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Gruff Rhys is a busy man. When not fronting Super Furry Animals - nor promoting side project concept albums in tribute to bankrupt 1980's car manufacturers - he's producing short films and an art installation, the latter based on all the shampoo products he's acquired from various hotel rooms over his touring life.
So provides the inspiration for the title and artwork of Gruff's latest solo album, initially intended to be a collection of piano ballads but materialising into something much more diverse, an eclectic mix of influences from Caracus to Camarthen.
So provides the inspiration for the title and artwork of Gruff's latest solo album, initially intended to be a collection of piano ballads but materialising into something much more diverse, an eclectic mix of influences from Caracus to Camarthen.
Perhaps more importantly though, the Welshman's penchant for delicate melody makes a return to prominence. Nowhere more so than on Honey All Over - a sugar-coated delicacy of a song - matched only by the exquisite Vitamin K and sublime If We Were Words (We Would Rhyme).
There's an understated charm to the album, not brash nor brazen in any way, a soulful companion with whom you feel comfortable and content, yet remaining musically vivid and harbouring a playful joie de vivre that masks its sometimes melancholy lyrics.
At all times Gruff Rhys' personality exudes forth, particularly in wonderful lines such as "tummy full of tumbleweeds" but also in the way he makes use of humour. Take this Guardian piece on how he wrote Sensations In The Dark by way of example.
By the time Space Dust #2's call and answer duet has washed over you - "You upped and left without warning/I had to work in the morning" - and Patterns of Power has imparted its piéce de rèsistance, you simply find yourself marvelling at the fact all this artistry can be traced back to a collection of hotel toilets.
Only in Gruff Rhys' hands would this turn out to make perfect common-sense.
There's an understated charm to the album, not brash nor brazen in any way, a soulful companion with whom you feel comfortable and content, yet remaining musically vivid and harbouring a playful joie de vivre that masks its sometimes melancholy lyrics.
At all times Gruff Rhys' personality exudes forth, particularly in wonderful lines such as "tummy full of tumbleweeds" but also in the way he makes use of humour. Take this Guardian piece on how he wrote Sensations In The Dark by way of example.
By the time Space Dust #2's call and answer duet has washed over you - "You upped and left without warning/I had to work in the morning" - and Patterns of Power has imparted its piéce de rèsistance, you simply find yourself marvelling at the fact all this artistry can be traced back to a collection of hotel toilets.
Only in Gruff Rhys' hands would this turn out to make perfect common-sense.
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