Review
"4 stars. 12 tracks of fantastical, strings-assisted acoustic pop and exotica-tinged psychedelia that smuggle in curious parables and flashes of apocalypse amid its nursery rhyme sing-songs. The childish, xylophone-accompanied title track is cute and guile-free. Further in, though, Gruff’s more esoteric musical fascinations – Brazilian Tropicalia, Turkish psychedelia, ‘70s Welsh prog – rear their heads. 'Lonesome Words' is a spooked folk elegy dashed with violins courtesy of High Llama Sean O’Hagan...the mood is unshakeably upbeat. Take 'Skylon', a 13-minute modern fable that casts Gruff as a bomb disposal expert snipping at wires on an airborne aeroplane. In one comic passage, Gruff considers self-immolation when he recognises the tedious TV personality sat next to him. By the close, though, the moral is clear – we should overcome our differences in the name of the common good: 'Define myself/Against everything you stood for, now I’m sitting by your side.' Good attitude. Great album." --Uncut

"4 stars. Perhaps inspired by the rediscovery of his Sixties and Seventies Celtic underground pop heritage, Rhys has made both his wildest and most accessible record to date... Candylion is hugely eclectic without ever using the musical plot." --The Observer

"4 stars. Candylion isn't a major musical statement, but its idiosyncratic, nostalgic appeal is hard to resist. More importantly, it has a reason for existing beyond providing ego-massage for the man who made it: more than you can say for most extracurricular solo albums. Against all odds, Candylion turns out to be a rather rare beast." --The Guardian

Product Description
Unlike his Welsh-language solo debut, the more accessible "Candylion" finds the Super Furry Animals leader singing mainly in English.

"Candylion took form in the spring of 2006 over a fragmented 2 week period at Gorwel Owen's Ofn studio in Llanfaelog, Wales. My ears were happily ringing from a few months touring with the Super Furry Animals and I had a batch of mellower acoustic songs I wanted to record quickly and get out of the way before the next speaker-blowing SFA record. Once in the studio however I got carried away and found myself in a nostalgic mood, pining for some of the music I grew up listening to. The cornerstones of this record became the soft vocal sound of Psychocandy-era The Jesus and Mary Chain coupled with the sonic sweetshop of daisy age hip hop. Coincidently I had been listening and dancing hard during this period to a lot of my parents' old 1960's and 70's Welsh language pop, folksploitation and progressive rock 7 inches whilst helping Finders Keepers Records compile an album of the period which was called 'Welsh Rare Beat'. With all these pieces of my past swimming around my brain I dropped a lot of slow-mo solo acoustic numbers and built up a bedrock of varied sounds, inviting my friend Owen over to add double bass, and Lisa Jen from the band 9bach - who comes from my home town and shares my Bethesda accent - to sing. The atmosphere at Gorwel's house was free and easy so I felt confident to mess around with the English and Welsh Languages; working in a 15 minute long ballad dealing with Skylon, master of the skies and even recording a duet with Lisa in really bad Patagonian Spanish which fits in with my eventual goal of killing off all the colonial languages with bad grammar. To finish it off I searched further afield and stopped by in Brixton for a day to add some strings courtesy of Sean and Marcus of The High Llamas and finally hooked up with Mario Caldato Jr (who mixed the last 2 furry records) at his home in Rio de Janeiro for a week to mix the thing and add some percussion and flute. I headed home with this record burning in my hand: Candylion, an album essentially of 11 songs for the acoustic guitar and voice. It was a joy and adventure to make and I hope it floats your boat along too for a while, wherever you may be going." --Gruff Rhys, November 2006

1. This Is Just The Beginning
2. Candylion
3. Court Of King Arthur
4. Lonsome Words
5. Cycle Of Violence
6. Painting People Blue
7. Beacon In The Darkness
8. Con Carino
9. Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru
10. Now That The Feeling Has Gone
11. Ffrwydriad Yn Y Ffurfafen
12. Skylon!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MRA6IC/?tag=imwan-20

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atwY-c47Rzw[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YShRy81bKms[/youtube]