If you're a fan of Super Furry Animal's fuzzed-out, cooing ballads, then Dark Days/Light Years might not end up being your favorite album in the band's catalog. Of course, if you're a fan of the band, then you're probably pretty all right with them defying expectations. And they sure do that on the new album. After the excellent but pretty contained Hey Venus!, the band is back with the huge, funky rock-out of Dark Days/Light Years .

 

It's got throbbing bass lines, tumbling guitar attacks and goofy falsettos. It opens with a massive song called "Crazy Naked Girls." There's another track called "The Very Best of Neil Diamond." Some of this sounds like electro-funk. Some of it sounds like your favorite psych-metal band. The dude from Franz Ferdinand raps in German at one point.

 

These are facts about Dark Days/Light Years . They don't add up to the best explanation, but they do add up to the most inventive and exciting Super Furry Animals' record in years.