Decidedly less iconoclastic than his last album, the new one from Gruff Rhys is here. Seeking New Gods, out tomorrow via Rough Trade, is a remarkably solid record, and one which feels like variations on one song broken into small pieces. The melodies and hooks are different, of course, even as each cut here stikes at a particular mood that's both melancholic (it was a year of a plague, after all) and happy. Not for nothing is one track here called "Everlasting Joy", you know?
"Loan Your Loneliness" sounds more like 21st century Belle & Sebastian than it does Gruff's own Super Furry Animals, but the composition, like opener "Mausoleum of my Former Self", is rooted around a figure that's equal parts Steely Dan and Van Dyke Parks. The mix here, by Mario Caldato (Beastie Boys), helps quite a bit too as this is just a great sounding piece of work all around. Even the down-beat title track shines, offering up a faded beauty that's even a bit lush in spots. Elsewhere, "Holiest of the Holy Men" is, if not the Beatles by way of SFA, The Monkees and it's one of the most fun solo numbers Gruff's served up in ages. Still, the pleasures of Seeking New Gods coalesce around "Distant Snowy Peaks", the elegiac closer here.
That one progresses on the back of a positively elegant piano figure, and is minimalist compared to the richness of the other selections on Seeking New Gods, but it's hardly an outlier. Everything on this album possesses a similar pop grace. And while there's stuff here that provides some clues as to Gruff's past, this isn't just a record meant to please Furries fans. Seeking New Gods is baroque and Beatle-ish, a collection of music rich in melody and simple pleasures.
Seeking New Gods is out on Friday via Rough Trade.
More details on Gruff Rhys via his official Facebook page.
[Photo: Gruff Rhys Facebook page]