This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
No, it’s not a Tragically Hip tribute album.
This Phantom Power is the sixth CD from Super Furry Animals. And rest assured these wonderfully weird Welshmen have nothing whatsoever in common with Gord Downie and his gang of blue-collar rockers. If anything, they’re more like Elvis Costello on acid trying to write Brian Wilson songs with The Flaming Lips. Though I doubt even that ambitious collaboration could generate post-alternative and pop psychedelia numbers as trippily endearing as these melodically rich, musically free-wheeling odes to Sex, War and Robots, Valet Parking, The Piccolo Snare and two pet turtles named Venus & Serena. Of course, if you pay attention, cuts like Liberty Belle and Out of Control reveal their darker, anti-war undercurrents — which help keep this album from achieving the gleefully giddy heights of its predecessor Rings Around The World. Even so, when it comes to mind-expanding pop, SFA are still running rings around the competition.
