At the time, in 1999, Guerrilla felt like a logical continuation of what was on the first two studio albums from Super Furry Animals. Listened to now, the record seems like a very bold move into an entirely new direction for the Welsh musicians. Full of electronica, Beatles-inspired riffs, and a few folk rock numbers, Guerrilla remains a stunning work. Reissued today in an amazing multi-disc edition, Guerrilla reveals what extraordinary players these guys were in 1999, and how willing they were to jettison the whole Britpop and Welsh rock baggage they had been saddled with, for something far more forward-looking.
Preceded by the calypso-influenced "Northern Lites" single, Guerrilla arrived in late Spring 1999 to some acclaim. I can remember at the time that I got the "Northern Lites" single when it was new during my first trip to the U.K. in April 1999. And, of course, as someone who had just seen the band then in Wolverhampton, and earlier here in Washington, D.C., I was very much a fan of this record immediately, despite the fact that it was a bit broader in scope than their earlier releases.
Guerrilla has some singles on it, sure, and "Fire in My Heart" and "The Turning Tide" certainly rank right up there with earlier numbers like "Demons" from the Furries. However, where Guerrilla succeeds is in the portions here that break the formula of the first few releases from SFA. To that end, "Some Things Come From Nothing" is a revelation, ambient rock redefined, and "The Door To This House Remains Open", a trip hop ramble, is nearly as good. A lot of the credit for those cuts would likely need to go to Cian Ciaran, the keyboardist here, and the whole album has far more of an electronica vibe about it all than anything the band had done up to that point in time. Still, for those in 1999 who longed for something more familiar from the Furries, "Chewing Chewing Gum" blends those electronic textures with snatches of the kind of catchy hook the band had mastered over and over again since 1995. And if closer "Keep The Cosmic Trigger Happy" stands as an insanely peppy bit of business, it's made even better here on this 2019 edition of Guerrilla by both the clarity of the production shining through this version, and the fact that the cut's hidden track-ending has now been thankfully truncated. The cut, like "Do or Die" and "Night Vision", links this album up neatly to both Fuzzy Logic (1996) and Radiator (1997).
Where this edition of Guerrilla enters the realm of the essential is in the extras, obviously. It's already a great album but the bonus tracks here place this album in context, and illustrate what kinds of risks these guys were willing to take in pursuit of a new version of their sound. The flip-sides from the album's three singles are presented a bit out of order, but the cuts still charm. From the punk-y "Mrs. Spector" from the "Fire in My Heart" single, and to the bristly "Rabid Dog" from the "Northern Lites" single, there are numbers here that feel very much like stuff from that magical first year of the Furries' career. However, the best thing here is "The Citizen's Band", a shimmering, catchy confection that came at the start of Guerrilla on CD. But only if you hit the rewind button once the track started playing. It was diabolical that they released it that way but, as always, the Furries were interested in having fun and having the listener have fun with them.
The second disc here of Guerrilla is given over to previously-unreleased demos from the band. Largely recorded a full year before the album dropped, the Big Noise demos here, like "Hand in Hand" and "Vermillionaire" offer up hints of songs that never happened, and others, like "The Turning Tide", that morphed into bigger songs on the album itself. With the Ewloe demos, the band was adding more and more to the basic demo tracks, with even "Northern Lites" in its demo-form having spaces left for what ended up being the steel drums. A listener now can hear how those pieces were layered together there, along with a rougher "Rabid Dog" than what ended up on the flip-side later. Still, the revelation here on this 20th anniversary edition of Guerrilla is an epic 10-minute "Wherever I Lay My Phone (That's My Home)", a work that suggests the possibility that Cian Ciaran and the other players here could have released this under another band's name and had some success as an electronica act. Similarly, "DX Heaven" and "John Spex" take more chances with samples and keyboards than nearly anything else on Guerrilla, or from this band's output in this era. Bright and full of futuristic sheen in spots, the tracks are small revelations of the possibilities of the other forms of music that were at the disposal of the Furries in 1999 or so.
A set that captures one of the best bands of the last 25 years, Guerrilla is essential for fans of this band, and for anyone wanting to hear the moment when, with Britpop ending, a band was willing to ride the change and pursue (as they always had) new options. One of the only bands besides label-mates Primal Scream willing to take some real chances with electronic music then, Super Furry Animals used Guerrilla to dabble and experiment, while keeping one foot firmly in the realm of the accessible.
Guerrilla is out today. More details here.
More details on Super Furry Animals via SuperFurry.com, or via the official Facebook page for the band.
[Photo: Domino Records]