“Fuzzy Logic (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (Digital Version)”, for its low price alone and the awesome music featured (47 tracks), it’s a must own! Recommended!
Click here to purchase Super Furry Animals “Fuzzy Logic (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)” on Amazon
BAND: Super Furry Animals
TITLE: Fuzzy Logic
DURATION: 47 Songs (2 Hours and 38 Minutes)
RELEASE DATE: May 20, 1996
DELUXE RELEASE YEAR: 2016
From Cardiff (the capital and largest city of Wales), comes the band Super Furry Animals.
The band which consists of lead vocalist/guitarist Gruff Rhys, lead guitarist/vocals Huw Bunford, bass guitarist Guto Pryce, keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Clan Ciaran and drummer/vocals Dafydd Ieuan. And at one time, featured actor Rhys Ifans (“Notting Hill”, “The Amazing Spider-Man”, “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, “House of Dragon”) as a band member.
The band is no doubt a major representative of the “Cool Cymru” era which is a Welsh cultural movement in music and independent film in the ’90s and 2000s (alongside Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Catatonia, to name a few).
The band released a total of nine albums which charted in the top 25 of the UK Albums Chart and is a band that has the most top 75 hits without reaching the top 10 of the UK Singles Charts despite having albums critically praised by many publications.
Some may call them imaginative, creative, weird but I think because they are unique and original, they are one of the coolest rock bands producing cool music.
In fact, “NME” ranked their debut album “Fuzzy Logic” as no. 245 of their “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
And it leads me to reviewing “Fuzzy Logic (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)”, a wonderful release which has 47 tracks (the original had 12 tracks total), with all songs remastered in 2016, B-sides, demo sessions and live performances. And the digital version is sold on Amazon for a wonderful deal at under $15!
The album kicks off with the band’s second single “God! Show Me Magic” which reached no. 33 on the UK Singles Charts and became the first song by the band to reach the UK Top 40.
The catchy song with is known for it’s cool guitars and while it’s a very short song, it’s a humorous, cool song!
It’s B-Side tracks “Death by Melody” is track no. 15 on the album and it’s retro style Welsh rock track “Dim Bendith” is track no. 17.
The second track is “Fuzzy Birds” no doubt has a Britpop style of feel and a bit retro rock. But overall a cool song and a bit psychedelic.
The third track is the band’s third single “Something 4 the Weekend”. This is the US version, which is different from the original version titled “Something for the Weekend” (track 16 on the deluxe edition) which is much faster and has a slight different arrangement. In the US, the original release of “Fuzzy Logic” featured the U.S. version.
The B-sides “Waiting to Happen” is track no. 18 and “Arnofio/Glo in the Dark” is track no. 19 on the deluxe edition.
The fourth track is “Frisbee” is another Britpop sounding track courtesy of its guitars and vocals. I love the guitars and the humorous vocal play towards the end of the song! A very cool song!
The fifth track is “Hometown Unicorn”, which is the debut single for the band. The song reached no. 47 on the UK Singles Chart and was voted “Single of the Week” by the publication, “NME”.
The song makes reference to Franck Fontaine who disappeared in 1979 and turned up a week later and claimed he was abducted by aliens, but the context is “I say you please return me, will you ever return me? Will you ever return me just like Frankie Fontaine?”.
It’s B-Side tracks “Lazy Life (of No Fixed Identity)” is track #13 and “Don’t Be a Fool, Billy!” is track no. 14 on the Deluxe Edition.
The sixth track is “Gathering Moss”, an acoustic guitar driven track and is about the doldrums of being unemployed. A gem in this album.
The seventh track is “If You Don’t Want Me To Destroy You” and this is a song actually is a deep song about human and nature and can be interpreted in different ways. But it’s a very good song!
The B-side “Guacamole” is track no. 20 and the cool Welsh track “(Nid) Hon Yw’r Gân Sy’n Mynd I Achub Yr Iaith (2016 Remaster)” is track no. 22.
The eight track is “Bad Behaviour” and perhaps Gruff Rhys singing about the times he was a bad boy when he was younger but it does have a Ramones rebel kind of feel.
The ninth track “Mario Man” is a song about Super Mario or feeling like Mario as one can hear in the lyrics, “The blim holes in my shell suit. Joined into an absolute. And fell apart one day”.
The tenth track “Hanging’ With Howard Marks” is a song about the Welsh drug smuggler who built an empire smuggling cannabis. The guitars and percussion on this song are awesome!
The eleventh track is “Long Gone” is a rock ballad, followed by its final track “For Now and Ever”, a song that doesn’t have many lyrics and the main lyrics of “Oh! Ho! Oh! Ho! Ho!” is repeated and was a good closing song for the album.
The 21st track is “The Man Don’t Give a Fuck” which was originally supposed to be a B-side for “If You Don’t Want Me to Destroy You” but the band was not able to get permission to use a sample from Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen taken from their song “Show Biz Kids”.
And tracks 23-37 are the demo versions of the tracks and B-sides. I absolutely love demo versions because you can hear how songs evolved from demo to the final track. And for some people, demos can be much better than the originals. Of course, it’s all subjective.
You also get demos for unreleased tracks.
Tracks 38-47 features the live performances of the band performing at the Phoenix Festival 1996.
But overall, the debut album for Super Furry Animals “Fuzzy Logic” was the introduction for many people to “Cool Cymru” music, for others an introduction to Welsh music in terms of literal music sung in Welsh but during the heyday of Britpop, to have something similar but also very different in terms of music and presentation.
“Fuzzy Logic (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (Digital Version)”, for its low price alone and the awesome music featured (47 tracks), it’s a must own! Recommended!
Click here to purchase Super Furry Animals “Fuzzy Logic (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)” on Amazon
