Hello Sunshine (Again): A Quick Review Of The 20th Anniversary Edition Of Phantom Power By Super Furry Animals

In 2003, Super Furry Animals pushed a bit towards the mainstream. Or was it instead that the mainstream had finally caught up wit the Furries? The Welsh five-piece offered up their brightest, most accessible record to date that year with Phantom Power. The release is now out as a deluxe, remastered edition on a variety of formats. And the joys of this one are still there, augmented by the copious bonus materials.

"Hello Sunshine" still seems like the most concise distillation of the charms of SFA to date. The track is impossible to dislike, as could be said about "Golden Retriever", the galloping single with the video where the band's in their Yeti costumes. "Bleed Forever" and the punchy "Out of Control" were always my favorites on the record, but the whole album has a tightness that's impressive. There's still the familiar Furries experimentation, but things are grounded, in a sense, with the musicians showing that they'd found a way to bring the whole platter of joys of their music to the widest possible audience so far.

The production by the band was helped by the deft hands of Tony Doogan and Gorwel Owen as the engineers. There's little overdone here, with things as precise and deliberate (in their own SFA way) as they were on MWNG, only this time the lyrics are in English, not Welsh. "Venus and Serena", for example, sounds absolutely beautiful, with the remastered version having a brighter sheen to these ears than the old CD did. That number, such a smart and lovely composition, offers up both Gruff's emotive vocals and hints of the band's influences (Beach Boys, Beatles, Syd Barrett, etc.). That the song is so ready to be a hit on the radio isn't so much a sign that the band was aiming for that, but that, I think, by 2003, things were finally catching up with the Furries, enough that more folks were finally understanding just how wonderful this lot's music was. Of course, it didn't hurt that songs from Phantom Power got used in American TV and film productions.

This 20th Anniversary edition of Phantom Power is positively stuffed with bonus cuts, including a raft of demos, remixes, and live tracks. None are likely to change one's opinion that is a great record, though there's enough evidence here now to reveal just how much talent was put into the original release, and what an effort there was in 2003 to condense things down to one of the most accessible, tightest SFA records ever released.

Phantom Power (2023 Remaster) is out now via the official Super Furry Animals website.

[Photo: me, Washington, D.C., 2016]