Welcome to the first edition of the Circle of Friendz project, made possible by inspiration from ImNotAnEffigy on Reddit. As mentioned in my last post, I have (now 76) albums on a numbered list, those numbers put through a randomizer, and listening to the album attached to the number I land on. For my first attempt, I landed on number 33, the debut album from Gruff Rhys. Gruff Rhys, known to Gorillaz fans for his appearance next to De La Soul on Plastic Beach's Superfast Jellyfish. Before his appearance, Gruff Rhys had let his name out there through being involved in several different bands. First, Rhys had been the lead singer and guitarist in Welsh rock band Ffa Coffi Pawb during the mid-1980's, releasing three albums before the band broke up in 1993. From there, Rhys became a part of his most popular project, Super Furry Animals, the first album of which marked his first foray into singing in English. After the release of the subject of today's post, he also formed Neon Neon two years after the start of a side solo career.
So what of that solo career? If the first album from it is any indication, it went of to a pretty good start! His first solo release, Yr Atal Genhedlaeth, released in 2005 to fairly quiet praise. I only wish that this release got more attention than it ended up getting, because it's a nice little release! The first thing that stuck out to me was the language, because the entire album is sung in Welsh. It was my first Welsh album, but that never felt like a challenge or a problem to me. It sounds sooo nice here, although part of that certainly could be contributed to the soft vocals provided by Rhys here. I'm loving the deliveries from him here, although I'm sure that's because his singing voice reminds me of 2D. I also noticed just how fast this album flies by, coming in and bowing out in just under a half hour. Not a second of this half hour feels wasted. It's a brisk ride of guitar driven tracks, with synths and keyboards added to the mix as well, coming to the forefront in tracks such as Caerffosiaeth, a track that could feel right at home on D-Sides. I also really loved the sunny Ni Yw Y Byd, the second to last track. The instrumental feels like it would be in the background of some kids slice of life cartoon. Honestly, I wasn't exactly flooding with notes and thoughts on Yr Atal Genhedlaeth. What I can say was that it was fun, light and I definitely wanna dive into the discography of both Rhys and his various bands. Not a bad way to start off my project, if I do say so myself. Next up, I dive into jazz album Squire for Hire, the 2003 album from Nathan Haines. I think I have more to say about that next album, and it's certainly a treat. See ya whenever.
I give Yr Atal Genhedlaeth a 7.5/10.
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