Album Review

Neon Neon – Stainless Style

• 12th Mar 2008

Since the death of James Brown 14 months ago a certain Welsh man has being doing his best to inherit the hardest working-man in show-business title. Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals fame is not content with having released a solo album and a new SFA album in the past 12 months, ogh no. Rhys has now decided to unveil his new collaboration with LA based DJ Boom Bip, under the title of Neon Neon and given the sound they produce together the honesty of the name is wonderfully refreshing.

There are two simple things you may require to obtain total joy out of the album superbly entitled ‘Stainless Style’. The first is something you personally cannot control, but if you like me spent the 80’s growing up then you already have ticked one crucial box. Had you not had the joy of flowering during the wondrous Eighties but have spent the last few years catching up with the decade that was ruled by Ducky, John Hughes, Tangerine Dream and truly outstandingly awful fashions, then you’re also in with a shout.

According to the press release what we have here is a bio of auto dreamer Michael Delorean but more importantly we have a slice of pure eighties wonderment that is in no way cut from the same jib as derivative rubbish such as the Killers and the Bravery. The synthesizers here are honest and re-call a decade that both participants remember from experience. The albums also showcases the ever maturing voice of Rhys’ which just gets better with every release as it seems to gather a sublime crooner quality. Tracks such as ‘Dream Cars’ and the duet with Cate Le Bon, ‘I Lust U’, are as pleasing as Risky Business ever was, with its endless neon infused images and dreams of sex and super-cars. Yet there is one track that stands out above the rest and that is ‘I Told Her On Alderaan’ which just goes to show that George Lucas has truly managed to colonise the sub-consciousness of the vast majority of men who were boys during those glory filled days of the Skywalker family.

So soon in the calendar year it seems a little rushed to be bandying around the best album of the year tag but it’s hard to imagine much better being released over the coming nine months. ‘Stainless Style’ is a true slab of nostalgia that is neither derivative or without soul as what you have is an homage to all that was truly stylish about a decade that actually provided a great deal of wonderful excess.