Gruffudd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, composer, producer, filmmaker and author. He performs solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals, which obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Prize. He won the 2011 Welsh Music Prize for his album Hotel Shampoo, which was followed up by American Interior in 2014, accompanied by a film, a book and a mobile app. His most recent album, Seeking New Gods, was released in 2021. He is considered a figurehead of the era known as Cool Cymru.
Phantom Power is the sixth album by Welsh indie rock band Super Furry Animals, released on 21 July 2003 by Epic Records in the United Kingdom. The record was originally conceived as a ten-song concept album using D-A-D-D-A-D guitar tuning, but the band chose to abandon this idea during recording as they didn't want to constrain themselves. The group did attempt to create a "more coherent" album than their past efforts by choosing songs which worked well together. Phantom Power was recorded at the band's own studio, AV Happenings, in Cardiff with the Super Furries producing and engineering themselves for the first time. The album features a range of musical styles, from country rock to techno, although many of the tracks are based around the acoustic guitar. According to chief songwriter and vocalist Gruff Rhys, the album's lyrics deal with "broken relationships and war".
Streetcore is the third and final studio album by Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros. The album was completed after the death of frontman Joe Strummer, primarily by Martin Slattery and Scott Shields, and released on 21 October 2003. The album marks the band's transition from their previous genre-bending work to a more straightforward rock album, reminiscent of Strummer's early work with the Clash. The album received a positive critical reception and is generally seen as a return to form and a high point for Strummer to have gone out on.
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. 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.
Rings Around the World is the fifth studio album and the major label debut by Super Furry Animals. Released on 23 July 2001 by Epic Records in the United Kingdom, it was the first album by any artist to be simultaneously released on both audio CD and DVD. The record reached number 3 in the UK Albums Chart and includes the singles "Juxtapozed with U", "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" and "It's Not the End of the World?".
Guerrilla is the third studio album by Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals. The record was released on 14 June 1999 by Creation Records and peaked at number 10 in the UK Albums Chart. Guerrilla was conceived as a commercial 'pop' album and was produced by the band themselves, as regular producer Gorwel Owen felt exhausted after a busy schedule working for other bands. Recording took place at Real World Studios, Box, Wiltshire in mid-1998 with the group experimenting with a sampler for the first time and writing a number of songs in the studio. The band tried to create a 45-minute long, immediate sounding record, and therefore chose the upbeat songs from the 25 tracks which were recorded during sessions for the album. Guerrilla was chosen as the album's title as a pun on the group's name.
Love Kraft is the seventh studio album by Welsh indie rock band Super Furry Animals, released on 22 August 2005 through Epic Records in the United Kingdom. The album was recorded in Spain with producer Mario Caldato Jr and was something of a departure for the band, with all members contributing songs and lead vocals alongside Gruff Rhys who had been main songwriter for the Super Furries until this point. In selecting tracks for Love Kraft a conscious effort was made by the band not to choose songs on their individual merit but rather to pick those which went well together in order to create as cohesive an album as possible. The album's name was taken from a sex shop, Love Craft, near the Cardiff offices of the Super Furries' management team and is also a nod to American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.
Rock Action is the third studio album by Scottish post-rock band Mogwai. The album was produced by Dave Fridmann of Mercury Rev in New York.
Dog & Butterfly is the fourth studio album by American rock band Heart, released in September 1978, by Portrait Records, following a legal dispute with Mushroom Records over the release of the band's second studio album, Magazine, in April 1978. Dog & Butterfly peaked at number 17 on the US Billboard 200 and has been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album spawned the singles "Straight On" and "Dog & Butterfly".
Beneath This Gruff Exterior is singer-songwriter John Hiatt's seventeenth album, released on May 6, 2003. It was his first album with New West Records, and it was also the only album on which backing band The Goners received front cover credit along with Hiatt.
Candylion is the second solo album by Welsh musician and Super Furry Animals front-man Gruff Rhys. It was released on 8 January 2007 through Rough Trade Records and Team Love and peaked at number fifty on the UK Albums Chart. The album includes the singles "Candylion" and "Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru".
"Juxtapozed with U" is the thirteenth single by Super Furry Animals. It was the first single to be taken from the Rings Around the World album and reached number 14 on the UK Singles Chart on its release in July 2001. The song was initially conceived as a duet but, after both Brian Harvey and Bobby Brown turned the band down, lead singer Gruff Rhys sang the entire track, using a vocoder on the verses to imitate another person. Musically "Juxtapozed with U" has echoes of Philadelphia soul and the "plastic soul" of David Bowie's album Young Americans and was inspired by the Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder track "Ebony and Ivory". Rhys has claimed that he sees "Juxtapozed with U" as "fairly subversive" because its polished pop style was in stark contrast to the "macho" guitar music the band felt was prevalent in 2001.
"It's Not the End of the World?" is a song by Welsh band Super Furry Animals. It was the last single to be released from the Rings Around the World album and reached number 30 on the UK Singles Chart on its release in January 2002. Singer Gruff Rhys has variously described the track as being about the extinction of mankind and as "a romantic song about growing old".
Dark Days/Light Years, the ninth and most recent studio album by Super Furry Animals, was digitally released at 8pm on 16 March 2009 via the band's website, with a physical release following on the 21st of April on Rough Trade Records. The album's title is taken from a lyric in the song "Moped Eyes".
Colour of the Trap is the debut solo album by English musician Miles Kane, released on 6 May 2011 by Columbia Records. It was mainly written by Kane and frequent collaborator Alex Turner alongside Gruff Rhys and Sean Bonniwell. It was produced in London by Rhys, Dan Carey, Dan the Automator and Craig Silvey. The record features guest musicians Clémence Poésy on the track "Happenstance" and Noel Gallagher on "My Fantasy". The cover features a black and white picture of Kane, taken by Laurence Ellis, with his name superimposed in light purple. The album peaked to number 11 on the UK Albums Chart.
Cheers to the Fall is the debut studio album by American singer Andra Day. It was released on August 28, 2015, by Warner Bros. Records and Buskin Records. She worked with Jenn Decilveo, Adrian Gurvitz, Rob Kleiner, Raphael Saadiq, and Chris Seefried in the production of this album. The album was nominated for Best R&B Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.
Delirium is the third studio album by English singer and songwriter Ellie Goulding, released on 6 November 2015 by Polydor Records. Music critics were generally impressed by the overall production of the record, although they were ambivalent in regards to its originality. It debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200, earning Goulding her highest-charting record in the latter country and her highest first-week sales figures in both territories. The album spawned three singles: "On My Mind", "Army" and "Something in the Way You Move".
So Sad So Sexy is the fourth studio album by Swedish singer Lykke Li, released on 8 June 2018 by RCA. The album was preceded by the release of the singles "Deep End", "Hard Rain", "Utopia", "Sex Money Feelings Die" and "Two Nights" featuring Aminé. Ilsey Juber co-wrote the majority of the album, which is musically influenced by trap. Malay served as an executive producer, with further production by Li's husband Jeff Bhasker, T-Minus, DJ Dahi, Illangelo, Emile Haynie, Jonny Coffer, Kid Harpoon and Rostam Batmanglij, among others.
III is the third studio album by American singer and songwriter Banks, released on July 12, 2019, by Harvest Records. It was preceded by the release of three singles, "Gimme", "Look What You're Doing to Me", and "Contaminated". The album peaked at number 21 on the Billboard 200.
Pompeii is the sixth studio album by Welsh singer and producer Cate Le Bon, released on 4 February 2022 by Mexican Summer.
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