Product Description

'Candylion' is the second album from Super Furries frontmanGruff Rhys. Recorded with Gorwel Owen in Llanfaelog, Wales and Mario Caldato Jr in Rio De Janeiro, the album sees Rhys deliver an album of laidback psychedelic indie folk gems. The lead single 'Candylion' featuring vocals from 9 Bach's Lisa Jen is also included.

Track Listing

1. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
2. CANDYLION
3. THE COURT OF KING ARTHUR
4. LONESOME WORDS
5. CYCLE OF VIOLENCE
6. PAINTING PEOPLE BLUE
7. BEACON IN THE DARKNESS
8. CON CARINO
9. GYRRU GYRRU GYRRU
10. NOW THAT THE FEELING HAS GONE
11. FFRWYDRIAD YN Y FFURFAFEN
12. SKYLON!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30973 in Music
• Released on: 2007-01-08
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The second solo album from Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, Candylion is a far more approachable pop proposition than his lone debut, 2005's Welsh-language Yr Atal Genhedlaeth. Recorded at Super Furry Animals producer Gorwel Owen's house in Anglesey with the help of double bass player Owen Evans and vocalist Lisa Jen from Welsh outfit 9 Bach, this is an outwardly upbeat set of mostly English language songs that explores Rhys' fascination for international psychedelia, the Welsh-language music of the '60s and '70s, and the madness of the modern world. The xylophone-accompanied title track is a deceptively slight opener that demonstrates Rhys' skill for nonsense word-play ("A penguin and carnation/A lemon and Dalmatian"). Further in, however, we find ourselves in more uncertain territory: "Lonesome Words" is a keening folk number undercut by skittering, looped drums, while the peculiar "Cycle Of Violence" offers a glimpse of apocalypse, Gruff noting "dirty bombs and clean ones look the same if you look closely" in a high, quavering tremor. Terror plays a big role in Candylion - the epic closing track, "Skylon", is set to the backdrop of an international hijacking - but it also contains some of Gruff's prettiest songs to date: see the country-tinged "Beacon In The Darkness" and the shimmering "Con Carino".--Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

How to put right your bands mistakes on a solo album
This, Gruff Rhys's second solo album, contains much of what makes the Super Furries so great. Like many other reviewers on here I have been slightly disappointed with the last two albums by SFA, as they same to be drifting more into the world of the beach boys, and moving away from the youthful, rocky edge that made their earlier albums so enjoyable.

This effort from Gruff Rhys, whilst retaining the laid back attitude of those most recent SFA albums somehow manages to achieve what those failed to do. Whilst Love Kraft in particular seemed to be unimaginative and even slightly bland (by the bands on very, very high standards) this work sounds as if it is at the forefront of pop music endeavor, like those early Super Furry Animals releases.

The particular killer track on here is the epic Skylon that goes on forever without boring you, or sounding repetitive, even though it probably is. Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru is catchy and bright and in spirit could belong on the classic Radiator. The title track is delightfully light and gentle, but with a hint of edge.

This album is streets ahead of Gruff Rhys's debut Yr Atal Genhedlaeth which was quite frankly a difficult listen even if you were quite into Welsh language stuff. My only real disappointment regarding this piece is that Gruff promised to be the first solo act to 'break up' after that release, which was obviously not true. But, if you can handle being lied to by your heroes then this album is worth a go. It may well not be to the taste of someone whose favourite Super Furries album was Fuzzy logic, but to those who appreciated the efforts of the band on Love Kraft and Hey Venus, but felt that they hadn't quite achieved what they set out to, this album will definitely be for you.

Is this the new SFA???
I just listened to "Hey Venus" by SFA and wrote a review of that album here on Amazon. Apparantly, many people did not like my review of "Hey Venus" for whatever reason, most likely because the review was not favorable. What these people don't understand is that the newer SFA material just isn't as good as the old stuff. Why not??? BECAUSE ALL THE GOOD MATERIAL IS RIGHT HERE, ON THIS DISC, "CANDYLION"!!!

This solo release by Gruff Ryhs would have been a 5-star album, had it not been for the last track on this disc which is like 14 minutes long. It could have been 5 minutes long, that would have been plenty. the track is called Skylon and it gets too repetetive and boring after the first 5 minutes. Maybe this song would be a number 1 hit in the year 6745, but in 2007 with my litte unevolved human nothing of a brain, it's too advanced for me.
All in all, including the last track, this is a very inventive release, with everything from jazzy-folk to pretty pop to sesame street harmonica melodies(The Court of King Arthur). This is really a brilliant release.

The Super Furry Animals material is becoming more accessible to mainstream audiences, and less enjoyable. The new Gruff Rhys material is less accessible to mainstream audiences, and much more enjoyable, much more experimental, and just basically....BETTER.

Wonderful Album
This is a fantastic album, and it's one of the most unusual albums I've heard in a long time, in an age of glossy-overproduction, autotune and sausage machine production line music, this stands out in a class of it's own. Gryff Rhys has a very distinctive unmistakeable voice that only comes along once i a while. There's a very lovely organic feel to the songs which stems from the use of acoustic instruments with additional percussion, female vocals, and the and colourful High Llama string arrangements. There's a lot of depth and intelligence in the words and the music, and I'm not a Welsh speaker, but I can't get enough of Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru, and the whirlwind of Cycle of Violence and softness of Beacon In The Darkness. I think this is his best work, and you'd be missing a treat not to check it out.