Rings Around the World is the fifth studio album and major label debut by Super Furry Animals. Released on 23 July 2001 by Epic Records in the United Kingdom, it was the first album by any artist to be simultaneously released on both audio CD and DVD. The record reached number 3 in the UK Albums Chart and includes the singles "Juxtapozed with U", "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" and "It's Not the End of the World?".

The album, which singer Gruff Rhys describes as "a very ambitious project", was recorded between April and September 2000 at Monnow Valley Studios in Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales and Bearsville Studios, New York with the band acting as co-producers alongside Chris Shaw. The majority of the songs on Rings Around the World were written by Rhys on guitar and piano with keyboardist Cian Ciaran contributing "[A] Touch Sensitive" and "Miniature" as well as collaborating with other members of the band on "Run! Christian, Run!", "Alternate Route to Vulcan Street" and "No Sympathy". Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and former Velvet Underground member John Cale make cameo appearances on the album.

Musically Rings Around the World is an eclectic record incorporating pop, prog, punk, jungle, electronica, techno and death metal. Rhys has offered several explanations of the album's lyrical content, claiming the record is "about Earth, and the pollution of space" and also that it addresses the human condition. Critics meanwhile have referred to the record as "thematically eccentric" and lacking an "overarching theme". Critical reception was generally positive, with the album being nominated for 2001's Mercury Music Prize and placing at #1 in Mojo's "best albums of 2001" feature. Some reviews claimed it to be the best record of the band's career although the NME described it as the band's worst album.

Origins and recording

Rings Around the World was the Super Furry Animals' first album for Epic Records following the demise, in 1999, of their previous label Creation and the success of 2000's Mwng, which was issued on the band's own label, Placid Casual. Singer Gruff Rhys has stated that the band aimed to make a "laid back and sort of wiped clean" record with Rings.... In a 2008 interview with Uncut Rhys described the album as "a very ambitious project" stating that "We were trying to make a blockbuster album that was going to be like The Eagles ... We were trying to make utopian pop music that had pretensions of being progressive and exciting."|group="nb" and released as a double album containing 75–90 minutes of material with Rhys stating that he was "into the excess of it, that was the whole point". The group eventually decided against the idea but, drawn by the technical capabilities of the format and the desire to do something that had never been done before, produced a DVD version of Rings..., making it the first album to be simultaneously released on CD and DVD.

Recording sessions began in April 2000 at Monnow Valley Studios in Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales with co-producer Chris Shaw and engineer Eric Tew. The band moved to Bearsville Studios, New York before returning to Monnow Valley some months later where recording was completed in September 2000. Bearsville was chosen because of its drum and live rooms, which the band felt were desirable as they were using more microphones to capture audio for the surround sound mix included on the DVD version of the album than they would normally when simply recording in stereo. The group was mindful of the capabilities of surround sound and recorded sub-bass on tracks such as "[A] Touch Sensitive" and "Juxtapozed with U", which could only be heard through a low-frequency subwoofer channel in the surround mix. The band recorded onto two-inch analogue tape until they had a take they were happy with, then transferred the results to Pro Tools where individual songs were edited and overdubs were added. According to Keyboardist Cian Ciaran this meant the band could "edit some beats very precisely ... like the gated kicks at the end of the track "Sidewalk Serfer Girl"". McCartney is alleged to have performed a similar role over thirty years earlier, chewing celery to form the percussion track of The Beach Boys song "Vegetables" from the album Smiley Smile. Former Velvet Underground member John Cale, a "sort of childhood hero" of Rhys's, also makes an appearance on the album, playing piano on the song "Presidential Suite".

The album is a "kaleidoscopic blend of pop, prog, punk, psych, and electronica". Elsewhere on the album the eclectic range of sounds continues from the trip hop of "[A] Touch Sensitive" to the Status Quo-esque "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" and the "electro country rock" of "Run! Christian, Run!".

The track "Receptacle For the Respectable" reflects the eclecticism of the album as it "undergoes a complete personality change" over the course of its four-minute thirty-two-second duration, veering from prog rock to death metal.

Ciaran has stated that the Super Furry Animals were "very hands-on" during the making of the DVD. Initially the band were mainly concerned with the sound quality, describing the presentation of the album's tracks in surround sound as "radical, like the change from mono to stereo".

Although he enjoyed having so much control over the project Ciaran has claimed that it "sometimes felt like it would never end" and he was glad to get back to "the music side of things" upon the DVD's completion. The record reached number 3 in the UK Albums Chart. In America Rings Around the World was released on 19 March 2002 by XL Recordings with a bonus CD featuring seven tracks which appear on the DVD version of the album.

{|class="wikitable"

! Region

! Date

! Label

! Format

! Catalogue

|-

|rowspan="1"| Japan

|rowspan="1"| 25 September 2001

|rowspan="1"| Epic Japan

| Compact disc

| ESCA-8341

|-

|rowspan="4"| United Kingdom

|rowspan="4"| 23 July 2001

| rev2 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev2Score = A−

| rev3 = The Guardian

| rev3Score =

| rev4 = Los Angeles Times

| rev4Score =

| rev5 = NME

| rev5Score = 6/10

| rev6 = Pitchfork

| rev6Score = 8.9/10

| rev7 = Q

| rev7Score =

| rev8 = Rolling Stone

| rev8Score =

| rev9 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev9Score =

| rev10 = Spin

| rev10Score = 9/10

Rings Around the World received praise from critics with a score of 86 on Metacritic, denoting "universal acclaim". Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork stated that the album's combination of "paisley, sun-heated, and layered" music with Gruff Rhys's "satirical and heartfelt lyrics" makes it "timeless" and the band's best record. Uncut praised its "accessible and adventurous" nature, Mojo stated that Rings Around the World was the band's "first truly flawless album" and later named it the best album of 2001. Tiny Mix Tapes called Rings Around the World "one of the, if not the, best releases of 2002", describing it as a "mixture of sugar pop of yesteryear and modern Britpop" resulting in a "near perfect" album. Rings Around the World was later nominated for 2001's Mercury Music Prize.

In a review for Stylus Magazine, Scott Plagenhoef wrote that on Rings Around the World, the band are "gleefully working outside of a scene or prototype" and "dabbling in a world of musical influences and Western hegemony, playing the merry prankster to Radiohead's gloom – and all with a smile, and in three-part harmony". Writing for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised the record, claiming that it "shines brightly" compared to the "dead world of mainstream and indie rock in 2001" but expressed disappointment that it is "the first SFA album not to progress from its predecessor". indicating a "good song on an album that isn't worth your time or money."

;Accolades

{|class="wikitable"

|-

! Publication

! Country

! Accolade

! Rank

! Year

|-

| Eye Weekly

| Canada

| Albums of the year 2001

| 10

| rowspan="8"|2001

|-

| Les Inrockuptibles

| France

| 2001 Critics Albums

| 37

|-

| Iguana Music

| rowspan="3"|Spain

| Best albums 2001

| 6

|-

| Mondo Sonoro

| Best records 2001

| 9

|-

| Rock De Luxe

| Best records 2001

| 22

|-

| Mercury Music Prize

| rowspan="6"|United Kingdom

| 2001 shortlist

| 11

|-

| 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade

| 29

| 2009

|-

| Q

| End of year lists

| *

| rowspan="2"|2001

|-

| Record Collector

| Best of 2001: New albums

| *

|-

| 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

| rowspan="4"|United States

| 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

| *

| 2006

|-

| Spin

| The 40 Best Albums of 2002

| 38

| 2002

|-

| rowspan="2"|The Village Voice

| Pazz & Jop Albums of 2001

| 126

| 2001

|-

| Pazz & Jop Albums of 2002

| 29

| 2002

|}

<small><nowiki>*</nowiki> denotes an unordered list</small>

Track listing

Original 2001 Editions

Deluxe 20th Anniversary Editions

Personnel

All track numbers refer to the CD version of Rings Around the World unless otherwise stated.

;Band

  • Gruff Rhys – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, harmonica
  • Huw Bunford – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, pedal steel
  • Guto Pryce – bass guitar
  • Cian Ciaran – keyboards, backing vocals
  • Dafydd Ieuan – drums, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "Receptacle for the Respectable"

;Additional musicians

  • Howard Gott – violin on tracks 1, 6, 11
  • Harriet Harris – violin on tracks 4, 7, 10
  • Sally Herbert – violin on tracks 4, 7, 10
  • Steven Hussey – violin on track 6
  • Jackie Norrie – violin on tracks 1, 4, 7, 10, 11
  • Sonia Slany – violin on tracks 4, 7, 10
  • Lucy Theo – violin on track 6
  • Brian Wright – violin on tracks 1, 6, 11
  • Nick Barr – viola on tracks 4, 7, 10
  • Sophia Sirota – viola on tracks 1, 11
  • Clare Smith – viola on tracks 4, 7, 10
  • Nick Cooper – cello on tracks 4, 7, 10
  • Sophie Harris – cello on tracks 4, 7, 10
  • Matt Sibley – saxophone on tracks 5, 7, 11
  • Gary Alesbrook – trumpet on tracks 5, 7, 11
  • Tony Robinson – trumpet, flugel horn and trombone on tracks 5, 7, 11
  • Beti Rhys – harp on tracks 10, 11
  • John Telfer – flute on track 10
  • John Cale – additional piano on track 11
  • Osian Gwynedd – additional piano on track 1
  • Kris Jenkins – percussion on tracks 9, 10, 11
  • Anna Smith – backing vocals on track 1
  • Paul McCartney – carrot and celery on track 5

;Music video directors (DVD)

  • 4k – track 11
  • Spencer Bewley – track 17
  • Co-Lab – track 2
  • Concerko – track 2
  • D.O.N.A. – track 10
  • Pete Fowler – track 5
  • Armand Geddyn – track 12
  • Barbie Geddyn – track 12
  • Peter Gray – track 7
  • Johnny Hardstaff – track 14
  • Sean Hillen – track 3
  • Jake & Jim – track 16
  • Mark James – track 15
  • Dylan Jones – tracks 4, 8
  • Mike "Spike" Jonez – track 20
  • Lazy Eye – track 17
  • Martin McCartney – track 13
  • Neil McFarland – track 6
  • Simon Pike – tracks 2, 5
  • John Shahnazarian – track 9
  • Darren Watkins – track 1

;Remixers (DVD)

  • Atmos – track 32
  • Bench – track 21
  • bravecaptain – track 31
  • Force Unknown – tracks 23, 24, 36
  • Goem – track 26
  • The High Llamas – track 29
  • Kid606 – track 27
  • Lesser – track 35
  • Llwybr Llaethog – track 22
  • Massimo – track 30
  • Pieweighter – track 34
  • Phat Eric – track 34
  • Super Furry Animals – track 28
  • Wauvenfold – track 25

;Recording personnel

  • Super Furry Animals – production, string arrangements on tracks 1, 4, 7, 10, 11
  • Sean O'Hagan – string arrangements on tracks 1, 11
  • Marcus Holdaway – string arrangements on track 1, 11
  • Sonia Slany – string arrangements on tracks 4, 7, 10
  • Chris Shaw – production and engineering
  • Eric Tew – engineering
  • Damian Shannon – engineering assistant (Bearsville Studios)
  • Richard Wilkinson – engineering assistant (Metropolis)
  • Stuart Hawkes – mastering
  • Julian Lowe – mastering

;DVD production

  • Mike Gillespie – production
  • Super Furry Animals – executive production, DVD sound effects and music
  • Anthony I.P. Owen – DVD authoring
  • Coffeecup New Media – DVD interface design
  • No Brake Visual Engineering – DVD interface design
  • John Mark James – DVD interface icon design
  • Robert Burnett – video encoding
  • Crispin Murray – audio encoding
  • Mike Jones – film compilation

;Artwork

  • Pete Fowler – illustration
  • Simon Pike – illustration
  • John Mark James – logos and fonts

Album chart positions

{| class="wikitable"

!Chart

!Peak<br />position

|-

|UK Albums Chart

|3

|-

|}

References

;Notes

;References

<!-- This is a licensed stream for the album, which is allowed under Wikipedia polices -->

  • Rings Around the World at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)