Fuzzy Logic is the debut album by the Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals. Recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, and released on the Creation label in May 1996, it was positively received by critics, who felt it was an eclectic if inconsistent mix of psychedelic music and glam rock, and was included in Q Magazine's list of recordings of the year. It has retained a modest respect among some critics; it was listed in Q's "Best British Albums Ever" in July 2004, and is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[5] It contains two top 20 hits in "If You Don't Want Me to Destroy You" and "Something 4 the Weekend"; it also contains the singles "God! Show Me Magic" and "Hometown Unicorn". It reached number 23 in the UK Albums Chart on release. In 2013, NME ranked it at number 245 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[6]
| Fuzzy Logic | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 20 May 1996 | |||
| Recorded | 1996 | |||
| Studio | Rockfield (Rockfield, Wales) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 41:47 | |||
| Label | Creation | |||
| Producer |
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| Super Furry Animals chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Fuzzy Logic | ||||
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Recording
editIn a 2008 interview with Uncut Gruff Rhys described the process of making the album:
We'd signed a deal and we were sort of blagging a bit ... We'd heard about Rockfield Studios and we wanted to record there because they had jacuzzis and you got three meals a day, all the wrong reasons for going to a studio.[7]
Although the album was conceived as a reaction to Britpop which the band felt represented a "conservative backwards movement in music" they soon realised that they were in an "old 70's studio making [a] 70's rock album".[7] Former members Rhys Ifans and Dic Ben contributed to the track "Long Gone" by leaving an answerphone message which plays as the song comes to a close.[8]
The album cover is a montage of photos of Welsh-born drug smuggler Howard Marks, the subject of the song "Hangin' with Howard Marks". Marks visited Rockfield during the making of the album at the band's request.[7]
Reception
edit| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Alternative Press | 5/5[9] |
| The Guardian |  [10] |
| Mojo | [11] |
| NME | 8/10[12] |
| Pitchfork | 8.4/10[13] |
| Q | [14] |
| Rolling Stone | [15] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [16] |
| Uncut | 9/10[17] |
Reviewing Fuzzy Logic in 1996 for NME, Simon Williams commented that debut albums "rarely come as multi-layered, as lovingly-manipulated as this".[12] A rave review in Alternative Press praised the album as "the stuff of which fearless dreams are forged".[9] Jon Wiederhorn of Rolling Stone felt it was "rich in hallucinogenic spirit and shimmering guitars" and invoked the spirit of early 1970s pop music.[15] James Delingpole in a January 1997 review in The Daily Telegraph wrote the band had produced a "strange mix of Bowie-esque glam rock, school-of-Syd-Barrett psychedelia and DIY kitsch", which resulted in a "delightfully skewed" album.[3] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic later commented that on Fuzzy Logic, the band combined psychedelia and art rock with pop melodies in an "intoxicating" manner, and that despite not being fully cohesive as an album, "the individual pleasures of each song become more apparent with each listen".[1] Fuzzy Logic was named the third best album of 1996 by Melody Maker and fourth best by NME.[18][19] The album was also included in Q magazine's list of recordings of the year.[20]
Fuzzy Logic reached number 23 in the UK Albums Chart on release.[21]
Legacy
editIn a June 2005 Pitchfork review of the 2005 reissue, Marc Hogan felt the album was a good introduction to the band's "candy-factory chameleon act" with music styles including "synth-laced punk-pop", "slanted pop" and "Pipers-era Floyd", despite its inconsistency.[13] Rod Stanley in the 2005 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die felt that the band would go on to record better albums, but that the inventiveness of the album's blend of "Sixties pop, punk rock, and psychedelia, with an underlying Nineties dance sensibility", made it both joyful and exciting.[4] Reviewing the album in 2016, Uncut's John Lewis wrote that its "quizzical" lyrics and influences from "1970s guilty pleasures" set Super Furry Animals apart from their contemporaries in the 1990s Britpop scene.[17]
In 1999, critic Ned Raggett ranked Fuzzy Logic at number 74 on his list of "The Top 136 or So Albums of the Nineties" for Freaky Trigger.[22] Fuzzy Logic was listed at number 42 in Q's 2004 list of the "50 Best British Albums Ever".[23] In 2017, Pitchfork ranked the album at number 27 on its list of the 50 best Britpop albums.[2] In 2013, NME ranked it at number 245 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[24]
Track listing
editAll tracks are written by Super Furry Animals
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "God! Show Me Magic" | 1:50 |
| 2. | "Fuzzy Birds" | 2:28 |
| 3. | "Something 4 the Weekend" (On the original 1996 UK album, the faster paced "Something for the Weekend" was here) | 2:53 |
| 4. | "Frisbee" | 2:22 |
| 5. | "Hometown Unicorn" | 3:33 |
| 6. | "Gathering Moss" | 3:22 |
| 7. | "If You Don't Want Me to Destroy You" | 3:17 |
| 8. | "Bad Behaviour" | 4:26 |
| 9. | "Mario Man" | 4:08 |
| 10. | "Hangin' with Howard Marks" | 4:20 |
| 11. | "Long Gone" | 5:20 |
| 12. | "For Now and Ever" | 3:33 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 13. | "Lazy Life (of No Fixed Identity)" | |
| 14. | "Don't Be a Fool, Billy!" | |
| 15. | "Death by Melody" | |
| 16. | "Something for the Weekend" (original UK album version) | |
| 17. | "Dim Bendith" | |
| 18. | "Waiting to Happen" | |
| 19. | "Arnofio/Glô in the Dark" | |
| 20. | "Guacamole" | |
| 21. | "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" | |
| 22. | "(Nid) Hon Yw'r Gân Sy'n Mynd I Achub Yr Iaith" |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Frisbee" (demo) | |
| 2. | "Something for the Weekend" (demo) | |
| 3. | "Hangin' with Howard Marks" (demo) | |
| 4. | "Sali Mali" (demo) | |
| 5. | "Bad Behaviour" (demo) | |
| 6. | "Lazy Life (of No Fixed Identity)" (demo) | |
| 7. | "Mario Man" (demo) | |
| 8. | "Death By Melody" (demo) | |
| 9. | "Hometown Unicorn" (demo) | |
| 10. | "Waiting to Happen" (demo) | |
| 11. | "If You Don't Want Me to Destroy You" (demo) | |
| 12. | "Gathering Moss" (demo) | |
| 13. | "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" (demo) | |
| 14. | "Fuzzy Birds" (demo) | |
| 15. | "For Now and Ever" (demo) | |
| 16. | "Frisbee" (live at Phoenix Festival) | |
| 17. | "Organ Yn Dy Geg" (live at Phoenix Festival) | |
| 18. | "Fix Idris" (live at Phoenix Festival) | |
| 19. | "Something 4 the Weekend" (live at Phoenix Festival) | |
| 20. | "Hometown Unicorn" (live at Phoenix Festival) | |
| 21. | "If You Don't Want Me to Destroy You" (live at Phoenix Festival) | |
| 22. | "Focus Pocus/Debiel" (live at Phoenix Festival) | |
| 23. | "Bad Behaviour" (live at Phoenix Festival) | |
| 24. | "Mario Man" (live at Phoenix Festival) | |
| 25. | "God! Show Me Magic" (live at Phoenix Festival) |
- The 1996 US release replaced "Something for the Weekend" with the slower paced single version known as "Something 4 the Weekend".
Personnel
edit- Super Furry Animals
- Gruff Rhys – vocals, guitars, analogues, claps
- Dafydd Ieuan – drums, percussion, vocals, piano, claps
- Cian Ciaran – keyboards, analogues, vocals, claps
- Guto Pryce – bass, Hammond, vocals, claps, analogues
- Huw Bunford – guitars, vocals, e-bow, cello, claps
- Additional musicians
- Gorwel Owen – piano, Hammond, Rhodes
- Jez Francis – piano on "God! Show Me Magic"
- Matthew Everett – violin
- Chris Williams – violin
- Helen Spargo – viola
- Catherine Tanner – cello
- Martin Smith – trumpet, tenor horn
- Simon James – saxophone, flute
- Andrew Frizell – saxophone, recorder, trombone
- Lindsay Higgs – balalaika
- Rhys Ifans & Dic Ben – answering machine message on "Long Gone"
- Technical personnel
- SFA – songs, production
- Gorwel Owen – production
- Andy Wilkinson – engineering
- Nick Brine – assistance
- Brian Cannon @ Microdot – design, art direction
- Toby Egelnick – inside design, layout
References
edit- ^ a b c d Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Fuzzy Logic – Super Furry Animals". AllMusic. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
- ^ a b "The 50 Best Britpop Albums". Pitchfork. 29 March 2017. p. 3. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
- ^ a b c Delingpole, James (4 January 1997). "Super Furry Animals: Fuzzy Logic (Creation)". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 17 September 2015. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
- ^ a b c Stanley, Rod (2005). "Super Furry Animals: Fuzzy Logic". 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Cassell Illustrated. p. 773. ISBN 9781844033928. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
- ^ Dimery, Robert, ed. (2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2.
- ^ Rocklist.net NME: The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time : October 2013
- ^ a b c Martin, Piers (April 2008). "Album by album: Super Furry Animals". Uncut (131): 70–72.
- ^ Fuzzy Logic (CD booklet). Super Furry Animals. London: Creation Records. 1996. p. 6. CRECD190.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ a b "Super Furry Animals: Fuzzy Logic". Alternative Press (102): 81–83. January 1997.
- ^ Sullivan, Caroline (24 May 1996). "Super Furry Animals: Fuzzy Logic (Creation)". The Guardian.
- ^ Segal, Victoria (January 2017). "Super Furry Animals: Fuzzy Logic". Mojo (278): 110.
- ^ a b Williams, Simon (18 May 1996). "Super Furry Animals – Fuzzy Logic". NME. Archived from the original on 17 August 2000. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
- ^ a b Hogan, Marc (6 June 2005). "Super Furry Animals: Fuzzy Logic / Radiator / Out Spaced / Guerilla / Mwng". Pitchfork. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
- ^ Doherty, Niall (December 2016). "Super Furry Animals: Fuzzy Logic". Q (366): 117.
- ^ a b Wiederhorn, Jon (17 October 1996). "Super Furry Animals: Fuzzy Logic". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2 October 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
- ^ McLeod, Kembrew (2004). "Super Furry Animals". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). London: Fireside Books. p. 796. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
- ^ a b Lewis, John (December 2016). "Super Furry Animals: Fuzzy Logic". Uncut (235): 51.
- ^ "Albums of the Year". Melody Maker: 66–67. 21–28 December 1996.
- ^ "1996". NME. 10 October 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
- ^ "Rocklist.net ... Q magazine Recordings Of The Year". rocklistmusic.co.uk. 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
- ^ "Super Furry Animals". Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 17 February 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
- ^ Raggett, Ned. "The Top 136 Or So Albums Of The Nineties". Freaky Trigger. Archived from the original on 20 January 2000. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
- ^ "Rocklist.net - Q Magazine Lists: 50 Best British Albums Ever!". rocklistmusic.co.uk. 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
- ^ Rocklist.net NME: The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time : October 2013
External links
edit- Fuzzy Logic (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)
- Fuzzy Logic (Adobe Flash) at Myspace (streamed copy where licensed)