Hotel Shampoo | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 14 February 2011 | |||
Recorded | Recorded for the most part at OFN, Llanfaelog, Wales 2010[ citation needed ] | |||
Genre | Alternative rock | |||
Length | 40:16 | |||
Label | Ovni Records/Turnstile (UK), Wichita (US), Hostess Entertainment Unlimited (JP) | |||
Producer | Gorwel Owen, Gruff Rhys, Andy Votel | |||
Gruff Rhys chronology | ||||
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Singles from Hotel Shampoo | ||||
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Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 74/100 [1] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Drowned In Sound | [3] |
The Independent | [4] |
Hotel Shampoo is the third solo album by Welsh musician and Super Furry Animals front-man Gruff Rhys. It was released on 14 February 2011 through Onvi Records/Turnstile (in the UK) and Wichita (in the US) and peaked at number forty-two on the UK Albums Chart. The album includes the singles "Shark Ridden Waters", "Sensations In The Dark", "Honey All Over" and "Space Dust #2"; the latter of which is collaboration with Sarah Assbring and Miles Kane. The album won the 2011 Welsh Music Prize and the Album of the Year award at the Artrocker Awards 2011.
The title of the record is a reference to Gruff’s habit of hoarding mini shampoo bottles and other complimentary hotel products whilst on tour, and the miniature hotel he built from them in advance of the record's announcement.
The track "Shark Ridden Waters" is built around a sample of "It Doesn't Matter Anymore", as performed by The Cyrkle. [5]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Shark Ridden Waters" | 4:25 |
2. | "Honey All Over" | 3:18 |
3. | "Sensations In The Dark" | 2:42 |
4. | "Vitamin K" | 3:06 |
5. | "Take a Sentence" | 3:05 |
6. | "Conservation Conversation" | 2:40 |
7. | "Sophie Softly" | 2:11 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
8. | "Christopher Columbus" | 3:33 |
9. | "Space Dust #2" | 2:20 |
10. | "At The Heart Of Love" | 3:34 |
11. | "Patterns of Power" | 3:37 |
12. | "If We Were Words (We Would Rhyme)" | 3:13 |
13. | "Rubble Rubble" | 2:53 |
14. "I Totally Understand" - 3:40 (US, Japan and Taiwan) 15. "Follow The Sunflower Trail (Theme Tune For A National Strike)" - 4:12 (US and Japan) 16. "Pengwyn Pengwyn" - 1:34 (Taiwan)
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Chart | Peak |
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UK Albums Chart [6] | 42 |
Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993. For the duration of their professional career, the band consisted of Gruff Rhys, Huw Bunford, Guto Pryce, Cian Ciaran, Dafydd Ieuan. An earlier incarnation of the band featured actor Rhys Ifans on lead vocals.
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".
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.
Mwng is the fourth studio album by Welsh rock band the Super Furry Animals, and the first by the group to have lyrics written entirely in the Welsh language. Mwng was released on 15 May 2000 on the band's own record label, Placid Casual, following the demise of their former label, Creation. The album includes the single "Ysbeidiau Heulog", and reached number 11 on the UK Albums Chart following its release—the first Welsh-language album to reach the top 20. This success led to Mwng being mentioned in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom by Elfyn Llwyd, who described the record as a celebration of a "new wave of confidence in the Welsh nation".
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.
Andrew "Andy Votel" Shallcross is an English musician, DJ, record producer, graphic designer and co-founder of Twisted Nerve Records and the reissue label Finders Keepers Records.
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".
Hey Venus! is the eighth album by Welsh band Super Furry Animals. It was released on 27 August 2007 in the United Kingdom. Hey Venus! is the band's first full-length release on current label Rough Trade Records and, at just over 36 minutes, is also their shortest-running studio release. The title is taken from the first line of the song "Into the Night".
"Ysbeidiau Heulog" is the twelfth single by Super Furry Animals. It was the only single to be taken from the album Mwng and was released as a limited edition 7" vinyl on the band's own Placid Casual label on 1 May 2000. It was the band's first single to chart outside the UK Singles Top 75 peaking at number 89. The Welsh language song has been described by singer Gruff Rhys as "throwaway pop" and likened to the music of ELO, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and Os Mutantes.
"(Drawing) Rings Around the World" is a song by Super Furry Animals and was the second single taken from the band's fifth album, Rings Around the World. The track reached number 28 on the UK Singles Chart on release in October 2001. Singer Gruff Rhys has described the song as being about "rings of communication around the world. All the rings of pollution".
"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".
Stainless Style is the debut album from Neon Neon—a project from Super Furry Animals front man Gruff Rhys and electronic artist Boom Bip—which was released in March 2008 via Lex Records. The album was streamed in its entirety on the band's Myspace page for one week before its physical release.
Neon Neon is a collaborative project from producer Boom Bip and Gruff Rhys, the frontman for the Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals. They began work on the project in October 2006 originally under the moniker Delorean. In March 2008 the duo, by now calling themselves Neon Neon, released a full-length album entitled Stainless Style to generally positive reviews and earned a nomination for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize.
Cate Le Bon is a Welsh musician and record producer. She sings in both English and Welsh. She has released six solo studio albums, to date, and is one half of the experimental music duo DRINKS with her partner Tim Presley. Her stage name is a tribute to English musician Simon Le Bon.
Y Niwl are a surf instrumental band from North Wales, formed in 2009. Its members are Alun Evans (guitar), Llyr Pari (drums), Sion Glyn (bass) and Gruff ab Arwel. The band's name is pronounced Uh Nule and means 'The Fog' in Welsh. Members of the band have also long played as backing musicians for Gruff Rhys.
American Interior is the fourth solo album by Gruff Rhys, released on 5 May 2014. It is a concept album based on the life of the explorer John Evans. It peaked at number 24 in the UK.
The Terror of Cosmic Loneliness is a collaborative album by Welsh singer Gruff Rhys and Brazilian musician Tony Da Gatorra. It was released on 26 July 2010 by Turnstile Music.
Huw Evans, also known as H. Hawkline, is a Welsh singer-songwriter and radio and television presenter based in Cardiff. He also lived and worked in Los Angeles for several years. He performs in both English and Welsh. His stage name is taken from Richard Brautigan's book The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western.