| Sadness Sets Me Free | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 26 January 2024 | |||
| Recorded | March 2022 | |||
| Studio | La Frette, Paris, France | |||
| Genre | Psych-pop | |||
| Length | 42:37 | |||
| Label | Rough Trade | |||
| Producer |
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| Gruff Rhys chronology | ||||
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Sadness Sets Me Free is the eighth studio album by Welsh musician Gruff Rhys, released on 26 January 2024 through Rough Trade Records. It was recorded in three days in March 2022 in Paris, and received positive reviews from critics.
Recording took place at La Frette studio in Paris, France, [1] where Rhys and his band recorded the album in three days in March 2022. [2]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 85/100 [3] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| The Arts Desk |   [4] |
| The Irish Times | [5] |
| Louder Than War | 4/5 [6] |
| Mojo | [7] |
| MusicOMH |  [2] |
| Uncut | [1] |
Sadness Sets Me Free received a score of 85 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on four critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". [3] Mojo 's James McNair wrote that "though it stops well short of the ardent self-loathing that fired Radiohead's Creep, a pronounced seam of self-criticism runs through" the album, despite concluding that "the music is often uplifting; a stoical and pro-active salve against troubles local and global". [7] Uncut 's Pete Paphides observed that "on an album of songs that 'feel melancholic or... deal with shit things,' it's important to state that, at no point, does the listener feel like they're taking a holiday in someone else's misery". [1] Reviewing the album for The Irish Times , Siobhán Kane felt that the album "can sound both disconcerting and comforting". [5]
Joe Muggs of The Arts Desk found the songs to have a "subdued nature" but called them "so damn good, they could take a lot more lavishness and sparkle. As it is, though, this is a weird, inspiring and very lovely record". [4] Nathan Whittle of Louder Than War wrote that on Sadness Sets Me Free, "Gruff Rhys delivers a spellbindingly oxymoronic display; the low-key nature of the songs results in grandness, the darkness of the content providing hope". [6] MusicOMH 's Ben Hogwood opined regarding the song titles that "on paper, songs of this ilk should be weighing the listener down, but the reality is different as Rhys realises his ideas in music of blissful freedom". [2]
All tracks are written by Gruff Rhys
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Sadness Sets Me Free" | 5:23 |
| 2. | "Bad Friend" | 2:54 |
| 3. | "Celestial Candyfloss" | 3:58 |
| 4. | "Silver Lining (Lead Balloons)" | 3:58 |
| 5. | "On the Far Side of the Dollar" | 4:54 |
| 6. | "They Sold My Home to Build a Skyscraper" | 3:04 |
| 7. | "Peace Signs" | 5:05 |
| 8. | "Cover Up the Cover Up" | 5:48 |
| 9. | "I Tendered My Resignation" | 5:07 |
| 10. | "I'll Keep Singing" | 2:26 |
| Total length: | 42:37 | |
| Chart (2024) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Scottish Albums (OCC) [8] | 7 |
| UK Albums (OCC) [9] | 22 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC) [10] | 5 |
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, Sadness Sets Me Free, was released in 2024. 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".
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.
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.
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.
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".
"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.
"Show Your Hand" is a song by Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals and was the first single from their 2007 album, Hey Venus!. The single was made available for download on 16 July 2007 as an iTunes exclusive and was later released in physical formats on 13 August in the UK. The track failed to penetrate the UK singles chart's Top 40, peaking at #46.
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.
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".
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.
Le Kov is the second studio album by Welsh singer-songwriter Gwenno. It was released on 2 March 2018 on Heavenly Recordings. The first single from the album is "Tir Ha Mor ". Heavenly Recordings claim Gwenno felt a duty to make her second album entirely in Cornish as a record of the living language.
Babelsberg is the fifth studio album by Welsh musician Gruff Rhys. It was released in June 2018 under Rough Trade Records.
Pang! is the sixth studio album by Welsh musician Gruff Rhys. It was released on 13 September 2019 under Rough Trade Records.
Seeking New Gods is the seventh studio album by Welsh musician Gruff Rhys, released on 21 May 2021 under Rough Trade Records. The album was inspired by Paektu Mountain, a volcano on the border of China and North Korea. It received acclaim from critics, and reached number 10 on the UK Albums Chart.