A certain supposedly respectable weekly musical publication recently put forward the theory that all the great bands out there have a natural lifespan of no more than 10 years. I have my opinions on this, but for reasons of space and with everyone's boredom threshold in mind, I'm not going to be drawn into it just now.
Suffice it to say that North Wales' finest SUPER FURRY ANIMALS are an example of a band who show little sign of slowing down creatively even as that decade-long deadline is about to roll around. And what a trip it's been: from hanging with Howard Marks through to buying a tank for promotional purposes and selling it to Don Henley, through making the Welsh language sound unfeasibly cool and - with hindsight - proving to be Creation's most consistently creative band of all (e-mails to the usual address please, Oasis fans), the Welsh wizards have done it all. And most of the highlights are collected under one roof on "Songbook."
Actually, despite devouring both "Fuzzy Logic" and "Radiator" with gusto at the time, your reviewer must confess he'd become a bit blase about SFA'S achievments in recent years. "Songbook" demonstrates what a foolish lapse this has been and - even presented in a mildly irritating non-chronological order - their 20 singles (plus pre-Creation tune "Blerwytihwng" - no, me neither) their fascinating sonic history is a roll call of consistent excellence.
Indeed, just the opening trio of tunes ( the jerky, chemically-assisted "Something 4 The Weekend", the widescreen Beatloid seduction of "It's Not The End Of The World" and the playful Latino bounce of the steel drum-tastic "Northern Lites") make short work of most of the competition in recent times and make it clear Gruff Rhys and co have never been found wanting in the ambition stakes.
Elsewhere, SFA proved they could speed their way through anthemic garage pop (witness the two-minute guerilla blasts through "Do Or Die" and "God! Show Me Magic") and give Oasis a 'shroom-addled run for their money with the splayed-legs boogie of "Golden Retriever" and "Rings Around The World". Meanwhile, it's a brave band who assume they can get away with the Vocoders and ELO-isms of "Juxtaposed with U" and still come up smelling of roses, but SFA pull it off with some panache, so you have to admire their nerve if nothing else.
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Besides, the Super Furries have always possessed the wisdom to show us their sublime, harmony-laden side as well as the madcap, experimentally punky one they tend to be vaunted for. After all, their canon would be considerably poorer without the gentle, Beatles-inspired "Hello Sunshine" - which is just made by Gruff's dopily endearing vocals - and the simple, lilting "Fire In My Heart", which is as heartfelt and downright gorgeous as SFA have ever been. Then, of course, there's "Hometown Unicorn", which remains the best pop song about UFO abduction ever, and "Demons": to this writer's ears, still the very epitome of Rhys and the boys' druidic pop alchemy.
Naturally, the legendary "The Man Don't Give A Fuck" is included, and with this year's epic "Slow Life" harnessing both the band's early house-style experimentalism and the expansive, songwriterly pop sweep they've always done so well, the future is already auguring well as they enter that dreaded second decade.
But whatever the future holds, "Songbook" is a staggering collection and quite a legacy to bequeath as it stands. Significantly, the collection is subtitled "volume one", so the Super Furries fantastic voyage looks like continuing for some time yet. But then it's the wonder of the journey that counts, and as Gruff sings on "The International Language Of Screaming": "it's not what you've seen, it's where you're between." Wise words, young man. Long may your destination remain unknown.
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