Super Furry Animals - Zoom! The Best of 1995-2016 (2016)

With a few more albums to play with than 2004's Songbook - a straightforward collection of the singles to date - the two discs of Zoom! take a few more liberties with the history of Super Furry Animals. All the singles are present and correct, but it's the strays which are the most rewarding. 1999's stunning slice of psych rock, "Citizen's Band", is finally released in a format which doesn't involve numbing your index finger on the rewind button when your copy of "Guerrilla" is in the player, while once-unheralded b-sides like "Patience" and fan-favourite deep cuts "Receptacle for the Respectable" and "Run! Christian, Run!" (both from 2001's maximalist masterpiece Rings Around the World) are finally getting a wider due.

The closest thing to disappointment is how (relatively) unrepresented the band's later period is, starting with 2005's Love Kraft - sure its opening track gives the compilation its title, but only showcasing that and its sultry single "Lazer Beam" is hardly a way to shine light on one of the band's more unjustly ignored LPs. Their final album (to date) Dark Days/Light Years may have been difficult work, but its status as the freakiest Super Furries album is given a similarly short shrift. Then again, it's hard to complain about an opportunity to hear its dayglo Krautpop single "Inaugural Trams", complete with a German rap from Franz Ferdinand's Nick McCarthy.

Timeless, restless and fearless (well, once they got that pesky debut out of the way), Zoom! is a testament to just how much great music the Super Furry Animals had in them, with Fuzzy Logic giving some idea as to how they got there. They may have started out lost on the bypass road, but for twenty years, it's been a thrill to follow them along that path.

TRACKLIST

CD1:

01. Slow Life
02. (Drawing) Rings Around The World (UK No.28, 2001)
03. Bing Bong
04. Organ Yn Dy Geg
05. Run-Away
06. Northern Lites (UK No.11, 1999)
07. Inaugural Trams
08. Demons (UK No.27, 1997)
09. Ice Hockey Hair (UK No.12, 1998)
10. Juxtapozed With U (UK No.14, 2001
11. The Gift That Keeps Giving
12. The International Language Of Screaming (UK No.24, 1997)
13. If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You (UK No.18, 1996)
14. Fire In My Heart (UK No.25, 1999)
15. Run! Christian, Run!
16. The Piccolo Snare
17. Zoom!

CD2:

01. Night Vision
02. God! Show Me Magic (UK No.33, 1996)
03. Hello Sunshine (UK No.31 , 2003)
04. Hermann's Pauline (UK No.26, 1997)
05. Patience
06. Do Or Die (UK No.20, 2000)
07. YsbeidiauHeulog
08. Show Your Hand
09. Something 4 The Weekend (UK No.18, 1996)
10. Smokin'
11. The Citizen’s Band
12. It's Not The End Of The World? (UK No.30, 2002
13. Play It Cool (UK No.27, 1997)
14. Golden Retriever (UK No.13, 2003)
15. Lazer Beam (UK No.28, 2005)
16. Receptacle For The Respectable
17. Hometown Unicorn
18. Mt.
19. Mountain People
20. The Man Don't Give A Fuck (UK No.22, 1996)