''Phantom Power'' is the sixth album by Welsh

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band Super Furry Animals, released on 21 July 2003 by

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The record was originally conceived as a ten-song

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

using D-A-D-D-A-D

guitar tuning Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitches to the open strings of guitars, including classical guitars, acoustic guitars, and electric guitars. Tunings are described by the particular pitches that are made by notes in Western music. By c ...

, but the band chose to abandon this idea during recording as they didn't want to constrain themselves. The group did attempt to create a "more coherent" album than their past efforts by choosing songs which worked well together. ''Phantom Power'' was recorded at the band's own studio, AV Happenings, in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

with the Super Furries producing and

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

themselves for the first time. The album features a range of musical styles, from

country rock Country rock is a music genre that fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal sty ...

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

, although many of the tracks are based around the

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

. According to chief songwriter and vocalist Gruff Rhys, the album's lyrics deal with "broken relationships and war". The album, like their previous record '' Rings Around the World'', was simultaneously released on CD,

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

. The DVD featured a

surround sound Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener ( surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to ...

mix of the album along with animations, commentary by Mario Caldato Jr. (who mixed the record) and remixes. The majority of these remixes were re-released as the album '' Phantom Phorce'' in 2004. ''Phantom Power'' was well received, with many critics suggesting it was the best album of the band's career.

Origins and recording

''Phantom Power'' was originally conceived as a ten-song cycle in the "unconventional" D-A-D-D-A-D

. Singer Gruff Rhys wrote many of the songs on the album in this tuning and in the key of

D major D major is a major scale based on D (musical note), D, consisting of the pitches D, E (musical note), E, F♯ (musical note), F, G (musical note), G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, and C♯ (musical note), C. Its key signature has two S ...

during the space of a few days. These tracks, which included the "Father Father" instrumentals, " Golden Retriever", " Hello Sunshine", "Valet Parking" and "Out of Control", were then demoed at the house of regular producer Gorwel Owen with overdubs added at the band's own office-block based studio, AV Happenings, in

. The group took a hands-on approach to the actual recording sessions for ''Phantom Power'',

and producing themselves for the first time. Recording largely took place at AV Happenings during the second half of 2002, with the band working through the night so as not to disturb staff who worked in other parts of the building during the day. According to

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

Guto Pryce this involved a fair amount of trial and error as the band "didn't really know what heywere doing". Soundproof booths were improvised by setting up tents in the office corridors: "we'd record a guitar and it'd sound rubbish and we had to figure out why. So we started experimenting with different tent designs. In the end it was the wigwam that was easiest to put up and sounded best". The band had to take these booths down before office workers arrived in the morning, a process that

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

Huw Bunford has described as "ghosts in the night ... a bit clandestine". A brief two-week session with Gorwel Owen at

Rockfield Studios Rockfield Studios is a residential recording studio located in the Wye Valley just outside the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was founded in 1963 by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward. Recording studios Rockfield is a two-stu ...

saw some of the album's more "straight ahead" tracks recorded with live vocals before the band returned to AV Happenings and "messed around" with them. When the album was almost finished the band enlisted the services of Tony Doogan who engineered sessions during which several vocal parts were recorded. The ten song D-A-D-D-A-D concept was eventually abandoned with Pryce stating "we don't like constraining ourselves and if you've got a concept, you're doing that. And we had some other really nice tunes so we just chose the best songs". According to Rhys the only plan the group stuck to was to make a "more coherent" record: "In the past ... we'd put ideas kind of side by side, and on this record we wanted all those sounds to be more blended". Following arguments over the track listing of previous album '' Rings Around the World'', after a "lot of songs" were recorded necessitating four months worth of discussions about which tracks to leave off the record, the group recorded just 16 largely acoustic based songs during the sessions for ''Phantom Power''. Rhys's initial batch of songs were augmented by, among others, the Huw Bunford penned "Sex, War & Robots", the first time the guitarist had had one of his songs included on a Super Furry Animals album and also the first time he had sung lead vocals for the group, " Slow Life", which grew out of an electronic piece of music

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

Cian Ciaran had been working on for several years and "The Piccolo Snare" which was partly written in the studio.

Music

After the more produced ''Rings Around the World'', which relied heavily on computers and electronics, the group were keen to make ''Phantom Power'' "a little more human" with

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

ist Huw Bunford stating: "with technology you can do anything these days, but sometimes less is more". Many songs on the album are acoustic based and bass player Guto Pryce has claimed that they sounded "pretty good right from the start" which also contributed to the decision to avoid "over-tweak ngthem in the studio". Despite this the group did work electronic loops into several tracks after Ciaran bought a large number of "

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...

and

light music Light music is a less-serious form of Western classical music, which originated in the 18th and 19th centuries and continues today. Its heyday was in the mid‑20th century. The style is through-composed, usually shorter orchestral pieces and ...

" vinyl records from a man who worked in the same building. According to Rhys: "he knocked on the door just as we were beginning the album: "hey, I've got these records to sell, are ya interested?" And Cian went down to check them out and gave him a hundred pounds on the spot and carried 700 albums back to our tiny room". The album showcases an eclectic range of sounds from the

of "Sex, War & Robots", featuring

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

, to the heavy metal and

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

of "Out of Control" and the

glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was primarily defined by the flamboyant clothing, makeup, and hairstyles of its musicians, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists d ...

of first single " Golden Retriever". " Slow Life", a track which singer Gruff Rhys has described as the "most sonically impressive" song on ''Phantom Power'', features

influences and is based on a piece of electronic music written by

Cian Ciaran several years earlier. Ciaran encouraged the band to jam on top of his original track to produce a fusion of techno and guitar-pop. "The Undefeated" is inspired by

ska Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

and

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

music, although the group removed a "cheesy white reggae" section from the song because it sounded "fucking horrible" and actively tried not to make it sound too much like a ska or reggae track as they felt they "couldn't pull it off". Many tracks feature close vocal harmonies, with all the band apart from Pryce contributing. These harmonies give the album a

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

/ West Coast of America feel, with comparisons being drawn to the work of

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...

, particularly on the song "Venus and Serena".

Lyrical themes

Singer and chief lyric writer Gruff Rhys has claimed that ''Phantom Power'' is about "broken relationships and war" with "a positive outlook to the future". As "

BBC News 24 The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air Public broadcasting, public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London, West End of ...

addicts" Rhys and the band absorbed "fucked up war images" from the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

during the making of the album which affected the way songs were written: "We seem to be living in such a heavy time. We're just absorbing all the words thrown at us from the TV and regurgitating them back." Frustration with the George Bush administration and its

foreign policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

influenced the record with Rhys claiming that he feels qualified to address the subject as

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

foreign policy "effectively decides what the foreign policy is in the UK". The two most overtly "political" tracks on ''Phantom Power'' are "The Piccolo Snare" and "Liberty Belle". "The Piccolo Snare" is about "societies torn apart by war and the waste of human life". The track uses the vocabulary of the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

( Tumbledown, Skyhawks etc.) but Rhys claims it is applicable to any war. "Liberty Belle" tells the story of two cartoon characters devised by Rhys, 'Liberty Belle' and 'Memory Lane', the former representing the "bells of freedom", specifically the

American Dream The "American Dream" is a phrase referring to a purported national ethos of the United States: that every person has the freedom and opportunity to succeed and attain a better life. The phrase was popularized by James Truslow Adams during the ...

, and the latter representing "history's harsh lessons" which Liberty Belle has failed to learn. The song is told from the perspective of a "bird living almost in a parallel universe to humans, oblivious to the gravity of the games which are being played around us", something which Rhys admits to feeling himself much of the time. "Venus and Serena" uses a story of a child who talks to his pet

tortoise Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like o ...

s, Venus and Serena, as he can't communicate with his elders to make a similar point: that people feel alienated from their elected leaders. Both "Out of Control" and "Slow Life" feature regurgitated media

buzzword A buzzword is a word or phrase, new or already existing, that becomes popular for a period of time. Buzzwords often derive from technical terms yet often have much of the original technical meaning removed through fashionable use, being simply ...

s, with "Out of Control's" "flippant" lyrics designed to create the feel of "an over-dramatic theme to a current affairs programme". "Bleed Forever" deals specifically with the

nuclear fallout Nuclear fallout is residual radioactive material that is created by the reactions producing a nuclear explosion. It is initially present in the mushroom cloud, radioactive cloud created by the explosion, and "falls out" of the cloud as it is ...

from the

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

which fell over

North Wales North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...

, allegedly causing an increase in incidents of

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

among children in the area. However, Rhys has been keen to point out that the record is not a forcefully political one, claiming that most of the band's songs are "fragments of daily life; occasionally politics are a part of that. Super Furry Animals is about exploration, not political campaigning". "Valet Parking", for example, is a song about "the glories of pan-European travel", documenting a

road trip A road trip, sometimes spelled roadtrip, is a long-distance Travel, journey traveled by a car or a motorcycle. History First road trips by automobile The world's first recorded long-distance road trip by the automobile took place in German Em ...

from

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, " Golden Retriever" is about "the relationship between ruff Rhys'sgirlfriend's two dogs - a male and a female" and "The Undefeated", inspired by a poor run of results for the Welsh football team, is about "underdogs and overdogs".

DVD

The DVD of ''Phantom Power'' contains the 14 songs featured on the CD version of the album in

, 16 remixes, commentary by Mario Caldato Jr. who mixed the record and provided one of the remixes, and song lyrics. According to singer Gruff Rhys, the concept behind the DVD was based on the success of

platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

s: the listener can play the album as if it were a game and spend "months ... instead of weeks" exploring the content. Unlike the DVD version of previous album '' Rings Around the World'', which featured videos for every track, the songs on the DVD are accompanied by slowly moving animations. Rhys has stated that the Super Furry Animals wanted to use "really bland images" as viewers began to place too much emphasis on the videos on ''Rings Around the World'' and the band wanted them to concentrate on the music.

Keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

Cian Ciaran stated at the time of ''Phantom Power's'' release that the band would issue a DVD with every future album, claiming that "this is just the way we make records now". However, the band's next two albums, '' Love Kraft'' and '' Hey Venus!'', were not made available on DVD and, in a 2008 interview with '' Uncut'', Rhys suggested that the release had been something of a failure: "no one gave a shit because people just want to rock n' roll!" The remixes on the DVD version of ''Phantom Power'' vary from radical reworkings such as Killa Kella's beatbox treatment of " Golden Retriever" and Wauvenfold's "unrecognisable" version of "Sex, War and Robots", to the likes of Mario Caldato Jr's take on "Liberty Belle" and High Llamas' "Valet Parking" which are merely "spruced up". The majority of the remixes were reissued on CD as the album '' Phantom Phorce'' in 2004. According to

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

Dafydd Ieuan Dafydd Ieuan (born 1 March 1969) is a Welsh musician, best known as the drummer with the band Super Furry Animals, The Peth and The Earth. Ieuan played with Gruff Rhys in their early band Ffa Coffi Pawb. He was a drummer for Welsh band Ca ...

the band didn't have the money to pay the artists involved for their remix work so, in order to provide them with

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...

, promised to release an album featuring the tracks on their own label, Placid Casual. Hidden footage of the band firing machine guns can be reached by selecting the song "The Undefeated", waiting 22 seconds until the lettering starts to blink and pressing 'Enter' ('Enter' must be pressed before the lettering blinks for a second time at 24 seconds).

Guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

ist Huw Bunford has described this footage as being "exactly how it looked on the tin ... noisy, full of testosterone, with pumped up guys in the woods trying to kill furry animals!"

Release

''Phantom Power'' was released on CD,

and

on 21 July 2003 in the

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

Epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

imprint. The album reached #4 in 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 ...

. In

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

the album was released on 22 July 2003 by Beggars Banquet US. ''Phantom Power'' was released on 21 July 2003 in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

with two additional tracks, "Summer Snow" and "Blue Fruit", added after "Slow Life" at the end of the album. " Golden Retriever" was released as the first single from the album, reaching #13 in the UK Singles Chart, followed by " Hello Sunshine" in October 2003 which peaked at #31. The '' Slow Life'' EP was released as a free download from the website of the band's

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

, Placid Casual, on 12 April 2004, featuring the title track, "Lost Control" (a

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

of "Out of Control"), and the

Goldie Lookin Chain Goldie Lookin Chain are a Welsh comedy hip hop group from Newport, Wales, Newport, Wales. The group produces humorous, and often explicit songs that satirise hip hop music, hip hop, today's consumer society, the "chav" culture and life in Newpo ...

collaboration, "Motherfokker". The majority of the remixes from the DVD version of ''Phantom Power'' were released as '' Phantom Phorce'' on Placid Casual on 19 April 2004. Initial copies of this album came bundled with a CD version of the ''Slow Life'' EP. ''Phantom Power'' has been

certified Certification is part of testing, inspection and certification and the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestatio ...

silver in the United Kingdom, denoting sales of more than 60,000 copies.

Critical reception

''Phantom Power'' received generally positive reviews from critics with a score of 87 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, denoting "universal acclaim". '' Drowned in Sound'' described the album as "another fine, esoteric wonder of an LP", while the ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' claimed it is the group's "most focussed, energetic pop record since ''

Radiator A radiator is a heat exchanger used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...

''" and went on to state that "for a band to be hitting such form six albums into a steady career is astonishing". '' Q'' called it "the band's best work to date, as accessible as it is inventive"; ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' agreed, calling ''Phantom Power'' "the Furries’ most satisfying album to date ... one to cherish." Several critics commented on the "summery pop" nature of the record with

Tiny Mix Tapes ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' (also ''TMT'' or ''tinymixtapes'') is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, ...

likening the album to "the sun shining through following a large and brooding thunderstorm" and ''The Times'' calling it "mellow summer listening" despite the "grim view of the world" expressed in Gruff Rhys's lyrics. The ''NME'' found that ''Phantom Power'' compares favourably with the band's previous release, '' Rings Around the World'', losing some of that album's mainstream polish.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

agreed, expressing relief that the band had loosened up following ''Rings...'', which the website described as "often sounding constrained by its polished widescreen aspirations". Irish website entertainment.ie saw ''Phantom Power'' as "a highly polished affair, filled with the widescreen classic pop that Gruff Rhys and co. carry off so effortlessly ... thankfully free of the techno experiments that marred so much of their previous work". There was some criticism of the album with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' accusing the band of "treading water", the album suffering from overfamiliarity as the group's sixth release despite being a "lovely record". ''

Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...

'' expressed similar views, claiming that ''Phantom Power'' "feels very much like business as usual for the Welsh wizards, as if they've made just another album". In a 2008 interview with '' Uncut'' Rhys described ''Phantom Power'' as his favourite Super Furries album, although he conceded that all the band's records "have their moments".

Accolades

* denotes an unordered list

Track listing

CD/Vinyl

Personnel

* Gruff Rhys –

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

, keyboards,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

, backing vocals * Huw Bunford –

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Sex, War & Robots" * Guto Pryce –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

* Cian Ciaran – keyboards, guitar, backing vocals *

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, backing vocals

Additional musicians

*Jonathan 'Catfish' Thomas –

on tracks 4, 13 *Kris Jenkins –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

on tracks 1, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14 *Rachel Thomas – backing vocals on tracks 3, 4 *Gary Alsebrook –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

on tracks 6, 7 *Savio Pacini –

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

on tracks 6, 7 * Rico Rodriguez – trombone on track 13 * Eddie Thornton – trumpet on track 13 *Ray Carless –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

on track 13 *Marcus Holdway –

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

on tracks 4, 7, 13, 14 *Sally Herbert –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

on tracks 4, 7, 14 *Brian G. Wright – violin on tracks 4, 7, 14 *Gill Morley – violin on tracks 4, 7, 14 *Ellen Blair – violin on tracks 4, 7, 14 * Pete Fowler – Kaoss flanges on track 14 *Neil McFarland – Kaoss flanges on track 14

Remixers (DVD)

Weevil Weevils are beetles belonging to the superfamily Curculionoidea, known for their elongated snouts. They are usually small – less than in length – and herbivorous. Approximately 97,000 species of weevils are known. They belong to several fa ...

* Mario Caldato Jr. * Killa Kela *Wauvenfold *

Four Tet Kieran Miles David Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting and critically acc ...

*Massimo * Boom Bip * bravecaptain *Zan Lyons *

Minotaur Shock Minotaur Shock is the stage name of David John Edwards, a Bristol-based electronic musician. His 2005 album ''Maritime (album), Maritime'' was his first album released through 4AD Records, having previously released work via the Manchester bas ...

* High Llamas * Llwybr Llaethog *Bench *Sir Doufous Styles *Force Unknown *Freiband

Production

*Super Furry Animals – production, mixing,

mix * Mario Caldato Jr. – mixing *Jeff Knowler – mixing assistant * Gorwel Owen – engineering (

) *Jason Harris – engineering assistant (Rockfield Studios) *Tim Lewis – engineering assistant (Rockfield Studios) *Tony Doogan – engineering ( Monnow Valley Studios) *Sir Doufous Styles – engineering assistant (Monnow Valley Studios and AV Happenings AKA The Sauna), engineering (Wings for Jesus) *Stuart Hawkes – mastering

Design

* Pete Fowler – illustration *JMJ@akamushi.com – design

Charts

References

External links

''Phantom Power''
at

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

(streamed copy where licensed) * * {{Authority control Super Furry Animals albums 2003 albums Epic Records albums Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios Albums with cover art by Pete Fowler