Music > Album Reviews

Zoom! The Best of Super Furry Animals 1995-2016

03/11/16

My first ever iPod was an iPod shuffle, I still have it, it has a Pete Fowler monster sticker on it and there's only ever been one band on there, Super Furry Animals. I've upgraded my iPod since, mainly because the Super Furries released more albums than would fit on my shuffle (I'm not a total stalker, there's other stuff on there too, like Neon Neon, El Goodo, The Pale Blue Dots and Gulp), but SFA remain my most played because they just write brilliant, off-kilter pop songs.

So here we have a double album of 37 of the best SFA tracks, compiled by the band with the help of official Furries archivist Kliph Scurlock (seriously? I didn't see that job advertised anywhere). All the singles are here from Hometown Unicorn all the way through to Mt. and it sees the CD debut of the unofficial Welsh football anthem of this year's Euro campaign, Bing Bong. With some choice album tracks and rare appearances from Patience (previously only available on the DVD and U.S. versions of Rings Around The World) and The Citizen's Band (a bonus track hidden at the START of Guerilla), but other than these two tracks, it all feels a little safe and obvious. The liner notes mention superb deep cuts The Gift That Keeps On Giving and Run! Christian, Run!. Now, don't get me wrong, these are both amazing songs, but they're far from being "deep cuts". They're album tracks, and in the case of Run! Christian, Run! a track from an album that went gold! There's no remixes, no live tracks and nothing new for die hard fans. Literally every track here is on my iPod already. But this is probably now my favourite SFA album, not in the way that your mate with five CDs says that Queen: The Greatest Hits is the best Queen album, but because now I have something that I can loan to the friends that I've been badgering for ages to "listen to the most important British band of the last 20 years", without giving them all my precious CDs and vinyl.

Oh, and Kliph, you totally missed a trick by not having The Gateway Song as the opening track.

Now I'll just sit here and wait for my invite to be the new official Furries archivist to come through the door. Guess who I'll be listening to?

10/10