Product Description Second solo album from Super Furry Animals' frontman Gruff Rhys. Recorded with Gorwel Owen in Llanfaelog, Wales and Mario Caldato Jr. in Rio de Janeiro. Candy lion sees Rhys deliver a set of laidback Psychedelic Indie Folk gems. 12 tracks including 'Painting People Blue', 'Beacon in the Darkness' and the first single, 'Candy lion'. Rough Trade. 2007. .co.uk The second solo album from Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, Candylion is a far more approachable pop proposition than his lone debut, 2005's Welsh-language Yr Atal Genhedlaeth. Recorded at Super Furry Animals producer Gorwel Owen's house in Anglesey with the help of double bass player Owen Evans and vocalist Lisa Jen from Welsh outfit 9 Bach, this is an outwardly upbeat set of mostly English language songs that explores Rhys' fascination for international psychedelia, the Welsh-language music of the '60s and '70s, and the madness of the modern world. The xylophone-accompanied title track is a deceptively slight opener that demonstrates Rhys' skill for nonsense word-play ("A penguin and carnation/A lemon and Dalmatian"). Further in, however, we find ourselves in more uncertain territory: "Lonesome Words" is a keening folk number undercut by skittering, looped drums, while the peculiar "Cycle Of Violence" offers a glimpse of apocalypse, Gruff noting "dirty bombs and clean ones look the same if you look closely" in a high, quavering tremor. Terror plays a big role in Candylion - the epic closing track, "Skylon", is set to the backdrop of an international hijacking but it also contains some of Gruff's prettiest songs to date: see the country-tinged "Beacon In The Darkness" and the shimmering "Con Carino".--Louis Pattison P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); Review Extra-curricular solo albums seem to be something of rare beast these days. Last year they were all it - Thom Yorke, Jarvis Cocker, Albert Hammond Jr, James Dean Bradfield. Then shaggy-haired Welsh singer Gruff Rhys decided to unleash his own little super furry animal in the New Year, in the form of Candylion.Unlike his 2005 Welsh debut, Yr Atal Genhedlaeth, which was little more than a series of throwaway demos, Rhys' successor is a much more loveable affair.Recorded at SFA producer Gorwel Owen's cottage in Anglesey with the help of angelic 9 Bach vocalist, Lisa Jen, the frontman's second outing drags us through a myriad of nursery rhyme sing-a-longs, set up perfectly by the tinkling title track. From here, Rhys throws out each song like a sack of toys. Only some aren't as playful as they first appear. "Cycle Of Violence" for instance, may come on like a galloping lullaby but beneath the surface lies a lyrically darker demon who speaks of apocalyptic visions of terror, dirty bombs and, err... power stations. Similar themes are echoed in epic 14 minute closer "Skylon!" - an expansive airline narrative about a bomb disposal expert stuck on a plane with a TV actress he despises while a lone hijacker waits in the wings.Set against a monotonous rhythm section, this intriguing tale may occupy a third of the album's intake, but each passing moment is about as compulsive as an episode of 24.Further afield the acid fuelled "Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru (Driving Driving Driving)" one of Candylion's rare Welsh tracks, sits perfectly alongside Rhys' finger plucking bountiful ballad "Beacon In The Darkness"while the Celtic and cosmic blasts of "The Court Of King Arthur" and "Lonesome Words" sound like they've been plucked straight out of a Monty Python movie.Extra-curricular albums may be a dying breed but Candylion is one beast that demands your attention. --Damian JonesFind more music at the BBC This link will take you off in a new window See more
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Poor vinyl quality control
Candling is one of Gruffs best records. Such a shame to have it spoilt by poor quality pressing. I've had 2 copies of this record from amazon and each has had excessive noise in the right channel and warping. I really want a vinyl copy of this in my collection but not if the pressing is awful.
L**H
roars
roars
M**E
Five Stars
Fab!
G**N
First time UK vinyl release..Worth the wait!!
Available for the first time in the UK on vinyl with only 800 copies issued so don't delay.As for the music. It's more song based than his first album with more conventional strong structures. That's not a criticism in any shape or form. I prefer this album more to any of the recent SFA records.
J**C
Sweet Toothed Carnivore
When this album was initially released back in 2006, I was not that overly impressed, but with Neon Neons new album on its way (2013), I always like to re-acquaint myself with the artists back-catalogue.So listening back to "Canylion", it's turned into a great little record, full of tuneful surreal Indie/Folk/Rock songs.You get the classic "Cycle of Violence" & the 14:36 minute epic "Skylon!" (Every album should finish with a 14-minute song).So an outstanding record, & considerable stronger than the last couple of SFA's albums.
J**1
How to put right your bands mistakes on a solo album
This, Gruff Rhys's second solo album, contains much of what makes the Super Furries so great. Like many other reviewers on here I have been slightly disappointed with the last two albums by SFA, as they same to be drifting more into the world of the beach boys, and moving away from the youthful, rocky edge that made their earlier albums so enjoyable.This effort from Gruff Rhys, whilst retaining the laid back attitude of those most recent SFA albums somehow manages to achieve what those failed to do. Whilst Love Kraft in particular seemed to be unimaginative and even slightly bland (by the bands on very, very high standards) this work sounds as if it is at the forefront of pop music endeavor, like those early Super Furry Animals releases.The particular killer track on here is the epic Skylon that goes on forever without boring you, or sounding repetitive, even though it probably is. Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru is catchy and bright and in spirit could belong on the classic Radiator. The title track is delightfully light and gentle, but with a hint of edge.This album is streets ahead of Gruff Rhys's debut Yr Atal Genhedlaeth which was quite frankly a difficult listen even if you were quite into Welsh language stuff. My only real disappointment regarding this piece is that Gruff promised to be the first solo act to 'break up' after that release, which was obviously not true. But, if you can handle being lied to by your heroes then this album is worth a go. It may well not be to the taste of someone whose favourite Super Furries album was Fuzzy logic, but to those who appreciated the efforts of the band on Love Kraft and Hey Venus, but felt that they hadn't quite achieved what they set out to, this album will definitely be for you.
B**I
Is this the new SFA???
I just listened to "Hey Venus" by SFA and wrote a review of that album here on Amazon. Apparantly, many people did not like my review of "Hey Venus" for whatever reason, most likely because the review was not favorable. What these people don't understand is that the newer SFA material just isn't as good as the old stuff. Why not??? BECAUSE ALL THE GOOD MATERIAL IS RIGHT HERE, ON THIS DISC, "CANDYLION"!!!This solo release by Gruff Ryhs would have been a 5-star album, had it not been for the last track on this disc which is like 14 minutes long. It could have been 5 minutes long, that would have been plenty. the track is called Skylon and it gets too repetetive and boring after the first 5 minutes. Maybe this song would be a number 1 hit in the year 6745, but in 2007 with my litte unevolved human nothing of a brain, it's too advanced for me.All in all, including the last track, this is a very inventive release, with everything from jazzy-folk to pretty pop to sesame street harmonica melodies(The Court of King Arthur). This is really a brilliant release.The Super Furry Animals material is becoming more accessible to mainstream audiences, and less enjoyable. The new Gruff Rhys material is less accessible to mainstream audiences, and much more enjoyable, much more experimental, and just basically....BETTER.
W**R
Candyloin review
Gruff Rhys front man for Super Furry Animals, has been a busy man, not only has he been working on a follow up to 2005's Love Kraft, he was also working on his second solo album "Candylion".His first solo release was sang in entirely in welsh, on "Candylion", Gruff sticks primarily to English, though he dose sneak in a song a Welsh and another song in Spanish.This album is not a collection of songs that were not deemed good enough to fit on a Super Furry Animals record, this is a completely stand alone record.This album is a remarkably minimal recording, featuring some laid backtracks, that for the most part are really solid sun kissed pop.The second half of this album, the songs start to become a samey sludge, to be rescued by closing track, the lo-fi epic track "Skylon" which tells the story of a mid air high jacking.Beginning with passengers boarding and ends with the press conference in the aftermath of the hijacking, this song is Rhys has ever written, it never lets up for the 14 minuets running length.Whist the second of half of this record, dose begin to sound extremely similar by the second half of this record, but the first half works extremely well, in particular the lead single Candyloin, is a definite stand out, highlight, worth your time and effort.
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