They're furry and oh so super

Beware: I'm an obsessed music geek on a mission. I bought the Super Furry Animals' most recent album, Rings Around The World, based solely on its sticker that boasted Mojo had selected it as best album of 2002. Though that was enough to sell me the album, I had no idea that hearing it would spark a frantic hunt for all the band's previous releases. Because their label had folded, I could only find the band's other albums online as imports for inflated prices. I ordered them all at once. Their staggered delivery times left me stunned because each album was as consistently flawless as the one that arrived before it. I'm still baffled. Why isn't this band huge?\nThis article is only my most recent attempt to spread word of the SFA. I've shoved the band's music into the CD players of almost everyone I know. The sparkling neo-psychedelia and infectious melodies of the five quirky Welsh rockers have converted some of my friends into devoted fans. \nComparing the SFA to the Beatles could completely ruin any credibility I have left after already gushing. Besides, whenever I read any such comparison, I scoff like an elitist because it seems so flagrant. I've allowed myself the luxury of this comparison because I'm not labeling the SFA the new Beatles. But, I do propose that the same core qualities could cause someone to fall for each band.\nLike the Beatles, the foremost of the SFA's attributes is the ability to write pop melodies that are effortlessly fused into the listener's mind. This isn't because the songs are simplistic or catchy, though some songs are both. The main reason they are so easily assimilated is the melodies' natural flow and beautiful, soaring passages. The unwavering quality from track to track on each album gives the songs infinite playability. Mwng, the band's all-Welsh release, requires no translation. Its inspired melodies make it as affecting and easy to absorb as the other albums. \nThe SFA's name brings to mind Magical Mystery Tour, possibly the Beatles most experimental work. Unlike the early albums in which the songs' delivery was similar, for that album, the Beatles experimented with a very different approach for each of their songs. All of the SFA's albums have such track-to-track variety that their music can only be described as experimental or psychedelic. An album might start with a lush ballad followed by fun glitzy techno number, then a Latin-flavored concoction and then a rocker with full punk intensity. \nIt obviously requires a great deal of talent to execute this kind genre-jumping and mixing. Moreover, the amazing musicality with which the group does everything makes them one of the most successfully versatile bands recording today. As fans of musical innovation, the SFA paid respects to Brian Wilson's "Vegetables" by listing Paul McCartney as playing celery in the liner notes of Rings Around The World.\nUntil the dark Yoko cloud loomed over the Beatles' world, the four caused a global smile with in-joke humor and a fun-loving nature. Shades of this charming quirkiness are in Fuzzy Logic, the SFA's 1996 debut. "Fuzzy Birds" is based on a dream in which the running wheel of Stavros the hamster was wired to "a dynamo system" that produced electricity for a house. The award-winning DVD "Rings Around The World" contains a video for "Juxtaposed With You" that shows the band members dancing around to the Barry White style song in awkward costumes built out of cardboard boxes and duct tape.\nI found out about the SFA because I'm a music junkie, but this music should never be limited to a small in-group. Though the SFA's music is sophisticated, the wonderful melodies make it accessible, so the listening curve is not great. To anyone who plays Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper and Dark Side of the Moon and sighs, wondering why it seems no one creates good music anymore: you now have no excuse not to go Super Furry crazy.