7.5/10
Gruff Rhys goes where many others fear to tread; in a fifteen-year solo trot caused by the very long-term hiatus of the Super Furry Animals he’s made records about, amongst others, John DeLorean, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli and John Evans.
Never underinvested, whilst some artists describe a project as a concept album when it has a couple of tracks which mention aliens, few people have shown as much commitment to the principle as the man who on his last album Pang ended up with lyrics sung in Zulu.
The difference here is that Seeking New Gods isn’t about a god but about a mountain, specifically Mount Paektu in Korea, a still active volcano and supposedly the birthplace of Dangun, the founder of the first Korean kingdom more than 4,000 years ago.
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Rhys tells all about solo album number seven
All photos: Mark James
It was, as they say, a different time. Back in October 2018,
Gruff Rhystook his band on a three week tour of California. Their mission was to knock a series of songs that Rhys – sometime
Super Furry Animals frontman, sometime solo artist – had penned into shape before heading into the studio.
“We had three weeks before recording when we were doing gigs every night and trying out the sounds live and rehearsing them in soundchecks and things,” he recalls, looking back on this time from his front room back in Wales towards the end of lockdown number three. “It’s something that would be difficult to get into that kind of shape during lockdown.“
Gruff Rhys - Seeking New Gods | Reviews diymag.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from diymag.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Gruff Rhys Shares New Song Can't Carry On stereoboard.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stereoboard.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.