Rings Around the World

Rings Around the World
Studio album by Super Furry Animals
Released	July 23, 2001
Recorded	April–September 2000 at Monnow Valley Studios, Rockfield, Monmouthshire and Bearsville Studios, New York
Genre	Indie rock
Length	52:54
Label	Epic
Producer	Chris Shaw and Super Furry Animals
Professional reviews
Allmusic [1] Drowned in Sound (10/10)[2] Entertainment Weekly (A-)[3] The Guardian [4] The Independent (favourable)[5] NME (6/10)[6] Pitchfork (8.9/10)[7] PopMatters (very favourable)[8] Stylus B+[9] Tiny Mix Tapes [10]
Super Furry Animals chronology
Mwng (2000) Rings Around the World (2001) Phantom Power (2003)
Singles from Rings Around the World
"Juxtapozed with U" Released: 9 July, 2001 "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" Released: 8 October, 2001 "It's Not the End of the World?" Released: 14 January, 2002

Rings Around the World is the fifth studio album and the major label debut by Super Furry Animals. Released on 23 July 2001 by Epic Records in the United Kingdom, it was the first album to be simultaneously released on both audio CD and DVD. The record reached number 3 in the UK Albums Chart and includes the singles "Juxtapozed with U", "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" and "It's Not the End of the World?".

The album, which singer Gruff Rhys describes as "a very ambitious project", was recorded between April and September 2000 at Monnow Valley Studios in Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales and Bearsville Studios, New York with the band acting as co-producers alongside Chris Shaw.^[11] The majority of the songs on Rings Around the World were written by Rhys on guitar and piano with keyboardist Cian Ciaran contributing "[A] Touch Sensitive" and "Miniature" as well as collaborating with other members of the band on "Run! Christian, Run!", "Alternate Route to Vulcan Street" and "No Sympathy". Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and former Velvet Underground member John Cale make cameo appearances on the album.

Musically Rings Around the World is an eclectic record incorporating pop, prog, punk, jungle, electronica, techno and death metal. Rhys has offered several explanations of the album's lyrical content, claiming the record is "about Earth, and the pollution of space" and also that it addresses the human condition.^[12][13] Critics meanwhile have referred to the record as "thematically eccentric" and lacking an "overarching theme".^[1][14] Critical reception was generally positive with the album being nominated for 2001's Mercury Music Prize and being awarded 'album of the year' by Mojo. Some reviews claimed it to be the best record of the band's career although the NME described it as the band's worst album.

Origins and recording

Rings Around the World was the Super Furry Animals' first album for Epic Records following the demise of their previous label Creation and the success of 2000's Mwng, which was issued on the band's own label, Placid Casual.^[15] Singer Gruff Rhys has stated that the band aimed to make a "laid back and sort of wiped clean" record with Rings....^[16] In a 2008 interview with Uncut Rhys described the album as "a very ambitious project" stating that "We were trying to make a blockbuster album that was going to be like The Eagles ... We were trying to make utopian pop music that had pretensions of being progressive and exciting.^[11] Rings... was originally going to be called Text Messaging is Destroying the Pub Quiz as We Know It^{[nb 1]} and released as a double album containing 75-90 minutes of material with Rhys stating that he was "into the excess of it, that was the whole point".^[11][18][19] The group eventually decided against the idea but did issue the album as the world's first simultaneous CD and DVD release with the latter featuring a surround sound mix alongside music videos and remixes, made possible by the financial backing of Epic.^[15][20]

Recording sessions began in April 2000 at Monnow Valley Studios in Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales with co-producer Chris Shaw and engineer Eric Tew. The band moved to Bearsville Studios, New York before returning to Monnow Valley some months later where recording was completed in September 2000. Bearsville was chosen because of its drum and live rooms, which the band felt were desirable as they were using more microphones to capture audio for the surround sound mix included on the DVD version of the album than they would normally when simply recording in stereo. The group were mindful of the capabilities of surround sound and recorded sub-bass on tracks such as "[A] Touch Sensitive" and "Juxtapozed with U", which could only be heard through a low-frequency subwoofer channel in the surround mix. The band recorded onto two-inch analogue tape until they had a take they were happy with, then transferred the results to Pro Tools where individual songs were edited and overdubs were added. According to Keyboardist Cian Ciaran this meant the band could "edit some beats very precisely ... like the gated kicks at the end of the track "Sidewalk Serfer Girl"". Once they were happy with a song the group then transferred it back to tape before mixing took place as they liked the "tape sound".^[15]

Keyboardist Cian Ciaran contributed two tracks to Rings Around the World and collaborated with other members of the band on several more.

Rhys wrote many of the tracks on the album on acoustic guitar and piano and brought them to the band either as fully formed songs or as ideas which the group would then jam out.^[13] Ciaran wrote the songs "[A] Touch Sensitive" and "Miniature" and the intro and outro of "Run! Christian, Run!".^[15][21] A jam between Cian and guitarist Huw Bunford resulted in Rings Around the World's opening track "Alternate Route to Vulcan Street". The pair looped a sample of drummer Dafydd Ieuan playing the bass drum and snare and recorded themselves playing along on piano and guitar into a sampler. They then "chopped the playing up a bit" and filtered the drums and guitar to "give them more movement". Finally Rhys wrote lyrics and a string arrangement was added by Sean O'Hagan.^[15] Cian also contributed the second part of the song "No Sympathy", sampling the "mellow acoustic guitars" from the first half to create a techno "climactic ending".^[13][18]

Sessions for Rings Around the World saw the band concentrating on arrangements, particularly their vocal harmonies. On previous albums individual members of the group would "keep singing until [they] came up with harmonies that worked" but, encouraged by co-producer Chris Shaw, for Rings... the band took the time to work out harmonies in advance. The group used piano, keyboards or "whatever was available" to give themselves a starting note before the five band members and staff at the recording studio began trying ideas out. Occasionally Auto-Tune was used to "re-pitch existing lines to see if different versions of them would counterpoint correctly", with the band then learning the new vocal lines and recording them as they did not want to use Auto-Tune on the finished album.^[15]

Paul McCartney is credited as providing "celery and carrot" on the track "Receptacle for the Respectable".^[22] McCartney performed a similar role over thirty years earlier, chewing celery to form the percussion track of The Beach Boys song "Vegetables" from the album Smiley Smile.^[14] The Super Furry Animals had met the ex-Beatle at the NME Awards when a drunk Ciaran persuaded him to let them remix some Beatles material, resulting in 2000's Liverpool Sound Collage album.^[18][17] The band asked him to "return the favour" and appear on Rings Around the World, recording his part over the phone.^[13][18] Huw Bunford has said of McCartney's contribution: "He took it with good nature. You kind of see how far you can go sometimes ... we figured we already had a bass and singers so we really didn't need any more musicians. So we figured he could crunch vegetables".^[23] Former Velvet Underground member John Cale, a "sort of childhood hero" of Rhys's, also makes an appearance on the album, playing piano on the song "Presidential Suite".^[13][22] The Super Furry Animals had met Cale in Cardiff when they acted as his backing band for a song which appeared on the film Beautiful Mistake.^[13] They originally asked him to arrange strings for "Presidential Suite" but Cale turned them down reasoning that he would simply do what the band do: hum a melody to someone who could write the music down for him.^[18]

Musical style

Super Furry Animals "Receptacle For the Respectable" (2001) "Receptacle For the Respectable" is the one time the Super Furry Animals went with their "silly streak" on Rings Around the World.[16] This clip shows the transition to the fourth and last section of the song, performed in a "pantomime death metal" style.[21] Super Furry Animals "No Sympathy" (2001) Short clip from "No Sympathy", which merges Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young style harmonies with jungle hi-hats and techno.[5]

Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Rings Around the World is "very cinematic" and falls somewhere between the "instantaneous, easy to grasp, and almost disposable" Guerrilla and its "exact opposite" Mwng with the band applying the technology they used for the former and the simplicity of the latter, with "just the band playing in the studio".^[13] Singer Gruff Rhys has described the album as the band's "cosmic rock record".^[24]

The album is a "kaleidoscopic blend of pop, prog, punk, psych, and electronica".^[1] Drowned in Sound describes it as similar to Guerrilla with "Beach Boys-esque psychedelic pop ... put to techno undertones" while the NME has called Rings Around the World an "expensive, glossy production ... lush and widescreen" and suggested that it "reaches for an effect so modern that at times it sounds like it could've been made in the '80s".^[2][6] First single "Juxtapozed with U" is reminiscent of the Philadelphia soul music of the 1970s as well as David Bowie's "plastic" approximation of the sound on his 1975 album Young Americans while "No Sympathy" has been described as the "missing link between Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-scatted harmonies, jungle hi-hats and berserk sampler techno".^[4][5] The Dallas Observer compared "It's Not the End of the World?" to tunes such as The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset", Dennis Wilson's "Forever" and Jack Bruce's "Theme for an Imaginary Western" while The Big Issue called "Sidewalk Serfer Girl" "surf-punk electro pop".^[25][26] Elsewhere on the album the eclectic range of sounds continues from the trip hop of "[A] Touch Sensitive" to the Status Quo-esque "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" and the "electro country rock" of "Run! Christian, Run!".^[27][28]

The track "Receptacle For the Respectable" reflects the eclecticism of the album as it "undergoes a complete personality change" over the course of its four minute thirty two second duration, veering from prog rock to death metal.^[8][9][15] The song begins as an acoustic guitar-driven pop song and then shifts into a slower bridge section which leads to a even slower coda which has been compared to the music of Burt Bacharach and The Beach Boys' Smiley Smile album and features Paul McCartney chewing carrots and celery to the beat.^[8][13][15] The track ends with a "pantomime death metal" section with Rhys's "distorted, bellowed vocals" screaming the title phrase.^[15][21] According to Cian Ciaran the song initially comprised just the first two parts when recorded at Monnow Valley Studios but, by the time the group relocated to Bearsville Studios, Rhys had written and added the third section.^[8][15] While there the band added the fourth section by "pissing about with Pro Tools", looping the bass from the end of the third section "by accident" to create the musical backing.^[15] A fifth, hip hop, section was discussed but the band decided against it, reasoning that "if you're going to do a fifth bit, you'd probably do a sixth, and before you know where you are, you're doing a concept album made up of nothing but bits!".^[15] According to the band the track is the only time on the album where they tried to achieve comedy and "completely went with [their] silly streak".^[16]

Lyrical themes

Chief lyricist Gruff Rhys describes the songs on Rings Around the World as "broodier and more revealing" than those on 1999's Guerrilla.^[13]

Singer and chief lyric writer Gruff Rhys has given several explanations of the lyrical themes present on the album. He has claimed that the record was originally going to be a "state of the planet concept album" before the band decided against but is still "about Earth, and the pollution of space: it's about debris".^[12] Rhys has also stated that the album is about the human condition, citing tracks such as "Fragile Happiness" and "Receptacle For The Respectable" as examples.^[13] Critics have referred to the album as "thematically eccentric" and lacking an "overarching theme" with The Independent claiming it leaps "from religious fundamentalists to modern telecommunications and the old Hollywood star system with disorienting glee".^[1][14]

In contrast with 1999's Guerrilla, which featured songs with "self-consciously disposable, happy" lyrics, the tracks on Rings Around the World are "broodier and more revealing" according to Rhys. The track "No Sympathy" was originally written for a film entitled Plop, which followed three characters who became "complete monsters" after living for a week as though it were the last week of their lives. The song is rather bleak and Rhys claims it is quite a departure for him as a lyric writer.^[13] "Presidential Suite" is about former United States President Bill Clinton and former Russian President Boris Yeltzin. It is a "a reflective look back at the decadent nineties" and discusses the Lewinsky scandal with the lyrics "Honestly, do we need to know if he really came inside her mouth?" quoted by several critics when reviewing Rings Around the World.^[2][4][21] "Juxtapozed with U" addresses social injustice and is about "house prices going up, and people being left behind by the super rich" and has been described by Rhys as "grotesque in its upness and lift".^[13][21] "Sidewalk Serfer Girl" was initially written about Patti Whitebull, a girl who fell into a coma for 15 years, awaking in 1999, but became an "amalgamation of the lyrics of different songs" including one section in which Rhys describes his disdain for extreme sports.^[21] "Receptacle for the Respectable" is "a song about a girl around town, and being in awe/hurt by a powerful woman about town" while "It's Not the End of the World?" is "a romantic song about growing old".^[21] "Run! Christian, Run!" was influenced by guitarist Huw Bunford's interest in "doomsday cult websites". Bunford printed out several essays from these websites and gave them to Rhys who used them as inspiration for his lyrics along with his own recollections of watching Christian television shows during the band's American tours.^[21] The album's title track, "(Drawing) Rings Around the World", is based on an idea put forward by Rhy's girlfriend's Father and is about "all the rings of communication around the world. All the rings of pollution, and all the radioactivity that goes around".^[13][21] "Shoot Doris Day" refers to shooting American singer and actress Doris Day with film—"a very cinematic reference" for a song which Rhys claims is "over-the-top lyrically". The track is about "how people change" and also references Labour Party 'spin doctor' Peter Mandelson, in the guise of 'Victor Panache'.^[21]

DVD

Rings Around the World
Video by Super Furry Animals
Released	23 July 2001
Genre	Indie rock
Label	Epic
Super Furry Animals video chronology
Rings Around the World (2001) Phantom Power (2003)

The DVD of Rings Around the World contains the 13 songs featured on the CD version of the album along with 7 bonus tracks. These 20 songs are presented in surround sound and are accompanied by "low budget" music videos. The release also includes 16 remixes and interactive menus featuring ambient music created by the band.^[29] According to Keyboard player Cian Ciaran the group were worried that "doing a DVD might seem elitist, because only certain people have DVD players and systems, even now" but reasoned that "most people will have DVD playback systems at home within five years. Even if it doesn't take off, the stereo version of the album will always be there".^[15]

Ciaran has stated that the Super Furry Animals were "very hands-on" during the making of the DVD. Initially the band were mainly concerned with the sound quality, describing the presentation of the album's tracks in surround sound as "radical, like the change from mono to stereo". The group directed the surround sound mix themselves, instructing audio engineers to move instruments and vocal parts between speakers: "We want that one bit of sound to travel from the centre, over our heads and finish on my right shoulder ... Let's have the main vocal in the middle, then each harmony in its own speaker." They soon became equally as interested in the remixes, visuals and interactive elements however. Ciaran has described this process as "not always a nice position to be in" when, for example, they had to reject music videos they weren't happy with. The band asked different directors to make music videos for each song having tried unsuccessfully to make a film to accompany their 1999 album Guerrilla themselves.^[13] According to singer Gruff Rhys the band "tended to go for illustrators who could [make videos] cheaply using Flash ... and artists who like to work". The directors were asked to make the visuals as "extreme as possible" in an effort to avoid making videos that looked like just "another pop promo ... like MTV" and, according to Ciaran, had to "work even harder at creating something interesting" due to the limited budget available.^[29] Many of those who made videos for the DVD release had no previous experience of making films resulting in a "really fresh ... kind of scruffy" end product.^[13] According to Rhys the band made separate music videos for Rings Around the World's three singles as they saw the videos included on the DVD release of the album as "pure art" whereas they needed promotional videos that were more like adverts for the songs.^[13] Rhys has stated that the Super Furry Animals felt that fans placed too much emphasis on the videos on Rings Around the World rather than concentrating on the music, as a result of which the band used "really bland images" on the DVD release of their next album Phantom Power.^[30]

Although he enjoyed having so much control over the project Ciaran has claimed that it "sometimes felt like it would never end" and he was glad to get back to "the music side of things" upon the DVD's completion.^[29] Singer Gruff Rhys has stated that he found being involved with all aspects of the DVD release "really exciting" and particularly enjoyed working with "so many people".^[13]

Track listing

Critical reception

Rings Around the World received generally positive reviews from critics with a score of 86 on Metacritic, denoting "universal acclaim".^[31] The album was nominated for 2001's Mercury Music Prize and was voted the best album of 2001 by Mojo.^[32][33] PopMatters called the record "near-perfect" and claimed that "we all should be thankful there are bands out there willing to throw everything they've got into a record just to see what happens" while Drowned in Sound stated that the it is "SFA's best album to date", calling it essential and encouraging readers to "buy! buy! buy!".^[2][8] Uncut agreed also calling it the band's best album, stating that it is "accessible and adventurous".^[19] The Independent claimed that Rings Around the World "represents a quantum jump beyond the Furries' previous work" and described it as "one of the year's most engrossing – and, crucially, most entertaining – albums".^[5] Tiny Mix Tapes called Rings Around the World "one of the, if not the, best releases of 2002" describing it as a "mixture of sugar pop of yesteryear and modern Britpop" resulting in a "near perfect" album.^[10] Pitchfork stated that the album's combination of "paisley, sun-heated, and layered" music with Gruff Rhys's "satirical and heartfelt lyrics" makes it "timeless" and the band's best record.^[7] Stylus stated that the Super Furry Animals are "Gleefully working outside of a scene or prototype ... dabbling in a world of musical influences and Western hegemony, playing the merry prankster to Radiohead's gloom – and all with a smile, and in three-part harmony" on the album.^[9] Entertainment Weekly claimed that "At its best ... the album recalls a lost Brian Wilson-style psychedelic marvel" but went on to state that it is "at times marred by forced eccentricity", citing the "heavy metal gorgon voice booming through "Receptacle for the Respectable"" and the "awful lite-rock homage" "Juxtapozed with U" as examples.^[3] Writing for Allmusic Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised the record, claiming it "shines brightly" compared to the "dead world of mainstream and indie rock in 2001" but expressed disappointment that it is "the first SFA album not to progress from its predecessor".^[1] Q stated that, although songs such as "(Drawing) Rings Around the World", "Shoot Doris Day" and "Presidential Suite" are "excellent", the album features "nothing to change anyone's world" and the NME claimed that, despite containing some great songs, it is the band's worst album.^[6][34]

Accolades

* denotes an unordered list

Release

Rings Around the World was released on CD, vinyl, MiniDisc and DVD on 23 July 2001 in the United Kingdom on Sony's Epic imprint and was the world's first simultaneous album/DVD release.^[29]. The record reached number 3 in the UK Albums Chart.^[48] In America Rings Around the World was released on 19 March 2002 by XL Recordings with a bonus CD featuring seven tracks which appear on the DVD version of the album.^[8] Rings Around the World was released on 25 September 2001 in Japan with two additional tracks, "Tradewinds" and "Happiness Is a Worn Pun", added after "Fragile Happiness" at the end of the album. "Juxtapozed with U" was released as the first single from the album, reaching number 14 in the UK Singles Chart, followed by "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" in October 2001 which peaked at number 28. The third and final single to be taken from the album, "It's Not the End of the World?", was released in January 2002 and reached number 30 in the UK Singles Chart.^[49] The album has been certified gold in the United Kingdom, denoting sales of more than 100,000 copies.^[50]

Personnel

All track numbers refer to the CD version of Rings Around the World unless otherwise stated.

Band

• Gruff Rhys – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Huw Bunford – lead guitar, backing vocals
• Guto Pryce – bass guitar
• Cian Ciaran – keyboards, backing vocals
• Dafydd Ieuan – drums, backing vocals

Additional musicians

Music video directors (DVD)

Remixers (DVD)

Recording personnel

• Super Furry Animals – production, string arrangements on tracks 1, 4, 7, 10, 11
• Sean O'Hagan – string arrangement on tracks 1, 11
• Marcus Holdaway – string arrangement on track 1, 11
• Sonia Slany – string arrangement on tracks 4, 7, 10
• Chris Shaw – production and engineering
• Eric Tew – engineering
• Damian Shannon – engineering assistant (Bearsville Studios)
• Richard Wilkinson – engineering assistant (Metropolis)
• Stuart Hawkes – mastering
• Julian Lowe – mastering

DVD production

• Mike Gillespie – production
• Super Furry Animals – executive production, DVD sound effects and music
• Anthony I.P. Owen – DVD authoring
• Coffeecup New Media – DVD interface design
• No Brake Visual Engineering – DVD interface design
• John Mark James – DVD interface icon design
• Robert Burnett – video encoding
• Crispin Murray – audio encoding
• Mike Jones – film compilation

Artwork

• Pete Fowler – illustration
• Simon Pike – illustration
• John Mark James – logos and fonts

Album chart positions

References

Notes

References

External links

• Rings Around the World at Metacritic
• Rings Around the World at MusicBrainz