October 03, 2025

Super Furry Animals - Radiator (1997)

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*U.K. first pressing. 
Contains 14 tracks total.
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Alternative Rock
Style: Britpop 
Label Number: CRECD214
 
© 1997 Creation Records
Using the psychedelicized prog-punk of Fuzzy Logic as a foundation, Super Furry Animals move even further into left field on their second album, Radiator. As before, the group displays a gift for catchy, deceptively complex melodic hooks, but now its songwriting and arrangements are mind-bogglingly intricate and eclectic. Songs boast intertwining melodies and countermelodies, with guitars and keyboards swirling around the vocals. Similarly, the production is dense and heavy with detail, borrowing heavily from prog rock and psychedelic pop, but pieced together with the invention of techno and played with the energy of punk. It's a heady, impressive kaleidoscope of sounds, but what gives Radiator its weight is the way the sonics complement the songwriting. SFA's songs are melodic, accessible, and utterly original -- melodically, they may borrow from '60s pop, but they rearrange the clichés in fresh ways. Also, Gruff Rhys has a fondness for revolutionary politics and the bizarre that helps give Radiator its intoxicating, otherworldly atmosphere, making it one of the few late-'90s albums that sounds inventive, vibrant, and utterly contemporary. 
 
 tags: super furry animals, radiator, 1997, flac,
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Super Furry Animals - Guerrilla (1999) ☠

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*U.K. first pressing. 
Contains 14 tracks total.
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Neo-Psychedelia
Label Number: CRECD 242
 
 
☠: Selected by Lass
© 1999 Creation Records
It's difficult not to find Super Furry Animals' brand of pop infectious, particularly the collection of numbers compiled for Guerrilla, the band's third full-length and arguably most cohesive -- albeit pleasingly and consistently unpredictable -- one to date. Old-school techno remains in remnants, such as in "Wherever I Lay My Phone (That's My Home)." When it rears its head otherwise, it rests easily beside and within the majority of the fully fledged pop songs. The High Llamas contribute to the dreamy "Turning Tide"; there's the Tropicalia of "Northern Lites," and, as ever, there are shades of punk and distortion in "Night Vision." 
 
tags: super furry animals, guerilla, 1999, flac,
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Luna - Pup Tent (1997)

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Indie Rock
Label Number: 62055-2
 
© 1997 Elektra
Pup Tent finds Luna breaking away from their signature dream pop ever so slightly, adding the occasional brass flourish and waves of loud guitar. The expansion isn't entirely successful, since it often seems forced and de-emphasizes the hazy melodic qualities that are the hallmark of Luna's best music. Even with the weaker moments, there are a number of fine songs on Pup Tent. It just takes a little effort to dig them out. 
 
 tags: luna, pup tent, 1997, flac,
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Luna - The Days of Our Nights (1999)

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Indie Rock
Label Number: 90003-2
 
© 1999 Jericho/Cello Recordings
Fans of the late great Galaxie 500 would hope that a new Luna release proves as captivating as Dean Wareham's first band. In the case of The Days of Our Nights, however, old grounds have not been revisited. Instrumentally the album is wonderful -- filled with nicely toasted guitars, lovely melody lines, crispy drums, and a myriad of ear-candy touches in the production. One can take several tracks and proclaim them to be diamantes of pop craft, yet the lack of emotional nuance in the vocals becomes apparent as the disc wears on. The vocals certainly weren't phoned in, because they are nicely performed and recorded, but feeling seems absent. Wareham is a much better singer than he was ten years ago upon the release of Galaxie 500's On Fire, but some might miss the raw and nasal reediness of yore. 
 
tags: luna, the days of our nights, 1999, flac,
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Don Caballero - What Burns Never Returns (1998)

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Math Rock
Label Number: TG185CD
 
© 1998 Touch & Go
Yet another testament of pure musical genius from the wizards of Don Caballero. This album -- probably their greatest effort to date and a keystone instrumental album -- will make musicians stand open-mouthed in absolute amazement, wondering just how such music is written. Insane rhythms change time and key without a second thought -- beautiful, off-time, yet somehow interlocking notes and melodies fill the ears in a barrage of panicked sound. At one minute dreamy, soothing and thought-expanding, at another spastic and mind-pounding. What Burns Never Returns is definitely something that has to be heard to be believed -- and it could most definitely alter the way you think about music forever. 
 
 tags: don caballero, what burns never returns, 1998, flac,
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Don Caballero - American Don (2000)

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Math Rock
Label Number: TG218CD
 
© 2000 Touch & Go
Before, listening to Don Caballero felt similar to being beaten over the head with a huge baseball bat of pure audible genius: often too overwhelming and complicated for your average music listener to listen to for very long, much less understand. With American Don, it seems that the baseball bat has been traded in for a pillow, and instead of beating they are slowly smothering. Much of the aggressive bite of the music has been simmered out: distortion is much more rare, time changes have been minimized, even the notoriously breakneck drumming of Damon Che has been sedated. The only piece that seems most similar to the styles they had established before is the extremely quirky and choppy "Details on How to Get ICEMAN on Your License Plate"; the rest only briefly moves through familiar places, instead choosing to uproot and shapeshift in listeners' collective faces. Those familiar with Ian and Eric's other band Storm & Stress might also notice a bit of flowing over from the techniques and styles on their records.

As always, innovation, progression, and surprise seem to be a significant part of the Don Caballerian musical mindset; something is always surfacing out of unexpected dimensions and throwing you miles from where you thought you were heading. This is complicated and explosive. This is American Don: an eloquently stuttered statement of instability and grace all at once. 
 
tags: don caballero, american don, 2000, flac,
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