#3. Super Furry Animals – Radiator

The summer of 1997 was a funny, mixed up time for British music. Girl power, already irking, was approaching its first anniversary while U2's Popmart tour was trotting the globe in predictably over-the-top manner. Britpop was being served its last rites but not before its glorious Indian summer of The Verve’s ‘Bittersweet Symphony’. Radiohead, on the same release day no less, showed us a glimpse of the future with OK Computer. Then with the shortened evenings being dominated by Oasis’ due-some-revisionist-thinking-any-day-now Be Here Now, one of the greatest albums of all time slipped out. SFA’s Radiator.

The Welsh wizards' follow up to 1996’s Fuzzy Logic is amazing from start to finish. It’s raw, it's vibrant, it’s just brilliant. Every one of the 14 tracks have a great hook and can seem at the same time both very complex and effortlessly simple. Featuring Pete Fowler’s iconic sleeve artwork for the first time, Radiator is the sound of a band showing what great musicians they are, something the Super Furries would later prove again and again.

‘Demons’, for one, has some of the greatest lines ever written, from the opening “Clarity just confuses me “ and “Apathy only ruined me, Hanging around waiting for calamity” to possibly the greatest parting words put to record: “Cos’ I know that you know that we know they don't know what's going on.” It’s pure pop brilliance.

A short painkilling interlude later, ‘She’s Got Spies’ demonstrates the band’s willingness to experiment, mixing a number of different styles together, from Beach Boy harmonies to Green Day guitars, all blending together in a joyous medley. ‘Chupacabras’, both live and on record, is like a shot in the arm, instantly requiring a reaction from the listener. In fact the whole album is amazing live and one that begs for the All Tomorrow’s Parties ‘Don’t Look Back’ treatment.

‘Turn Bass to DEAD’ is, in this writer’s opinion, one of the greatest, most skilfully written songs of the 20th century. If I were to play a Super Furries song to a newbie this would be it. And that’s before we even get to the closing trio of ‘Down A Different River’, ‘Download’ and ‘Mountain People'.

The importance of Radiator, coming at the time it did, should not be underestimated. Released on the same day as Stereophonics’ Word Gets Around, it offered solace from the mediocre rock music that would go on to dominate the mainstream. Fast-forward ten years and the interesting, creative movements within British music that are now finding as big an audience - bands like Klaxons, Pete and the Pirates and in some ways the Arctic Monkeys – are indebted to the Super Furries’ moment of clarity.