TWO YEARS AFTER releasing their last album Rings Around The World, the Super Furry Animals (SFA) have finally come up with their much-awaited sequel. And it's one that doesn't disappoint.
With some critics labelling the Rings a botched attempt at broadening the band's audience base, Phantom Power no doubt represents their more audacious and adventurous side.
In an era where young bands become addicted to reinventing their sound with the most basic tools over and over again, SFA are constantly looking for new means to express themselves as tunefully as possible.
When Phantom Power is bleak, it's startlingly so.
While in general it seems to reflect the politically precarious times in which it is written - the fear of war and destruction is tangible, with plentiful references to body bags, oil wells, bombs and tarnished flags - it is also at times uplifting, joyous and frivolous.
Out of Control is a rush of torture-chamber ambience that's as dark as any SFA song to date, while Golden Retriever is a more playful piece that appropriates the language of old blues men and twists it into all sorts of modern mis-shapes.