Phantom Power (Super Furry Animals album)

Infobox Album | Name = Phantom Power
Type = Album
Artist = Super Furry Animals


Released = 21 July 2003
Recorded = 2002
Genre = Indie
Length = 54:30
Label = Epic Records
5024139 (LP) / (CD)
Producer = Super Furry Animals & Mario Caldato Jr.
Reviews =
*Allmusic rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:8n841vk4zzma link]
*Drowned in Sound rating|8|10 [http://www.drownedinsound.com/release/view/3395 link]
*"NME" (9/10) [http://www.nme.com/reviews/super-furry-animals/7139 link]
*Pitchfork (8.9/10) [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/22144/Super_Furry_Animals_Phantom_Power 7/25/03]
*Robert Christgau Rating-Christgau|dud [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Super+Furry+Animals link]
*"Rolling Stone" rating|3|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/293203/phantom_power 8/7/03]
*Stylus Magazine (C) [http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/super-furry-animals/phantom-power1.htm link] | Last album = "Rings Around the World"
(2001)
This album = "Phantom Power"
(2003)
Next album = "Phantom Phorce"
(2004)
Misc = Singles
Name = Phantom Power
Type = album
Single 1 = Golden Retriever
Single 1 date = 14 July, 2003
Single 2 = Hello Sunshine
Single 2 date = 20 October, 2003
Single 3 = Slow Life EP
Single 3 date = 19 April, 2004

"Phantom Power" is the sixth album by Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals.

The album was released in 2003, and featured a range of songs more acoustic in style, while retaining the Furries' techno subtleties. One of the most notable tracks is the seven-minute epic "Slow Life", which blends pop, techno and folk. The album has been received extremely well, with many critics suggesting it is the best album of their career.

"Phantom Power" makes reference, through such songs as "Liberty Belle", and "The Piccolo Snare", to the Iraq war. The album, like their last ("Rings Around the World"), was simultaneously released on CD, vinyl and DVD, accompanied by full-length videos, animations and remixes.

There was also a Japanese version of the album, which featured two extra songs, "Summer Snow" and "Blue Fruit", as track numbers 15 and 16 accordingly. In the UK, these were b-sides to the "Golden Retriever" single.

The album was remixed and re-released as "Phantom Phorce" in 2004.

Recording

"Phantom Power" was recorded in the band's own office-block based studio in Cardiff.cite web|last=Walton|first=Matt|title=Interview: Super Furry Animals|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A1111438|work=BBC Collective|date=2003-07-18|accessdate=2008-07-16] The group took a hands-on approach to the making of the album, engineering themselves for the first time. According to Guto Pryce this involved a fair amount of trial and error as the band "didn’t really know what [they] were doing". Soundproof booths were improvised by setting up tents in the office corridors:

The album has been described as the band's "political record" with Gruff Rhys stating: "It's political yeah, but not forcefully so. There’s a song about 9/11 on there but I think most of the subject matter on this record directly influences everyone’s life. If you’ve flown on a plane in the past year, you're much more conscious of heavy security...and paranoia creeps in. Plus, when we're in the studio, we're all quite BBC News 24 addicts, so we spent most of the album sessions absorbing all these fucked up war images from around the world. It inevitably affects the way you write."cite web|last=Sue|first=David|title=Super Furry Animals interview|url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/entertainment/music/s/62/62458_move_super_furry_animals_interview.html|work=Manchester Evening News|date=2003-07-09|accessdate=2008-08-07] Rhys has claimed that the band love travelling to North America but that he feels frustrated with American foreign policy, particularly as "it effectively decides what the foreign policy is in the UK".cite web|last=Cooper|first=Merek|title=Super Furry Animals|url=http://discorder.ca/features/03octsuperfurry.html|work=Discorder|date=2003?|accessdate=2008-08-28] Some journalists have lambasted the band for not being willing to talk about the political nature of the record, however.cite web|last=Heap|first=Rich|title=SuperFicial Animals|url=http://www.wessexscene.co.uk/the-edge/712|work=Wessex Scene Online|date=2003-11-25|accessdate=2008-07-09]

According to Guto Pryce many of the songs on "Phantom Power" were originally written on an acoustic guitar in "unconventional tuning".cite web|last=Barrett|first=Dan|title=Super Furry Animals|url=http://www.pixelsurgeon.com/interviews/interview.php?id=53|work=Pixelsurgeon|date=2002?|accessdate=2008-08-28] Indeed the album was originally concevied as a ten song cycle in DADDAD tuning.cite web|last=|first=|title=Super Furry Animals|url=http://www.hiponline.com/music-artists/super-furry-animals/|work=Hip Online|date=2003?|accessdate=2008-08-28]

Track listing

# "Hello Sunshine" – 3:35
# "Liberty Belle" – 2:58
# "Golden Retriever" – 2:25
# "Sex, War & Robots" – 3:49
# "The Piccolo Snare" – 6:08
# "Venus and Serena" – 3:24
# "Father Father #1" – 1:54
# "Bleed Forever" – 3:39
# "Out of Control" – 2:43
# "Cityscape Skybaby" – 4:34
# "Father Father #2" – 1:30
# "Valet Parking" – 4:35
# "The Undefeated" – 4:07
# "Slow Life" – 6:59

DVD

Infobox music DVD
Name = Phantom Power
Type = DVD
Artist = Super Furry Animals


Released = 21 July 2003
Recorded =
Genre = Indie
Length =
Label = Epic Records
Producer =
Reviews =
* Allmusic [http://www.allmusicguide.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gxfpxqyald0e link] |

The DVD of "Phantom Power" contains the 14 songs featured on the CD version of the album (all of which are accompanied by videos/animations), 16 remixes, commentary by producer Mario Caldato Jr. and song lyrics.

In a 2008 interview with "Uncut" Gruff Rhys stated that "the idea behind the DVDs was that they'd be used like platform games where you'd go into the album and with every song there's different options for the mixes ... but no one gave a shit because people just want to rock n' roll!"cite journal|first = Piers|last = Martin|title = Album by album: Super Furry Animals|journal = Uncut|volume = 131|pages = 70–72|month = April | year = 2008]

Track listing

# "Hello Sunshine"
# "Liberty Belle"
# "Golden Retriever"
# "Sex, War & Robots"
# "The Piccolo Snare"
# "Venus and Serena"
# "Father Father #1"
# "Bleed Forever"
# "Out of Control"
# "Cityscape Skybaby"
# "Father Father #2"
# "Valet Parking"
# "The Undefeated"
# "Slow Life"
# "Hello Sunshine (Freiband Remix)"
# "Hello Sunshine (Weevil Remix)"
# "Liberty Belle (Mario's Remix)"
# "Golden Retriever (Killa Kella)"
# "Sex, War & Robots (Wauvenfold)"
# "The Piccolo Snare (Fourtet Remix)"
# "Venus and Serena (Massimo Remix)"
# "Father Father (Boom Bip Remix)"
# "Bleed Forever (Brave Captain Remix)"
# "Out of Control (Zan Lyons Remix)"
# "Cityscape Skybaby (Minotaur Shock)"
# "Valet Parking (Force Unknown Remix)"
# "Valet Parking (Sean O'Hagan Remix)"
# "The Undefeated (Llwybr Llaethog Remix)"
# "Slow Life (Bench Remix)"
# "Sir Doufus Styles (Elec. Logoland Duih)"

Hidden footage

Hidden footage of the band firing machine guns can be reached by selecting the song "The Undefeated", waiting 22 seconds until the lettering starts to blink and pressing 'Enter' ('Enter' must be pressed before the lettering blinks for a second time at 24 seconds)

References