FUZZY LOGIC

"Fuzzy Logic" is a brilliant debut album. The welsh quintet nailed the exact sound they wanted to make from square one. This album is pure super furry animals, yet tends to explore the more psychadelic side of their music. This album tends to show off more short burst guitar based tracks than any of their other albums, especially on the first half of this record. This album can be described as frantic and crazy.

Even the album artwork is pretty crazy. The album cover is made up of different passport photos of disguises that Welsh drug dealer, Howard Marks, has used. The album booklet is full of pictures of TV weather girls, Bill Hicks, actor Rhys Ifans, Isaac Newton, Bad Behaviour, Stavros the hamster, Howard Marks, The guy from Sparks, Frank Fontaine and Dic Ben. There is also a big explanation of Fuzzy Logic as a mathematical term. This really adds to the craziness of the album!

The opening track, "God! Show Me Magic" is a short burst of explosive acid pop that serves as a brilliant intro. "Fuzzy Birds" is a great gloomy follow on track. The version of "Something 4 the Weekend" on this album is a lot faster and more frantic than the version that was released as a single. Both are great but the one featured on the 2004 singles collection is very different. This album version is a lot more psychadelic, noisy and frantic.

Some slower moments on this album include the tracks "For Now and Ever", "Hometown Unicorn" and "Long Gone". "Hometown Unicorn" which shows off some more spacier tones. "Hometown Unicorn" is one of the few tracks to have a proper guitar solo in it. This was done for the pop appeal as this was an early single.

"Gathering Moss" is the first real attempt at experimental music, thier experiments in sound would become one of their key features as the years go on as this is something the band continuously concetrated on and built up. There are still a few tracks on this album which show off some of their more unique, creative and experimental sides. "Gathering Moss" is full of dreamy echoic vocals and multi layers of sound which gives off quite a spacey effect.

"Fuzzy Logic" is mostly an album made for pop appeal, although the band hadn't really broken into the mainstream around the time that this was released. Their bigger progressive and art rock elements hadn't really grown yet, but you can still see the very roots of a something that they would begin to develop album by album. "Fuzzy Logic" remains a great debut album after nearly 10 years and it shows off their more rockin' side of songwriting. Altogether a great and unchallenging forty minutes that is easy to fall in love with.

I was dead chuffed when I first bought this - about four years ago - but of course, my musical tastes have matured a lot since then, and now I'm more into "real" prog and jazz.

In fact, I'm not even sure why this band is on this site; at most they're prog-related, taking a couple of influences from bands such as Caravan, but really, they're not at all progressive. Onto the album itself though, you'd expect this kind of thing to be on the "alternative" radio during the nineties, the songs being quite short, catchy and digestible but still not "pop" to the public eye. There's a couple of good songs on here which show slight promise in this band to go onto more interesting works - which they most assuredly did - namely "Gathering Moss" and "Long Gone". There's also a few which are the kind of thing you wouldn't mind dancing to a party if you were drunk / stoned / wired enough, such as "God! Show Me Magic" and "Something For The Weekend". But overall, most of the songs are fairly boring and at times, annoying, particularly "Frisbee". "If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You" is the song which first got me interested in this band but today I find it to be non-eventful; it's got a decent enough tune, but the band wasn't experienced enough at this point to keep it from sounding grey.

This is the kind of thing a brit-pop fan would love. If you're looking to get into this band then try "Phantom Power" or "Rings Around The World", and for the love of god, avoid this if you're a rabid prog fan that's really into complex, ever-changing time signatures and impressive mellotron / guitar solos. In fact, I'd only really recommend getting this if you're an SFA completionist.

Best song: Gathering Moss

The debut album of Welsh britpop experimentalists Super Furry Animals is a fun album above all else. Not yet with the genre busting experiments of Radiator and Guerilla, this disc shows the bands mix of psychedelic rock, britpop, punk, and straight up power pop seperated out before being put in the blender. "God! Show Me Magic" displays punky riffs and wisecracking delivery with a harmonised chorus. "Something 4 the Weekend" is a relentlessly melodic drug anthem with a chorus that almost makes sense. The bands humor is already in place as well, with a fascination with drug smugglers ("Hanging with Howard Marks") and hamsters ("Fuzzy Birds") who generate power. A great display that pop can be as silly as it is smart.

It is at times difficult to talk about "prog related" albums on PA. Just because, at times, the relation to prog is quite thin. And let's say that it is again the case with this "Fuzzy Logic".

I would consider this album more as a post new wave stuff, with several very good and catchy songs ("Fuzzy Birds", "Something for the Weekend"), some upbeat, pop and electric atmosphere ("Frisbee"). Unlike mentioned in their bio, I can hardly find any psychedelic items in here (maybe "Hometown Unicorn" if I were indulgent).

So, is there any hype about this band? Not on PA while I consider the very few ratings about their work. But this is a usual circumstance with prog "related" albums. It is also true that some songs seem to come out from a late sixties album ("Gathering Moss"). But it was released in 1996!

The same feeling is felt almost throughout the whole album (which last for a mere forty minutes). Few modern ideas, few contemporary sounds. The whole being of moderate interest actually. There are tens of "prog related" albums which are definitely better than this one, although the very good rocking "Bad Behaviour" is very much welcome and adds some great beat.

This is the highlight as far as I'm concerned. Wild track with great guitar and fine vocals. It is the very first "high" moment of this work. Sounds as an early Roxy song. Strange, creative, wild, bizarre but great. Quite a furry animal should I say?

Anyway, some parts of the album do sound fresh, but others are just reminiscent of the past. Globally, this ain't a bad album. But don't expect too much of it. Three stars is an upscale rating (five out of ten would be more accurate) but "Fuzzy Logic" does hold some illogic songs which are providing some good feeling like the heavy/funny "Hangin' with Howard Marks".

If you are only interested in classic prog music, I'm afraid that this sort of album is not going to score high in your bulletin. If ever you are open to some basic rock music with a creative angle, this may well be looked after. In this case, just put "Long Gone" into brackets (or press next if you prefer) because it doesn't feature the ingredients that I have described.

Three stars.

This being their first album, I was very impressed.

Out at around the time Britpop was going strong, these Welsh guys took the Brit Pop sound and added more colourful influences, like punk, fuzz rock, psychadellic and progressive rock in order to enhance a thick and joyous sound.

This album was very fun to listen to. Their wasnt really any bad songs on it, it did have it's ups and downs, but it was really fun to listen to.

1. God! Show Me Magic - Britpop at it's very best. Great chorus. Alot like the Pixies, short and simple. 10/10

2. Fuzzy Birds - Very funny song about a man who makes his hamster spin around on a wheel and power his house. A bit like The Beatles meet Prince. Great chorus. 9/10

3. Something For The Weekend - Reminds me of The Kinks. Very The Hoosiers. Great chorus. 9/10

4. Frisbee - Very rocking. Pretty good chorus. 8/10

5. Hometown Unicorn - Amazing chorus. Reminds me of early Radiohead meets Blur. 10/10

6. Gathering Moss - Quite beautiful. Very dreamy. 9/10

7. If You Don't Want Me To Destory You - Again, very dreamy and incredibly British. Great vocal overdubs. 9/10

8. Bad Behaviour - Sounds like a fuzzed version of Status Quo. Great song. Love the thermin work. 9/10

9. Mario Man - Great changes in dynamics and use of sound. 8/10

10. Hangin' With Howard Marks - Love the lyrics. Guy from Sparks, haha. Great song. 8/10

11. Long Gone - Nice and calm. A bit repetitive though. 7/10

12. For Now & Ever - Reminds me of Weezer. Great end to the album. 8/10

CONCLUSION: Wouldn't say it's a masterpiece, but is incredibly enjoyable.

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS is a strange band emerging out of Wales, UK in the 90s and not strange like OMG this music is too weird, man! Strange in that they are at their base a britpop band that has song structures similar in catchiness to the bigwigs of that movement like Oasis, Blur and Supergrass but also incorporates a healthy dose of neo-psychedelia from Radiohead, the indie pop craziness of Ween, the glam rock riffage from David Bowie, Alice Cooper and other 70s giants as well as sensual orchestration like that of The Verve.

FUZZY LOGIC is their debut LP and a surprise to find that it is a very consistent album incorporating so many different influences that end up working together so very well. While the short intro track "God! Show Me Magic" sounds a lot like the harder sounds of Supergrass, it quickly cedes to a slower britpop Oasis groove that sounds more like a glam rock Bowie song, but although the influences are evident they are just distant enough to keep me from crying rip off.

Tracks like "Hometown Unicorn" show a distinct "The Mollusk" era Ween sound in action with Hendrix guitar and solos and other 60s psych / pop influences melded together. The rest of the album follows suit mixing and fusing all these influences together with catchy britpop based compositions but always bring some strange new ideas or seasoning to the table. This is only the debut album by SFA. Despite their delving into the progressive realms of music they were also fairly successful from the start on the UK pop charts.

Their sound becomes more distinct starting with their second album "Radiator" when all these detectable influences simmer down into a tastier concoction generating a more original sound. For a debut album clearly rooted in the britpop era i have to say that i find this album a winner. The production is crystal clear, the alternation of hard and soft tracks mixed with glam, psychedelic, indie rock / pop as well as 60s influences too numerous to mention really adds up to a pleasant surprise.

Fuzzy Logic is the debut album by Super Furry Animals, and in my opinion, the band did a pretty good job of nailing the sound of glam-rock which is pop based rock with an edge, the same kind of rock done by other great prog related artists like....hmmm, lets see.....David Bowie, Roxy Music, Queen, 10CC, yes even early Pink Floyd, the Beatles and Genesis....to name a few. This is the same kind of music that is performed by this band. Having said that, you will get an idea of what this music is about. Somehow, however, it got labeled by a lot of people as being alternative, but I guess many people would consider Bowie alternative too. SFA actually got the sound right the first time, which many alternative bands and new wave bands from the 80s couldn't get right for a while and some of them never did. I consider this music not pop, but anti-pop, which is demonstrated by the eccentric nature of the bands and the eclectic sound of their music. This is over the top music, not so much in the sound of the music, but in the performance of the music.

SFA do this kind of music, and they do it well. All through this album you can hear shades of David Bowie and Roxy Music doing what they did best. This music is very psychedelic, but has a more updated sound. Yet it still remains true to it's roots. This band just does not get the attention or the accolades that it so much deserves. This first album is a bit all over the place in a way, and not as focused as some of their later albums. But I listen to it and I am so surprised at how they really nailed it faster than so many other bands that people claim to be better than them. You get a few crazy guitar solos, a lot of chaotic sounding brit-pop (gone mad that is), and a very glam-rock type sound. But, this album shows some immaturity in the sound, which the band would adjust in the near future. For now, though, this is a fun album, full of surprises and even some heartfelt moments.

Lovers of Bowie and Roxy Music will find a lot to love here, just as I do. The band got the sound down so well that this album was considered on of the 1001 albums you must hear before you die. I couldn't agree more, but you got to go into it expecting prog related music in the same vein as all the best glam rockers. Those that profess that this is not progressive rock have forgotten that there is an entire genre of prog music that they have dismissed. It's true that this album doesn't have a lot of tricky rhythms (even though there are moments that make me go "WTF was that?") and the songs are not of epic length, but that doesn't mean this band doesn't deserve to be on this site. If that was the case, then Bowie, Roxy Music and Queen shouldn't be here either. This is the sub-genre of Progressive Music that everyone likes to forget about when trying to think of the definitive sound of prog, but let me assure you this is prog and deserves to be here.

You may ask, so that's all well and good, but what does this album sound like? Well, the entire album, though a little unfocused, sounds like Bowie, Roxy Music, early PF (the Barrett Days) and etc. just like I've been describing. That sound is evident through the entire album, with an occasional whacky guitar solo, a few strings placed here and there, psychedelic at times and experimental at others and though they rely a lot on the sound of glam bands, they still have that distinct sound that lets you know you are listening to SFA. I really can't give this excellent effort anything less than 4 stars. Great music by a great band that just doesn't get the recognition it deserves.