: ' .. .:.... . ' ' ______________ : ________ : ' \ / .. .:. .. \ / : : \ /_________ \ / . .. ... .. . : .\ / /___ /\ \ / ______________ ___ _. : \ / / \ / \ \/ / \ \ \ \ \ . ...:..\ / _______/ \/ \ ___/__ / / / / / : /\ / / \ \/ \ / / / . sH! ' / \/ / / / \ / / . ... .:.... .. . :/ _______/ / / / _______/__ ___ __ .\ / / / / / / / / / / / \ / / / / / / / / / / / . . \ /\______/ / / / / \___ / / : \/ ____ \ / / / / / : \ / \ /\____/\ / / : : ________\/ \ / \ / / : ' \ / \/ \ /\ / : . ..:.. . \ / \/ \ / \ / \ / . ' : \/ F A N G \ / : ' ____ \ / . . .. .. .:.. . \ / presents \ / . . \/ \/ : : . ..:.. , : Artist......: Gruff Rhys : Album.......: Babelsberg : : Label.......: Rough Trade .. .:.. . Genre.......: Rock : Catnr.......: RT0010CD . ' Source......: CD , ; Rip.date....: 2019-01-19 Str.date....: 2018-06-08 Quality.....: 236kbps/44.1kHz/Joint Stereo . :.. .:. Url.........: http://gruffrhys.com ' ' , ________ ________ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / # title time \ / \/ \/ 1. Frontier Man 3:35 2. The Club 4:03 3. Oh Dear! 3:16 4. Limited Edition Heart 3:38 5. Take That Call 3:42 6. Drones in the City 3:49 7. Negative Vibes 5:15 8. Same Old Song 4:09 9. Architecture of Amnesia 4:41 10. Selfies in the Sunset 4:49 ______ \ / ________ Runtime 40:57 ,\ /... . . .... .... \ / ' Size 72.80 ______ :\/ ', \ / , \ / ' '... ..\ /.. .. .....:. .. .... .. . ..\ /. : Release Notes: \/ , \/ , ' ' ,: "God! Show me magic!" Gruff Rhys screamed on the first song of :, : the first Super Furry Animals album, and 22 years later he's : :' still waiting patiently. Even as his band of psych-rock ': ,: shapeshifters waded through all manner of global epidemics -- :, : pollution, war, technology overload, evangelicalism, and, um, : :' vampire bats -- he never lost his grace, sense of humor, or ': ,: faith in the underdog. While the Furries have been on pause for :, : much of the current decade, Rhys has continued juggling : :' absurdity and profundity, albeit with a more delicate touch, as ': ,: a solo artist. But the ceaseless stream of bad political news :, : that flooded the past couple of years tested even this eternal : :' optimist's mettle. And when he wasn't contemplating the ': ,: doomsday clock, he had to keep an eye on the actual one: He :, : recorded his new album, Babelsberg, in a Bristol studio that was : :' set to be demolished for condo redevelopment. ': ,: :, : On his previous solo effort, 2014's American Interior, Rhys : :' embarked on a musical road trip across the Midwest, retracing ': ,: the footsteps of an 18th-century ancestor who ventured stateside :, : in search of a mythic Welsh-speaking indigenous tribe. : :' Babelsberg is another journey through the American landscape, ': ,: but it forsakes speculative history to survey the nation's :, : current condition. Lyrically speaking, the album features some : :' of the most sobering, spiteful songwriting of Rhys' career, ': ,: with little of his trademark whimsy to cut through the black-sky :, : mood. If its omnipresent, string-swaddled arrangements (courtesy : :' of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales) initially feel like a ': ,: soothing antidote to the bleak subject matter, they also serve :, : an equally provocative purpose. : :' ': ,: After all, the plush, countrypolitan sound they create is :, : evocative of the bygone America to which so many MAGA-hat : :' ideologues desperately want to revert. With Babelsberg, Rhys ': ,: effectively delivers that crowd a flaming pile of dog shit :, : encased in a rhinestone-studded jewelry box. The messenger : :' arrives in the form of "Frontier Man," the kind of smooth, ': ,: harmony-rich cowpoke serenade you could imagine raising the :, : curtains at the Grand Ole Opry in 1968. But when Rhys croons, : :' "On the frontier of delusion/I'm your foremost frontier man," ': ,: he invokes the all-American outlaw archetype less as a model of :, : valor and independence than as an example of pigheaded : :' persistence in the face of contrary evidence. ': ,: :, : Just as "Frontier Man" savors the friction between its medium : :' and its message, much of Babelsberg lays on the symphonic ': ,: opulence to conjure the shaky-handed unease of our times: After :, : barreling out of the gates with a frantic gallop, "Oh Dear!" : :' free-falls into the orchestra pit as Rhys shouts out the ': ,: ominous title like a drowning victim begging for a life :, : preserver. "Architecture of Amnesia," meanwhile, uses its : :' chamber-prog grandeur as a cudgel, with Rhys mounting a war ': ,: march against "bigots" who hide behind the "blue birds" of :, : social media to spew their hate. But even the album's prettiest, : :' most serene moments simmer with external tensions. "Drones in ': ,: the City" is a gorgeous ambient ballad that has Rhys ruminating :, : on the ambiguous meaning of "drones" and how their : :' connotations--annoying remote-controlled gizmo vs. stealth ': ,: killing machine--differ depending on where you are in the world. :, : But in its final minute, the song's burbling bassline : :' accelerates as though it's about to flatline, briefly ': ,: transforming the album's most splendorous song into its most :, : anxious. : :' ': ,: For all its lavish instrumentation and weighty subtext, however, :, : Babelsberg never overwhelms Rhys' preternatural gift for writing : :' swoon-worthy melodies. "Limited Edition Heart" and "Negative ': ,: Vibes" are among the finest, most impassioned songs he's ever :, : crafted--defiant soft-rock salvos that position a warm embrace : :' as armor against the world crumbling around us. And if we are ': ,: truly doomed, Rhys offers the grim reassurance that we're too :, : narcissistic to notice. Atop the chipper, ivory-tickling saunter : :' of "Selfies in the Sunset," Rhys and guest vocalist Lily Cole ': ,: sardonically serenade each other about posing for a few last :, : snaps in front of a "blazing red" mushroom-cloud backdrop, : :' milking the apocalypse for Instagram likes. In the unsettled ': ,: universe of Babelsberg, this is the way the world ends--not with :, : a bang but a self-satisfied finger tap. : :' ': : ' '.. ..' .. . :........... . . . . ............: . . ______________ ______________ \ / \ / \ / Shout out to all our homies from: \ / \ / \ / \ / iPC BOSS HiT2000 1way UKi i8 RNS \ / \ / RAGEMP3 MANDY DV8 pLAN9 BUTT \ / \ / \ / \/ ____ ____ \/ \ / F A N G \ / \/ 2 0 1 9 \/