| "Play It Cool" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Super Furry Animals | ||||
| from the album Radiator | ||||
| Released | 22 September 1997 | |||
| Length | 3:18 | |||
| Label | Creation Records | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Super Furry Animals | |||
| Producer(s) | Gorwel Owen, Super Furry Animals | |||
| Super Furry Animals singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Play It Cool" is the third single from Super Furry Animals' album Radiator . It reached number 27 on the UK Singles Chart on its release in September 1997. [1]
"Play It Cool" was released on CD, cassette and 7" on 22 September 1997 and reached number 27 on the UK Singles Chart and is a slightly different version from the one featured on their album Radiator . [1] The cover art is the fourth in a series of five Pete Fowler paintings commissioned by the band for Radiator and its singles. Fowler's art was inspired by "Play It Cool" and features a "mutant blue dog" according to Record Collector . [2] The packaging of the single features the Welsh language quote "Adar o'r unlliw hedfant i'r unlle", which roughly translates into English as "Birds of a feather flock together". [3] The track was included on the band's 'greatest hits' compilation album Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1 , issued in 2004. [4]
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Select | United Kingdom | Singles of 1997 [5] | 1997 | 15 |
A music video was produced to accompany "Play It Cool" featuring digitised versions of the band beating Brazil in the PlayStation video game Actua Soccer 2. [6]
All songs by Super Furry Animals.
| Chart (1997) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart [1] | 27 |
Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993. Since their formation, the band had consisted of Gruff Rhys, Huw Bunford, Guto Pryce, Cian Ciaran, Dafydd Ieuan and actor Rhys Ifans.
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.
Guerrilla is the third studio album by Welsh rock band the 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.
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".
Ice Hockey Hair is an EP by the Welsh alternative rock band Super Furry Animals, released in 1998. The record contains four songs which the band felt did not fit in with either their previous album, 1997's Radiator, or its follow-up Guerrilla. The title track refers to an alternative name for the mullet hairstyle. The EP's opening song, "Smokin'", was commissioned by British television station Channel 4 for a programme about sloth presented by Howard Marks. "Ice Hockey Hair" was later included on 'greatest hits' compilation Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1, issued in 2004, while "Smokin'" appeared on 1998's B-side and rarities compilation Out Spaced.
"Hermann ♥'s Pauline" is the sixth single by Super Furry Animals and the first to be released from their second album Radiator. It reached #26 on the UK Singles Chart on its release in May 1997.
"The International Language of Screaming" is the second single from Super Furry Animals' album Radiator. It reached #24 on the UK Singles Chart on its release in July 1997.
"Demons" is the fourth and final single from Super Furry Animals' album Radiator. It reached #27 on the UK Singles Chart on its release in November 1997.
"Northern Lites" is the ninth single by Super Furry Animals. It was the first single to be taken from the Guerrilla album and reached number 11 in the UK Singles Chart after its release on 10 May 1999. The song was written by singer Gruff Rhys and was inspired by the El Niño phenomenon. The track's title refers to the Aurora Borealis, a natural light display which the band were convinced they had seen prior to the song being written. Rhys wrote the melody for "Northern Lites" several years before it was completed but only decided on a calypso style after he wrote the lyrics. The steel drums on the track are played by keyboardist Cian Ciaran and were added on the spur of the moment after the group saw them "lying around" Real World Studios during recording.
"Fire in My Heart" is the tenth single by Welsh rock band the Super Furry Animals. It was the second single to be taken from the group's 1999 album Guerrilla, and reached number 25 in the UK Singles Chart after its release on 9 August 1999. The track, originally titled "Heartburn", has been described by the band's singer Gruff Rhys as a country and western song with lyrics that offer "soul advice".
"Do or Die" is the eleventh single by Super Furry Animals. It was the third and final single to be taken from the Guerrilla album and was the band's last release for Creation Records. The track reached number 20 in the UK Singles Chart after its release on 17 January 2000. The group had originally wanted to release "Wherever I Lay My Phone " as the final single from Guerilla but Creation instead chose "Do or Die", a decision which the band claimed not to understand.
"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.
"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.
"(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".
"Golden Retriever" is a song by Super Furry Animals. It was the first single to be issued from the album Phantom Power and reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart on its release in July 2003. The song is about the relationship between singer Gruff Rhys's girlfriend's two dogs and was written in the same key, with the same guitar tuning and around the same time as several other songs from Phantom Power.
"Hello Sunshine" is a song by the Welsh band Super Furry Animals from their album Phantom Power. It was the seventeenth single released by the group and reached number 31 on the UK Singles Chart in October 2003.
The discography of Super Furry Animals, a Welsh indie rock band, consists of nine studio albums, four extended plays, twenty three singles and three video albums. Super Furry Animals were formed in 1993 in Cardiff, Wales by Gruff Rhys, Huw Bunford, Guto Pryce, Cian Ciaran and Dafydd Ieuan.
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