"Run-Away" is a song by

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 ...

and the second

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

taken from their 2007 album, ''

Hey Venus! ''Hey Venus!'' is the eighth album by Wales, Welsh band Super Furry Animals. It was released on 27 August 2007 in the United Kingdom. ''Hey Venus!'' is the band's first full-length release on current label Rough Trade Records and, at just over 3 ...

''. The song is an homage to the '

Wall of Sound The Wall of Sound (also called the Spector Sound) is a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios, in the 1960s, with assistance from engineer Larry Levine and the conglomerate of session m ...

' production made famous by

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter who is best known for pioneering recording practices in the 1960s, followed by his trials and conviction for murder in the 2000s. S ...

, particularly in his work with 1960s

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring two or more women in music, female singers who generally vocal harmony, harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female p ...

s. "Run-Away" received many positive reviews from critics who variously described it as "absolutely timeless stuff", "outstanding" and "up there with the most finely polished weapons in the SFA armoury". The track's Phil Spector-leanings were also commented on by numerous journalists. A "spooky", "tongue-in-cheek" video was produced for the song directed by

Richard Ayoade Richard Ayoade ( ; born 23 May 1977) is a British comedian, actor, writer, director and presenter. He played the role of socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss in Channel 4 sitcom ''The IT Crowd'' (2006–2013), for which he won the 2014 Br ...

and starring his ''

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace ''Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'' is a British horror parody television series created by Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness for Channel 4. The show focuses on fictional horror author Garth Marenghi (played by Holness) and his publisher Dean ...

'', ''

The IT Crowd ''The IT Crowd'' is a British television sitcom originally broadcast by Channel 4, created, written, and directed by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla and starring Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, and Matt Berry. Set in th ...

'' and ''

The Mighty Boosh The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows, The Mighty Boosh (1998 stage show), ''The Mighty Boosh'', Arctic Boosh, ''Arctic Boosh'' (1999) and Autoboosh, ...

'' co-star

Matt Berry Matthew Charles Berry (born 2 May 1974) is an English actor, comedian, musician, and writer. Noted for his distinctive voice, he is best known for his television roles in comedy series such as ''The IT Crowd'', ''Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'', ' ...

Origins and recording

In an interview 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, ...

in January 2008

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 ...

admitted that "Run-Away" owed much to

-type '

' production: "The drumbeat is definitely a nod to that. We started collecting a lot of old 7-inch singles recently.

Cian In Irish mythology, Cian or Cían (), nicknamed Scal Balb, was the son of Dian Cecht, the physician of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and best known as the father of Lugh Lamhfada. Cían's brothers were Cu, Cethen, and Miach. Cían was slain by th ...

got heavy into

doo-wop music Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a subgenre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, ...

and I was getting into late 60s

s. "Run-Away" came out of listening to "

Be My Baby "Be My Baby" is a song by the American girl group the Ronettes that was released as a single on Philles Records in August 1963. Written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and Phil Spector, the song was the Ronettes' biggest hit, reaching number ...

" too many times".

Guto Pryce Guto Dafydd Pryce ( Welsh pronunciation: ; born 4 September 1972) is a Welsh musician best known as bass guitar player and songwriter in the band Super Furry Animals. With them he has recorded nine UK Albums Chart Top 25 studio albums, plus num ...

echoed this sentiment in an interview with

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

website

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stating that "on "Run Away" that was exactly what we were after, a fuzzy Phil Spector type thing. A dirty, grimy '60s pop song". The track was recorded at Miraval Studios, France along with the rest of ''Hey Venus!''

Musical structure

"Run-Away" is 2 minutes 53 seconds long and is in the key of

B major B major is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and its enharmonic equi ...

. The "hook laden" song begins with a spoken word introduction from Gruff ("This song is based on a true story... which would be fine if it wasn't autobiographical") over a B chord playing on the "familiar "dum-de-dum-dum" Phil Spector drum beat" (from "Be My Baby") provided by

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 ...

. Lead guitar embellishments accompany the first verse before the track builds up to its first "

falsetto Falsetto ( , ; Italian language, Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ...

laden" chorus at 34 seconds. Another verse follows, with additional

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 ...

backing, during which Rhys mourns "we may have fought with teeth and nails, I still recall your banking details". A short breakdown

middle 8 The 32-bar form, also known as the AABA song form, American popular song form and the ballad form, is a song structure commonly found in Tin Pan Alley songs and other American popular music, especially in the first half of the 20th century. Th ...

leads to a double chorus (the second of which features a

key change In music, modulation is the change from one tonality ( tonic, or tonal center) to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature (a key change). Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as ...

C-sharp major C-sharp major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has seven sharps. Its relative minor is A-sharp minor (or enharmonically B-flat minor), its parallel minor is C-sharp min ...

) before the song breaks down again and ends with Rhys singing "There's nothing that I could have said but cry, a little, lie, a little, die, just a little" over sparse musical backing.

Critical response

"Run-Away" received much praise from reviewers with the ''

Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 20 ...

'' claiming the track to be "absolutely timeless stuff", likening it to Gruff Rhys "swaggering up to the

karaoke is a type of interactive entertainment system usually offered in nightclubs and bars, where people sing along to pre-recorded accompaniment using a microphone. Its musical content is an instrumental rendition of a well-known popular song. I ...

and picking out his favourite

Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...

ballad" and 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 ...

stating that, "with a chorus as big as guitarist Huw Bunford's new serial-killer beard, it's up there with the most finely polished weapons in the SFA armoury". Website Culture Deluxe claimed the track showed the band at "their pop-best" and proved they "could do no wrong" while the ''

Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' called "Run-Away" "outstanding". The Spector-like nature of the track was commented on in several reviews with

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

television station

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

describing "Run-Away" as "

Spector Spector or Spektor may refer to: People with the surname * Alfred Spector (born 1954), Vice President of Research and Special Initiatives at Google * Art Spector (1920–1987), American basketball player * Baylon Spector (born 1998), American fo ...

pop",

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

describing the song as "a homage to gun-wielding production oddball Phil Spector", and

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

Music in the UK and Ireland stating that the single "welds a killer falsetto chorus to a latterday incarnation of the '

'".

thought the "rousing and pleasant" song could have "found a home anywhere in or between ''

Fuzzy Logic Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth value of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1. It is employed to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely ...

'' and 2005's ''

Love Kraft ''Love Kraft'' is the seventh studio album by Welsh indie rock band Super Furry Animals, released on 22 August 2005 through Epic Records in the United Kingdom. The album was recorded in Spain with producer Mario Caldato Jr and was something of ...

''" while

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

thought the track's "ostensible real-life origins" would "render "Run-Away" one of the most heart-on-sleeve entries in a catalogue better known for left field classics like "

Ice Hockey Hair ''Ice Hockey Hair'' is an EP by the Welsh alternative rock band Super Furry Animals, released in 1998. The record contains four songs which the band felt did not fit in with either their previous album, 1997's '' Radiator'', or its follow-up '' ...

" and " The Man Don't Give a Fuck"". B-sides, the "

Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by thei ...

-influenced" "These Bones" and the "pulsating" "That's What I'm Talking About", were also singled out for praise by the ''Manchester Evening News''. '' The Chronicle'' however, criticised "Run-Away" and previous single " Show Your Hand" for sounding "more like the generic pop songs one would find on the radio than those of a historically experimental band".

Accolades

Music video

The "

tongue-in-cheek Tongue-in-cheek is an idiom that describes a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walte ...

", video for "Run-Away" was directed by

and features his ''

'', ''

'' and ''

'' co-star

. The video begins with close-ups of Berry driving a vintage car on a moonlit night intercut with shots of a woman in a white dress running through sparse

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

. After 54 seconds Berry abruptly stops his car and the shot changes to show the woman in white laid on the road in front of his vehicle. Berry leaves his car and walks over to the woman who appears dazed. The next shot features the woman resting her head on Berry's shoulder while he drives. Towards the middle of the video we find the pair sat together at a house party while Berry discusses the woman with his friends. Part of this conversation features subtitles, with Berry stating "She can't remember a thing". Immediately afterwards a man in a brown suit and

bow tie The bow tie or dicky bow is a type of neckwear, distinguishable from a necktie because it does not drape down the shirt placket, but is tied just underneath a winged collar. A modern bow tie is tied using a common shoelace knot, which is also ...

enters, rubbing the back of his head and looking confused. He focuses on the woman in the white dress and says "Maria?" to which Berry counters "Who the heck are you?" while 'Maria' bites her lip and looks on guiltily. When the man in the suit states "That's my wife!" Berry gets to his feet and the man promptly punches him in the face. We then cut to shots of Berry running through the same woodland as 'Maria' earlier in the video. After around 20 seconds he looks to his left and is blinded by a light. The next shot shows him laid on the road in front of a car as its driver, a woman in a red coat, rushes to check on him. As the song comes to an end we see the women in red driving her car with Berry resting his head on her shoulder. Music website

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...

described the video as a "cheeky, soft-focused bit of '80s fun", while British alternative music radio station

Xfm Radio X is a British national commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. The station launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station named Q102, before being renamed Xfm in 1992. The station b ...

included it in their top ten videos of 2007, calling it "spooky, very tongue-in-cheek and utterly hilarious".

Track listing

All songs by Super Furry Animals. *CD (RTRADSCD419) *# "Run-Away" – 2:53 *# "These Bones" – 3:23 *# "That's What I'm Talking About" – 5:41 *7" picture disc (RTRADS419) *# "Run-Away" – 2:53 *# "These Bones" – 3:23

Personnel

: Vocals *

Huw Bunford Huw "Bunf" Bunford (born Huw Cennydd Bunford; 15 September 1967 in Cardiff, Wales) is a musician best known as the guitarist in Super Furry Animals. Biography Bunford studied at Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University) and worked as a te ...

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 ...

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 Cian Ciarán (born 16 June 1976) is a Welsh musician best known as the keyboard player in the band Super Furry Animals. In addition to keyboards, he plays guitar and drums and sings, and is a songwriter, composer and producer. Career Cian was ...

: keyboards *

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 ...

*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 ...

Singles chart positions

References

External links

*
Music video at official Rough Trade Records YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Run-Away (Super Furry Animals Song) Super Furry Animals songs 2007 singles 2007 songs Rough Trade Records singles Song recordings with Wall of Sound arrangements Music videos directed by Richard Ayoade UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles