Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Most Inventive Band in the UK, May 16, 2000
The Welsh popsters dispense their third album with relative ease. Once again they bridge new creative gaps and create one of the best albums of 1999.The Super Furry Animals real talent lies in their ability to combine upbeat pop elements with the avant garde. This album lies creatively somewhere between "Parklife" period Blur and Mogwai. For an "arty" group however the Super Furry Animals remain a lot of fun and are anything but unlistenable like some of their peers. Take album opener, Check it Out, a one and a half minute ditty that continues accelerating the same sample over an odd bass groove. Then "Do or Die" kicks in and we are in pop/punk heaven for another two minutes before we reach the first of the albums many highpoints. This being the lovely "The Turning Tide." Northern Lites, first single, is a wonderful slice of Beach Boys pop with a tropical flavorings and steel drumming. The album then begins to experiment for a few tracks. "Wherever I Lay My Phone That's My Home" is repellant at first but after several listens its genius will shine through. Second single "Fire in my Heart" is a triumph and closer "Keep the Cosmic Trigger Happy" is the catchiest thing here and wouldn't be out of place if it were recorded in the Brit explosion of 1995. SFA are undoubtedly the most constantly creative group working in music today. (Mansun are up there) They combine the catchy with the avante garde in a way that no other group do and each of their albums gets better perhaps international success lay on the horizon.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SFA's most eclectic, ambitious and best work., January 18, 2005
At the height of the Furries innovation came 1999's Guerrilla, a chaotic clash of styles which somehow moulded itself into their best work. Similar to Rings Around The World but without the trappings of major label backing, this is a stunning collection which goes at breakneck speed.
From punk-pop (Do Or Die) to calypso (Northern Lites, surely the best opening single ever released off an album) to novelty techno (the utterly bonkers and utterly wonderful Wherever I Lay My Phone That's My Phone), Guerrilla somehow retains a focus despite it's eclecticism, with the band's genius knack for melody never faltering no matter what genre is attempted.
The centrepiece is Something's Come From Nothing, a 6 minute work of pure majesty. For all the intricacies on the other tracks, Somethings... is beautifully simple, straight-forward bass, guitar and drums providing the backbone. But this is Cian Ciaran's finest hour, delivering an absolute knock-out of a spaced-out melody that is undoubtedly the most staggeringly, heartbreakingly wondrous electronic piece of music ever released this side of Boards Of Canada.
"Something's come from nothing, nothing seems to come from something", is the songs key repeatedly line, Gruff barely singing, barely registering above the backing. It's fitting that SFA's best song (which is some compliment) also sadly sums up their UK career today. For all the pop gems that have loitered around the Top 20 for a week or so, it is absolutely criminal that Britain's best pop band have yet to have a Top 5 album or a Top 10 single. So while Keane, Stereophonics and the rest can have their now guaranteed success from next to nothing, the band creating most defintely something, heck, EVERYTHING, are left as a relatively popular cult band. And that is heartbreaking.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Have you heard the hidden track?, February 9, 2003
I love getting new cd's, especially when they're as good as this one. Just when I thought I knew this cd like the back of my hand I found out about a hidden track called 'Citizen's Band.' Just put the cd in and play it like normal, then hit the rewind or review button and you can rewind for 5 minutes before 'Check It Out' to the hidden track. It's like getting a new single only it's been on your shelf for ages!
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![Guerrilla [Bonus CD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61MR8KKFR6L._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
