Super Furry Animals

Armed with outsized hooks, Super Furry Animals put their own playful stamp on high-saturation psych-rock at the turn of the millennium. Formed in Cardiff, Wales in 1993, SFA quickly generated enough buzz to get signed to era-defining UK label Creation. Singer/guitarist Gruff Rhys distinguished himself with his earnest treatment of whimsical subject matter, and the band riffed on several cult figures across their 1996 debut Fuzzy Logic—including chequered cover star Howard Marks. Subsequent albums saw SFA match their growing ambition with whimsy at every step, updating classic glam-edged Britpop with excitable swathes of electronics. Paul McCartney even made a sneaky cameo chewing vegetables (itself a sidelong Beach Boys reference) on 2001’s “Receptacle For the Respectable”. After releasing nine studio albums, the band went on hiatus in 2016, allowing Rhys to pursue solo records and other projects as disparate as books, theatre, documentaries and film scores.