This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
The best things really are worth waiting for. Like Rings Around the World, the wondrous fifth album from Welsh neo-prog-popsters Super Furry Animals.
It came out last July in the U.K. and topped critics’ year-end lists. No wonder — Rings is a hypercreative, audacious, gleefully eclectic excursion into the nether regions of pop, rock and psychedelia. If The Beach Boys dropped acid and jammed with Blur and Olivia Tremor Control while Radiohead produced the proceedings, they couldn’t come up with songs half as trippy and poppy as Presidential Suite, Sidewalk Serfer Girl and Receptacle for the Respectable, which features Paul McCartney — chewing celery and carrots. For sheer inventiveness alone, this CD runs rings around the competition — and an extra CD of B-sides and leftovers only adds to the effect. If you really want to go around the world, though, try the DVD version, which boasts 18 psychedelic videos, multiple remixes, photos and much more. So what are you waiting for?
