Despite the Lennon-aping antics of their peers, Wales’s Super Furry Animals were the closest Britpop came to the adventuring spirit of the Beatles. Their indie rock, psychedelic pop, dance, country, glam and space-folk mashup was as pioneering as their aesthetic was madcap – they sang witty songs about unicorns and alien abductions, toured festivals in an army tank, filled stages with yetis and milk floats, and almost convinced Creation Records to buy them an aircraft carrier, which they’d planned to turn into a nightclub. Hence, after an absence of only six years, they’ve snatched the reunion of the year title from Ride’s far-receded fringes.
Emerging in white coveralls, they initially let the setlist provide the dazzle. Recent shows had become weighed down by songs from a run of below-par albums, so a slew of hits including the space-age surf-rocker (Drawing) Rings Around the World and the slow-build rush of Ice Hockey Hair – the best song of the 90s – is a welcome sound. With a horn trio adding forlorn elegance to Demons and frisky mariachi to Northern Lites, the Animals come out stampeding.
The reunion marks the 15th anniversary of their Welsh-language album Mwng, and a mid-set four-song slab of its experimental accordion jazz and Pink Floydish echoes feels an indulgence. But momentum is revived by rousing country swing-alongs Run! Christian, Run! and Hello Sunshine, with singer Gruff Rhys pausing for cheers before the most romantic indie sentiment since Morrissey’s double-decker pile-up: “I’m a minger and you’re a minger too, so come on minger, I want to ming with you.” Before long, their trademark chaos reigns, with space-dub and techno codas emerging like rocket boots from folk and country tunes, God! Show Me Magic sounding like a Ramones album being fired around the large hadron collider and the vocodered Busby Berkeley vibe of Juxtaposed With U inspiring bouts of ballroom dancing. For the final song, politician-bashing The Man Don’t Give a Fuck, they’re back in the yeti outfits, waving cue cards that read: “PROLONGED APPLAUSE”, “LOUDER” and “APE SHIT!” These homecoming gods showed us the old magic.
• At O2 Academy, Glasgow, 5 May. Box office: 0844 477 2000. Then touring.
• Super Furry Animals: 10 of the best
