''Hotel Shampoo'' is the third solo album by Welsh musician and

Super Furry Animals Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993. For the duration of their professional career, the band consisted of Gruff Rhys (lead vocals, guitar), Huw Bunford (lead guitar, vocals), Guto Pryce (bass guitar), Cian C ...

front-man

Gruff Rhys Gruffudd Maredudd Bowen Rhys (; born 18 July 1970) is a Welsh musician, composer, producer, filmmaker and author. He performs solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals, which obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He forme ...

. It was released on 14 February 2011 through Onvi Records/Turnstile (in the UK) and Wichita (in the US) and peaked at number forty-two on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

. The album includes the singles "Shark Ridden Waters", "Sensations In The Dark", "Honey All Over" and "Space Dust #2"; the latter of which is collaboration with Sarah Assbring and

Miles Kane Miles Peter Kane (born 17 March 1986) is an English singer and musician, best known as a solo artist and the co-frontman of the Last Shadow Puppets. He was also the former frontman of the Rascals, before the band announced their break-up in Au ...

. The album won the 2011

Welsh Music Prize The Welsh Music Prize is an annual music prize awarded for the best album from Wales, as voted for by members of the music industry based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. It was founded by music promoter John Rostro ...

and the Album of the Year award at the

Artrocker Artrocker is a UK-based collective involved in music promotion and publishing. It was started by Paul Cox and Tom Fawcett who had been co-promoters of a London night called The Sausage Machine. Having started life with an online newsletter and ev ...

Awards 2011. The title of the record is a reference to Gruff’s habit of hoarding mini shampoo bottles and other complimentary hotel products whilst on tour, and the miniature hotel he built from them in advance of the record's announcement.

Samples

The track "Shark Ridden Waters" is built around a sample of "It Doesn't Matter Anymore", as performed by

The Cyrkle The Cyrkle is an American rock band active from the early to late-1960s, and since 2016. The group has charted two Top 40 hits, "Red Rubber Ball" and "Turn-Down Day". Career The band was formed by guitarists and lead singers Don Dannemann and T ...

Track listing

;International bonus tracks (''Floor 3'') 14. "I Totally Understand" - 3:40 (US, Japan and Taiwan) 15. "Follow The Sunflower Trail (Theme Tune For A National Strike)" - 4:12 (US and Japan) 16. "Pengwyn Pengwyn" - 1:34 (Taiwan)

Personnel

;Musician credits *

– Guitars, Vocals, Vibraphone, Moog, Korg and Solina Synthesizers * Gorwel Owen – Piano, Moog, Banjo, Jupiter and Stylophone *Owen Evans – Bass *Chris Walmsley – Drums *

Sean O'Hagan Sean O'Hagan (born 1959) is an Irish singer and songwriter who leads the avant-pop band the High Llamas, which he founded in 1992. He is also known for being one half of the songwriting duo (with Cathal Coughlan) in Microdisney and for his wor ...

– String Arrangements (4, 5, 9, 10) *Marcus Holdaway – Cello (4, 5, 9, 10) *Elspeth Cowey – Violin (4, 5, 9, 10) *Morven Bryce – Violin (4, 5, 9, 10) *Harriet Davies – Violin (4, 5, 9, 10) *John Thomas – Pedal Steel (12) *Andrew Kinsman – Saxophone (4, 11) *Gary Alesbrook – Trumpet (5, 10, 11) *

El Perro del Mar El Perro del Mar (literally "The Dog of the Sea" in Spanish) is a musical project that was founded in December 2003 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The sole member of El Perro del Mar, Sarah Assbring (born 1977), initially started as an MP3/CD-R artist an ...

(Sarah Assbring) – Vocals (9) *

– Guitar (9) *Danny Frankel – Percussion (3) *David Ralicke – Brass (3) ;Technical credits *Gruff Rhys and Gorwel Owen – Recording (at OFN, Llanfaelog, Wales) *Craig Silvey – Recording (Drums) *Mark Allway – Recording Assistant (Drums) *Joe Watson – Recording (Strings) (at Press Play Studios, London) *John Thomas – Recording (Brass) (at Buffalo Sound Recorder, Cardiff) *David Wrench – Recording (Additional Piano) (at Bryn Derwen, Bethesda) *

Andy Votel Andrew Shallcross (born 4 November 1975), known as Andy Votel, is an English musician, DJ, record producer, graphic designer and co-founder of Twisted Nerve Records and the reissue label Finders Keepers Records. As musician Violators of t ...

– Recording (in Manchester) (1, 8) *Gaz Sironical – Recording Assistant (in Manchester) (1, 8) * Mario Caldato, Jr. – Mixing, Additional Overdubs (at MCJ, Los Angeles) *Bernie Grundman – Mastering (at Bernie Grundman Mastering, Los Angeles) * Pete Fowler – Artwork *Mark James – Photography

Charts

References

2011 albums Gruff Rhys albums Albums produced by Gorwel Owen Albums with cover art by Pete Fowler {{2010s-alt-rock-album-stub