Gruff Rhys
Candylion

While DeBaser drowns in a sea of reviews about cinema and it's almost impossible to tell a movie from an album, here I am listening to this shining ray of sunshine from Wales. The same Wales as the little-known Gorky's Zycotic Mynci, the more famous Stereophonics, and the never glorified Super Furry Animals.

Gruff Rhys is the singer of the "Super Furry Animals," a brilliant band that is still relatively unknown here in Italy. Nevertheless, they have written important pages in music history in the late 90s with masterpieces like "Radiator" (1997), "Rings Around The World" (2001), and the last beautiful musical painting that is "Love Kraft" (2005). Coming back to Gruff, well it's him: that singer with a voice in the style of "late Damon Albarn" and those long, disheveled hair, with a farmer's face.
Singing with the eclectic S.F.A., who made absolutely extraordinary and hard-to-classify music, wasn’t enough for Gruff. Without leaving his old friends, he first released the unpronounceable "Yr Atal Genhedlaeth" at the beginning of 2005. Written entirely in Welsh, this album is a great 30-minute musical exercise that you can easily listen to without problems, although I doubt you will ever manage to sing it unless you understand Welsh.

Exactly two years later, Gruff made a grand return with 'Candylion'.

If you know the Super Furry Animals, after listening to 'Candylion', you won't be surprised by anything, but you will certainly appreciate this style of music balancing between folk and pop. However, this is too restrictive a term because Candylion is certainly more than a folk-pop record, 'Candylion' is something that never bores you, that quickly slips away and makes anyone who has had a shitty day smile.
Gruff uses as a strong point the cardboard lion that appears on the cover. In the video of the eponymous song, released as a single, Gruff appears as a Welsh Giovanni Mucciaccia. Together with collaborator Lisa Jen, he illustrates all the steps to create your cardboard lion. Very amusing, ironic, and effective, there's no doubt about it (see here to believe).

The songs of 'Candylion' are (almost) all short and effective. The album's introduction is entrusted to "This is just the beginning" of Superfurriana memory which closely resembles an 80s video game theme. After that, we start with the title track, which you have probably already seen with its light and colorful tones by watching the video and consequently listening to the music. Almost every song on the album is laced with delicate violin shades that make the Richard Ashcroft solo or, if you prefer, the Verve of Urban Hymns envious.
Moving forward in the listening, we find the fantastic "Lonesome Words". I have never heard such a nervous and galloping classical guitar, creating an atmosphere of anticipation and mystery with the omnipresent Lisa Jen choruses, the violins in full swing, and the rhythm of the percussion so precise and perfect. "Painting People Blue" and "The Court Of King Arthur" are a bit more brit. "Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru" reminds us occasionally of the ironic and playful spirit of the S. F. A and along with "Ffrwydriad Yn Y Ffurfafen" (quite similar to "Lonesome Words") represent the only ones written in Welsh. There are even strong jazz hints (complete with double bass) in "Now that the feeling is gone" embellished and mixed with more minimal electronics.

At the tail end, there's "Skylon!" which, probably along with "Cycle of Violence", represents the flaws of the album. The latter because, in my opinion, it is too self-redundant and also too similar to Ffrwydriad Yn Y Ffurfafen (which in turn is similar to Lonesome Words). "Skylon!"'s only flaw is its length: more than fourteen endless minutes. I emphasized "only" because the song itself is beautiful, has an excellent rhythm maintained by the drums and the guitar that seems to throw droplets of water on the fire, and also gives the impression of a long journey. Skylon! is bearable, however, up to 6-7 minutes after which it becomes heavy, repeating the same motif over and over. In my view, Gruff could have ended the song earlier without too many problems. But I must say that those who listen to the Super Furry Animals must already be used to this kind of closure. Remember the endless "Blerwytirhwng", also a tail end of Out Spaced (1998) where halfway through the song, there was a strange sound that went on loop and never ended.

To conclude worthily, I can say that the album in question is definitely recommended to those who love the Super Furry Animals, to those who want to listen to a bit of harmless pop, to those who want to spend three-quarters of an hour in peace without getting too bored, and to those who have been intrigued by the words of my review. Because that's what reviews are for, right?

Oh, by the way!

Post-scriptum: this is not a movie!