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