SONGBOOK VOLUME ONE

More than a decade after these blissfully genre-bending Welsh popsters burst through a rip in the space-time continuum with all the self-assured ambition of five guys in a (soon literal) armored tank. Super Furry Animals were the most life-affirming British pop group of the late 1990s, retaining their yen for sunny melodies even as Radiohead perfected gloomy computer-age ennui and Blur's buoyant choruses sank into heartbreakingly dissonant sad bastard music. Since landing on this watery, sun- scorched planet, SFA have gleefully mish-mashed influences that include the Beach Boys, the Beatles, David Bowie, and Chemical Brothers. Songbook spans all those sounds and more, cramming 21 perception-twisting singles on one disc. The disc aims more toward awing neophytes with the group's unbridled pop prowess than sating completists. Amazing compilation for a timeless band.