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Rating: Here I am again! Hoping to be more liked than last time, I'm back to review the quintessential album by Super Furry Animals: Radiator.
Released back in August 1997, it features 14 compositions of incredible freshness, yet never banal.
The opening is entrusted to "FurryvisionTM", a one and a half minute organ intro, which flows into the first song, "The Placid Casuals", energetic and Peter Gabriel-like. Then comes the first gem: "The International Language Of Screaming", the second single released, which in just over two minutes mixes Blur-like choruses (hearing the la la la la and not thinking of their compositions from the "Parklife/The Great Escape" era is impossible) and reminiscences of the more melodic Beck. The fourth track is "Demons", the last single released, and here the pace slows down, for an extremely catchy ballad complete with a trumpet solo... it's one of the most psychedelic tracks on the album.
After a minute of "Short Painkiller", another composition supported by psychedelic sounds, we arrive at "She's Got Spies", a mix of pop-punk, soul enriched with hand claps, highly enjoyable and in full Super Furry Animals style.
Then comes yet another gem, "Play It Cool", the third single released. Here the rhythm is driving, and in the chorus, you hear an impossible falsetto akin to Mika.
"Hermann Loves Pauline", the first single released, is instead characterized by Pulp-like sounds, with an impossible vocal arrangement and an ultra-catchy chorus. The verse is semi-rapped, a rarity in the SFA repertoire (perhaps rap is only present in the last, "Inaugural Trams"). After the striking "Chupacabras", here comes another super track: "Torra Fy Ngwallt Yn Hir", with Blur-like sounds again. After "Bass Tuned To D.E.A.D", a psychedelic ballad, comes one of the most folk tracks on the album: "Different River", which has a lot of Beatles' more psych feel. Closing tracks are "Download", a haunting slow piece, and "Mountain People", which starts as a typical Brit track, closing with a drum'n'bass coda (if I may call it that), foreshadowing the sounds found in the album "Rings Around The World", another masterpiece by the group.
This review ends here, with two notes: the cover is another super masterpiece by Pete Fowler... beautiful!
Moreover, in 2005 a deluxe version of "Radiator" was released, with a second CD of b-sides, which in the humble opinion of the author, have very little of "b".
Hoping not to be slaughtered as with the first review, I bid you farewell. Be kind in judging me, huh! I'm a newbie... I might get discouraged, offended, and not write anymore!
Paraphrasing Grantnicholas... Key Tracks: "International Language Of Screaming", "Torra Fy Ngwallt Yn Hir", "Play It Cool", "Mountain People"
Themes.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 The Placid Casual (02:49)
Pawprint marks leave a telltale sign
There's a furry friend loose and commiting a crime
Takes no precaution leaving the fold
For the placid casual have remote control
Fuzz clogs up my video
What do we do now
Now we are free again?
Freetown rocked in Sierra Leone
When Valentine Strasser danced his way to the throne
Gunpowder smoke took a heavy toll
But they weren't placid casual so they lost control
Fuzz clogs up my video
What do we do now
Now we are free again?
03 The International Language of Screaming (02:14)
It's not where you're from
It's not where you're at
It's not where you've been
It's where you're between
It's not what you've been
It's not what you've seen
It's where you're between
It's not what you've seen
It's where you're between...
La la la la
La la la la
La la la la...ooh-oh ooh
La la la la...ooh-oh ooh
From A to B
Then on to C
Don't stop the journey
Till you get to Z
Till you get to Z
There's nothing to see
Don't stop the journey
There's nothing to see
Don't stop the journey
Every time I look around me everything seems so stationary
It just sends me the impulse to become reactionary
Spell it out, rip it up, rearrange it on the contrary
If I scream it, I mean it, I hope you will understand me
La la la la
La la la la
La la la la...ooh-oh ooh
La la la la...ooh-oh ooh
04 Demons (05:11)
Clarity just confuses me
The lines drawn on a map, a strange assembly
When there's northeners in southeners
And westenders in eastenders
And sunny days in January
Left spaces in my diary
But the demons never need to know
What the demons never got to see
As we fall in and out of line
Stay in touch now for a while
Cos I know that apathy only ruined me
Hanging around waiting for calamity
And by the year four million
Our skins will be vermilion
I own a dartboard memory
So I'll forget any felony
But the demons never need to know
What the demons never got to see
As we fall in and out of line
Stay in touch now for a while
Cos I know that you know
That we know they don't know what's going on
But the demons never need to know
What the demons never got to see
As we fall in and out of line
Stay in touch now for a while
But the demons never need to read
What we never got around to write
A flirt with mediocrity comes with a heavy penalty
Cos I know that you know
That we know they don't know what's going on...
07 Play It Cool (03:15)
Dormant vices turned on their devices
Now she's raising money for the sex appeal
And when she grazed her knee upon the astroturf
All her blood turned green as the tv screamed:
"Whatever you want to do, do it now and pay later
Whatever you want to say, say it now and pay later
Whatever you want to clean, wash it now and go later
Whatever you want to do, do it now and pay later"
Cos it's no problem if you play it cool
Things are different if you act a fool
The electric mistress always sounds so bold
She says I'm free to do anything I'm told
I try the latest newsflash, it's sensational
I feel so seduced, tell me to reproduce
"Whatever you want to do, do it now and pay later
Whatever you want to say, say it now and pay later
Whatever you want to pray, pray it now and pay later
Whatever you want to do, do it now and pay later"
Cos it's no problem if you play it cool
Things are different if you act a fool...
09 Chupacabras (01:26)
Chupa chupa chupacabras chupacabras chupacabras!
Chupa chupa chupacabras chupacabras chupacabras!
Have you heard about the bat?
Eats your goat and then your cat
Soon enough you will not smile
When it comes you'll run a mile
It says:
Soy super bien soy super super bien soy bien bien super bien
bien bien super super! Soy super bien soy super super bien
Soy bien bien super bien bien bien super super!
From Mexico it came to me
I saw it down in Miami
It vamps in and out of style
When it comes you'll go loco
It says:
Soy super bien soy super super bien soy bien bien super bien
bien bien super super! Soy super bien soy super super bien
Soy bien bien super bien bien bien super super!
Chupa chupa chupacabras chupacabras chupacabras!
Chupa chupa chupacabras chupacabras chupacabras!
Soy super bien soy super super bien soy bien bien super bien
bien bien super super! Soy super bien soy super super bien
Soy bien bien super bien bien bien super super!
13 Download (03:19)
There are people who think, and people who don't
And the people who don't are the ones who have most
There are people who lie, and others who'll cry
And the people who lie are the ones that get by
In the corporate rush to devour the new
We'll be losing our friends who will number but few
Position yourself on another mans cruise
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Other reviews
By northernsky
Radiator maybe still remains their best work to date.
They know how to entertain without ever being trivial.
