Super Furry Animals - Dark Days / Light Years

Dark Days/Light Years was not recorded in a studio by mere mortals with guitars; it was cooked up in a laboratory by third-eyed hippies with primary coloured liquids in smoking beakers. Sometimes those bubbling beakers overflow and leave an unwelcome stain, such as with the irritating three-minute outro of closer Pric; and songs like Moped Eyes and Lliwiau Llachar remain inert despite the far-flung ingredients combined to provoke a reaction. But the carefree experimentalism and surreal humour of Cardiff's favourite pop alchemists leaves plenty at which to widen your eyes. When they rediscover their flair on the batshit funny Inaugural Trams and the grooving motorik of White Socks/Flip-Flops, it becomes tempting to describe the Furries' ninth studio album as a comeback. It almost is: after a decade's worth of diminishing returns and band-abandoning side-projects, Dark Days is the Furries' best full-length since that last one you loved.