Album Review: Love Kraft by Super Furry Animals

If any other band began their seventh album with the sound of someone diving into a swimming pool, the fear of drowning in the murky waters of self-satisfaction would be justified. But with Super Furry Animals, the dunk illustrates how they've washed away the gnawing aggression that's held them prison within their eccentric sound. Instead, it's love that nurtures their space-obsessed rock, turning it to Cinemascope.

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As Super Furry Animals settle into their second decade of recording and with it their status as veteran rockers, they're inevitably less surprising than they were at the outset of their career, when their music not only had an exhilarating rush, but there was a sense of impish glee, the sense that they were getting away with something that they shouldn't. That naturally has declined with the passage of time, yet with their seventh album, 2005's Love Kraft, SFA show signs of settling comfortably into their status as alt-rock veterans. Compared to the top-heavy, ponderous Rings Around the World and the trippy pop of Phantom Power, Love Kraft sounds warm and relaxed, lush and dreamy, with a strong, distinct sweet undercurrent to the music.

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