To me, 2005's Love Kraft was always the final big record of the Super Furry Animals' first decade as a band. Sure, they recorded more great stuff, and the members went on to a variety of separate projects of interest. However, the very Beach Boys-influenced Love Kraft found the Furries in 2005 really finally giving in to their most lush impulses. It's an album with less punch than Fuzzy Logic nearly 10 years early, and yet it's absurdly beautiful in spots. And, thankfully, it's been reissued this month in a new 20th anniversary edition.
Songs like "Atomik Lust" here reveal a decided Laurel Canyon influence, though the strings, and samples of strings throughout the best tracks on this one suggest Van Dyke Parks too. While lead single "Lazer Beam" indicated a music that's far more playful, Love Kraft is full of songs which are more ballads, like "Walk You Home", a real gem. And if so much of this seems similar to a High Llamas record, the presence of Sean O'Hagan behind the scenes here confirms that suspicion. The emphasis on balladry, with those strings and synths ever abundant here, gives portions of this the vibe of a song-suite. Little stretches of Love Kraft, like the "Ohio Heat" / "Walk You Home" / "Lazer Beam" nexus, work very well indeed. The effect is one where you want to spend time with the album, and not just the singles, if that makes any sense. If Love Kraft is a song-suite, you can't really complain when the final stop is "Cabin Fever", an absolutely gorgeous bit of Brian Wilson-y business at the conclusion of the journey.
Of course, the strengths of the 20th Anniversary Edition of Love Kraft are on the many bonus tracks here. Rarities and flip-sides like "Sunny Seville" and the peppy "Rock 'n' Roll Flu" seem a little more old school SFA than lots of what's on the album proper. There are early versions of songs we'd hear later, like "The Gateway Song", later on 2007's Hey Venus!, and even "Bing Bong", later a stand-alone single in 2016, and also stuff like "Colonise the Moon", which would have fit nicely on Love Kraft itself. Along with those gems, are nearly 20 demos.
Love Kraft in this 20th Anniversary Edition is overstuffed with ideas. With the wealth of bonus cuts here, a fuller picture of Super Furry Animals circa 2005 is presented. Listened to as a whole, this verion of their seventh album is definitive proof of the lads' genius. The demos suggest a somewhat looser version of Love Kraft, but that playful iteration of the record stands on one side via the demos here, while the album itself stands on the other. Each half of this release has charms unique to the Super Furry Animals, but each side reveals characteristics of the group which please immensely. That mix of playfulness and compositional strength set this record apart just like it did the previous six SFA records. If you're going to listen to Love Kraft going forward, it must be this 20th Anniversary Edition of the album.
More details on Super Furry Animals via Instagram. Love Kraft (20th Anniversary Edition) can be ordered at a variety of places.
[Photo: Super Furry Animals]