Gruff Rhys

Candylion (Rough Trade)

By Jonathan Shipley
Published: March 28th, 2007 | 2:35pm

Gruff Rhys, you may know, is best known for his tenure as the lead singer of the oddly compelling Welsh rock group Super Furry Animals. SFA is a mixture of progressive rock meets punk meets techno meets weird obscure lyrics written by none other than Gruff Rhys. His first solo album, Yr Atal Genhedlaeth (say that five times fast), was, you guessed it, very Welsh. His second album, Candylion, has been released by Rough Trade and it's just as you might expect an album from Mr. Rhys, oddly compelling and hard to place in regards to where it fits in the CD bins at your local music store.

“This Is Just the Beginning” is at the beginning, sounding like something Peter Gabriel's Genesis might have created had it created an opening theme song to a Japanese sci-fi cartoon. The title track is a more solid quiet affair, like Jack Johnson if he used electronics rather than acoustic instruments. It's warm, happy stuff, like what you'd want to listen to on the beach after a good day of boogie boarding. The album continues, breaking free of these Jack Johnson comparisons into more of Soul Coughing realm if Soul Coughing and its lead singer Mike Doughty had borrowed more readily from world music. It's still warm stuff, generally good enough for background music while you're working in your cubicle at the accountant's office, but a little rougher around the edges than the Curious George friendly Johnson. The album ends with a very long bang indeed, a fourteen plus minute opus, “Skylon,” that's, well, quite long — too long, in fact, with Rhys repeating lyrics and melodies throughout. Yes, he throws flute in there and some sampled bits, but one wonders when it'll end.

With twelve tracks (most hovering around three minutes), one gets plenty of Rhys doing it solo. If you like Super Furry Animals you'll naturally be appealed by his efforts here. There's nothing, however, that shouts out that this is an album for the ages. At the same time, it's also not an album you'll listen to once or twice before it becomes a coaster for your Pepsi. It's, simply, a good album, nothing more, nothing less.