SFA runs 'Rings' around other acts

Rings Around the World\nSuper Furry Animals\nXL Recordings\nIt's good to see a band that still has a work ethic these days. Since their debut album, Fuzzy Logic, in 1996, Welsh rockers Super Furry Animals have released five albums, an EP and a B-sides compilation. Not only that, but the band has made each album progressively more creative and ambitious sonically (with the exception of 2000's lo-fi but no less rewarding detour Mwng), without losing the humor, heart or parkas that endeared them to their fans in the first place.\nTheir latest album, Rings Around the World, finally released in America after an eight-month delay, is perhaps their most impressive work yet. The band is undeniably at the top of its game. They shift styles and moods effortlessly in a way that hasn't been seen since the heyday of David Bowie and Ray Davies. The album was its first for major label Epic (released domestically by indie XL), and the band obviously took advantage of its new patron's deep pockets to create a big, big sounding pop record that is as innovative as it is accessible. "Sidewalk Serfer Girl" alternates delicate melodies with jarring guitar fuzz, then skittery glitch beats. "Shoot Doris Day" is an ominous monolith of rock, and closer "Fragile Happiness" takes the band to Miami, where singer Gruff Rhys ponders the question "Does Will Smith lie?/Does he ever break down and cry?" Oh yeah, and somewhere in the middle, "Juxtapozed With U" is a slick string-soul ballad about social injustice that was conceived as a duet with Bobby Brown.\nThis album is so ambitious, in fact, that it couldn't be contained on one measly audio CD -- the DVD version of the album (sold separately) includes videos for every song, 16 different remixes and a host of other goodies. Rather than a quickie cash-in on the emerging DVD market, it's a worthy companion to the album that brings the music to life with mind-blowing computer animation and 5.1 surround sound.\nIf the praise for the album seems a little over-the-top, that's just the kind of adoration this band evokes from its fans (written on the in-studio copy at the WIUS station house: "Play this until you die."). SFA should be the biggest band in the world -- for some, they already are. The record only gets a 9 because they can probably still do better.\n

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