Dim Probs (Welsh for 'no probs') is the ninth studio album by Welsh musician Gruff Rhys. It was released on 12 September 2025 through Rock Action Records and was produced by Rhys with Ali Chant. It is also his third solo album in the Welsh language, six years after Pang! (2019). Notable Welsh musicians Cate Le Bon and H. Hawkline contribute backing vocals on two tracks.
In the years leading up to the writing of Dim Probs, Rhys had been sifting through a number of homemade electronic music cassette tapes performed in the Welsh language with his friends.[1] He told Uncut in August 2025 that he had been listening specifically "to a lot of the early 1980s output of the Ofn and Neon electronic labels who turned out incredible tapes initially on four-track recorders".[2] Originally intending to release a compilation from those tapes, Rhys at some point decided to abort the project indefinitely in favour of making a Welsh album of his own, writing its material on a "cheap Swedish catalogue acoustic guitar".[1] Inspired by the tapes he had been researching, the songs on Dim Probs were supplemented with a series of analogue electronics[3] that largely consisted of synthesiser drones and drum machines.[2]Dim Probs features contributions from his touring band,[4] and fellow Welsh musicians Cate Le Bon and H. Hawkline contribute backing vocals on both "Pan ddaw'r Haul i Fore"[2] and "Chwyn Chwyldroadol!".[5] The album was produced by Rhys and Ali Chant[6] and was recorded at Chant's studio in Bristol in late 2024.[7] It is his third album in the Welsh language, following his debut Yr Atal Genhedlaeth (2005) and Pang! (2019),[3] or his fourth if counting Mwng (2000) by Super Furry Animals.[5]
In a departure from its more pop-oriented predecessor Sadness Sets Me Free (2024), Dim Probs took a more minimal, lo-fi approach,[2][5] with the exception of tracks like "Taro #1 + #2" and "Acw" which respectively feature horn and saxophone sections.[8] Musically, the album's overall tone has been described in terms such as "mellow",[5] "laid-back",[8] and "relatively carefree",[4] but lyrically, this is juxtaposed with dark subject matter such as death,[2][5] the inevitability of which is addressed on songs such as "Taro #1 + #2".[4][9] In fact, Rhys has revealed that when the album was written, he "was in a particularly bleak place", and that the title "Dim Probs", a Welsh English dialectal phrase translating to "No Probs", was intended to be ironic.[10]
Singles
On 12 June 2025, alongside the announcement for Dim Probs, its lead single "Chwyn Chwyldroadol!" (English: "Revolutionary Weed!") was revealed with a music video.[1] According to a statement by Rhys, the video was directed by his neighbour Ryan Eddleston and was shot from a 1960s Arriflex portable camera with spare 33 millimeter film from a canister left over from the film Righteous Kill (2008).[7] Then on 17 July, Rhys released the second single, "Saf ar Dy Sedd" ("Stand on Your Seat"). The corresponding animated video was made by the Cornwall-based animated studio Spider Eye. A tribute to the Welsh language promoter Toni Schiavone, the song was inspired by an incident in May 2024 where Schiavone refused to pay a parking ticket issued in English.[11] The final single in anticipation of the album, "Taro #1 + #2" ("Hit #1 + #2"), was released on 12 August,[12] with a video arriving later.[13]
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Dim Probs received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 84 out of 100 from 6 critic scores.[16] On another aggregator AnyDecentMusic?, it was given an average of 7.8 out of 10 based on the same 5 critical reviews.[15]
Fiona Shepherd of Uncut magazine thought that "What may be lost slightly in translation is mitigated by the musicality of the vocal tones,"[2] and Tom Doyle of Mojo wrote that "Even with zero knowledge of what is going on lyrically, these songs are often beautifully evocative."[3] In Clash, John Williamson said that "To a non-Welsh speaker, the joy is in the simplicity, repetition and sparseness and, to be honest, Rhys could be singing anything, and it would still sound good", finding Dim Probs to be "a relaxed (and relaxing) thing of warm humanity and beauty that, in the long run, may be more durable than much of his more lavish and accessible outputs."[5] Will Hodgkinson wrote in The Times that "the tunefulness of the language lends itself to Rhys’s gentle approach.... Rhys is a subtle and a sophisticated songwriter, meaning the charms of this delightful low-key album reveal themselves over time."[20]
In a four and a half star review for MusicOMH, Ben Hogwood said that despite the six year gap between Dim Probs and its Welsh language predecessor Pang!, it "feels more personal, confidential, and ultimately vulnerable. It reaffirms Rhys as a generous author, celebrating his first language but taking in rich influences and instrumentation from countries far and wide."[4]AllMusic's Tim Sendra called it "vintage Gruff Rhys and the very simplicity and directness of the album sets it off from the many concepts and schemes of his other, bigger records", concluding with the adage "Sometimes less truly is more."[8] In Shindig! magazine, Camilla Aisa praised Dim Probs for retaining a quality consistent in Rhys' output and for its "classic Gruff melodies", singling out "Chwyn Chwyldroadol!" as an example where Rhys' Welsh vocals gave them "a distinct – and mesmerising – musicality."[19] In a slightly more reserved review for Classic Pop magazine, Jeremy Allen said that while they found it to be "delightful" overall, "it does make one long for some of the sonic radicalism of the perpetually hibernating Super Furries – the Fela Kuti-style horns on the closing 'Acw' aside."[17]
1 2 Allen, Jeremy (11 September 2025). "Gruff Rhys – Dim Probs". Classic Pop. No.97 (October 2025). Bath, England: Anthem Publishing. p.87. ISSN2050-6643.
↑ Bouard, Bertrand (21 August 2025). "Gruff Rhys – 'Dim Probs'". Rock & Folk (in French). No.697 (September 2025). Paris: Editions Larivière. p.62. ISSN0750-7852.
1 2 Aisa, Camilla (5 September 2025). "Gruff Rhys – Dim Probs". Shindig!. No.167 (September 2025). Sutton, Surrey, England: Silverback Publishing. p.81. ISSN2978-3518.
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