame.

writing after reading the sole review from 2004 (the author must be
9 by now) offering only 1 star and the dumbest personal attack since
Mike Love was shut down by Mick Jagger.

as comps go this is near perfect, partly due to the flow of the tracks. on a singles album there are no "and this is the single" moments -perhaps the reason our first kindly reviewer found the Welsh band too
diverse to digest. yep.. which is what i love about them.
diverse but perceptive of their boundaries, each album keen to explore not a new SOUND as much as a new feel. a very smart band who were not actually darlings of the Brit press - not everyone got it.

i did. you did. Beck did! i hear scattered SFA bites all over his
90's junk. and Blur? go back to their self titled "woo-hoo!" debacle
and see what you find. yeah Damon, you did change your band's sound...
or rather borrowed it from somewhere.

after much success it was time for a best of and also a splendid
time for one dismissive idiot to refer to "Juxtaposed With You" as a Barry White knock off and in a brilliant play on words, citing
"If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You" as yes, being "destroyed".
too easy.
SFA fans - NO ONE RESPONDED? yeah i know these regard the import
but c'mon.

i had already purchased so i can blame the rest of you for letting
us down. and of the Furries, i cannot in my wildest dreams imagine a "Songbook Vol. 2" as the post best-of albums (including a
noticeable decline throughout Phantom Power)has failed to
capture my attention.
i still love the band and last year's "Hey Venus!" is their
BEST since "Songbook".
NOW does anyone wanna comment? let's have it.

First off I'll admit that I am no real fan of the Super Furry Animals so indeed if you are a fan you're going to really disagree with what I think. Having said that I'll try to really review this album without the useless " Hahahaha this band really suck, you like sh***y bands if you like this band," because it doesn't really work. Normally bands usually give critics ammunition for their hatred and in " If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You " they have the perfect song. It's typical because, like practically many songs on this album it destroys a good thing when they should just leave it be. They seem to forever try to fill in every little space when it's completely unnecessary and for a supposedly " trippy " band they're distinctly untrippy. They don't even sound psychedelic at all....the sound isn't at all lively and sometimes I'm convinced I've heard the same guitar riff for the past 5 songs.

But I'll give them credit for Hermann Loves Pauline - truly a great song that they didn't try and destroy to pieces within the first 45 seconds. It is actually a great sing-a-long pop song worthy of the best in the business but they're later attempts at the pop song are nothing short of annoying. Drawing Rings Around The World is a horrible Beach Boys parody that begs belief. Also, Juxtaposed Wit U is their Barry White song and it's not much of a looker in that. Fire In My Heart was the biggest mistake in a single as it sounds absolutely dead as a song. The rest as you know, is very familiar and well, not much else to make for good listening unless you are a crazed fan ( which from experience seems to be most SFA fan )

But then these are Indie Royalty according to Mojo, Q, NME and practically any magazine you care to read and it seems such a sin to criticise their work for some ungodly reason to which many fans will lambast you for being a blasphemer and a heathen to the cause. Oh well, you can't please everybody!

Speaking of sin, this whole thing reminds me of the film, Naked Lunch, where the two writers are expressing their views. One says that he has to get things in from every angle so as to let everyone know what the feeling is supposed to be. Whereas the other writer has a more " Catholic interpretation." From listening to SFA this seem to try and get all angles but with very little perspective at all