super furry animals

Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys gives us his Top 10 Creation Records releases

To go along with our list of Creation Records’ 21 Best Records, we’ve been asking some of the artists who were on the label to tell us about their favorites. Here we’ve got a list from Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys.

Hailing from Cardiff, Wales, Super Furry Animals were one of the best UK bands of the ’90s and ’00s (and they’re still together, though they haven’t released an album since 2009’s Dark Days/Light Years). Proudly, fiercely Welsh, SFA were wildly creative, not afraid to sing in their native tongue, and possessed a wide anarchic streak. The band released their debut album, Fuzzy Logic, on Creation in 1996 which featured Welsh-born drug smuggler Howard Marks on the cover (also the song “Hangin’ With Howard Marks”) and went gold in the UK, spawning Top 20 hits with “Something 4 the Weekend” and “If You Don’t Want Me to Destroy You.” They followed that up with standalone single “The Man Don’t Give a Fuck,” which was based around a Steely Dan sample and held the record for most utterances of “fuck” in a song until Insane Clown Posse’s “Fuck the World” beat it two years later. Their second Creation album, 1997’s fantastic Radiator, is one of the best albums the label ever released, and 1999’s Guerilla (their final for the label) included their biggest hit to date, “Northern Lites.”

For his list, Gruff digs back pretty deep, including a few 45s from Creation’s early days, including Primal Scream‘s debut single, and one from label head Alan McGee‘s band, Biff Bang Pow! There’s also Teenage Fanclub, My Bloody Valentine, The Boo Radleys, and more. “Maybe should have gone all Glasgow,” Gruff says of his list, “but I listened to all these songs below to death growing up, so getting signed by the label was mind-blowing.” Check out Gruff’s Creation Favorites list below.

You can also check out a lists of Creation Records favorites from Slowdive., Ride’s Andy Bell and Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin.

Meanwhile, Gruff is set to release his sixth solo album, Seeking New Gods, in May. You can watch a video for first single “Loan Your Loneliness” below.

Super Furry Animals Gruff Rhys — Top 10 Creation Favorites

Primal Scream – “Velocity Girl”

Teenage Fanclub – “God Knows It’s True”

My Bloody Valentine – “Lose My Breath”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMrZsR8hapk

Felt – “Ivory Past”

Biff Bang Pow – “If I Die”

The Boo Radleys – “Lazarus”

The Loft – “Why Does the Rain”

The Weather Prophets – “I Almost Prayed”

Meat Whiplash – “Don’t Slip Up”

The Jesus and Mary Chain – “Upside Down”