Phantom Power

Super Furry Animals’ last album, Rings Around the World, proved that wildly ambitious, politically conscious art-rock concept albums recorded with state-of-the-art technology can still be…duller than a spoon. Phantom Power comes with many of the same trappings, but one notable difference: better songs. Basically, SFA’s bag is groovy psychedelic pop, but they’ve finally learned the difference between musical alchemy and quality songwriting, fortunately choosing to focus on the right one this time around.