Rings Around The World
- Super Furry Animals
- Band Name: Super Furry Animals
- Record Label: Epic
- Release Date: Mar 19, 2002
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100Rings Around The World takes another twelve bold strides forward, applying the technology explored on earlier efforts like Radiator and Guerrilla and the restraint exercised on the more lo-fi Mwng to a fresh set of songs that stretch the group's stylistic boundaries and provide the young century with one of its first classic albums.
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100A truly brilliant recording. [#53, p.93]
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100SFA's first truly flawless album.... Sad, lush, romantic, beautiful, heartbroken, crazy, this is an album powerful enough to make you shout out loud in public or cry alone at night. [Aug 2001, p.96]
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Unfortunately, that extraordinary core is at times marred by forced eccentricity.
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90Nearly everything is fair game with the group, and that's what makes this release one of their better ones.
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90Beyond the shiny surface of these songs lurks an unusual wealth of detail decorating the landscape through which the Furries power, scattering verse after chorus after verse at breathtaking speed.
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90Rings Around the World might be stylistically all over the place, and some people may think it sounds like Super Furry Animals are desperately trying to show the world how clever they are, but it's so much fun to listen to, that it hardly matters. It's a near-perfect album, and we all should be thankful there are bands out there willing to throw everything they've got into a record just to see what happens.
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Rings Around the World flows extraordinarily well, making it all the more powerful.
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90Given its songs' consistent strength, Rings' extravagant extras rarely seem excessive. [Apr 2002, p.125]
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SFA uses 21st-century tools to achieve pop timelessness.
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89Their best album to date-- a bold claim to the upper echelon of rock.
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80The Super Furries have indulgently embraced a collision of musical elements; what we hear is a jarring, yet surprisingly seamless, mix of sounds and exceptional songwriting.... Their best work to date.
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80A triumph of style and content, a precious thing and proof positive that acid is well good for you.
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This is the first SFA album not to progress from its predecessor, or offer the shock of the new, and that's hard not to miss -- but, if this is the first SFA record you hear, it'll likely intrigue, even dazzle, with its kaleidoscopic blend of pop, prog, punk, psych and electronica.
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A widescreen musical masterpiece with a knowing wink. [28 Mar 2002, p.68]
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80Yes, it's an earful of music, but it's a good earful, with more smarts, twists, turns and ear-pleasing trickery than one band should be allowed.
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70This kind of sonic bravado is truly impressive. [May 2002, p.72]
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There's no doubt their musical literacy is impressive, but for every cliche it erases, Rings Around The World embraces two more. [May 2002, p.98]
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It's not, as has been signalled, Super Furries' best album. It's their worst. That's still aeons better than most other left-of-centre alternative British pop bands, but it's nonetheless a disappointment.
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60Unless you've just fallen off a bong, the endless whimsy lacks meat. [Apr/May 2002, p.118]
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60Aurally, Super Furry Animals are evolving into a hybrid of Blur and The Cardiacs. (Drawing) Rings Around The World, Shoot Doris Day and Presidential Suite are excellent, most of the remainder pass muster, but there's nothing to change anyone's world.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 30 out of 31
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Mixed: 0 out of 31
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Negative: 1 out of 31
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BenW.10Another fabulous album, made even better by the DVD release.