Stainless

About two weeks ago I bought "Stainless Style" by Neon Neon. I talked about the single I Lust You before so you probably already have an idea about how much I like this band. I think that if the Super Furry Animals were more electro and less rock, then this would definately be the product.

So Neon Neon is made up of SFA's frontman Gruff Rhys (ever-so-slightly fragile Welsh singing voice: check) and Boom Pip (beatmaster: check) - there are others in the band obviously, but they're the masterminds. Bringing the pair together has made this collaboration magical in all it's electro weirdness.

Yes, it's weird. Yes, it'll probably take you a couple of listens to really get into it. But hey, once the little oddities have illuminated that lightbulb in your brain you might wonder why this group didn't form years ago. Actually, it's a great dance record in a strange way. I'm not really sure if that's intentional (I see it as more as a pick-me-up-quick record) but it works. To be honest, it sounds very 80s, which might put a lot of people off, but then it sounds really modern as well...

So, on to the tracks. Obviously, I Lust You is a great little ditty for reasons I've already touched on. But there are loads of other great tracks too. My personal favourites are I Told Her On Alderaan (blasts at you really hard then turns a little bit alt-rock, then back to retro electro), Raquel (why on Earth was this first single so criminally overlooked?!) and Steel Your Girl (possibly the most rock moment on the record, in the sense that it has the most guitar sounds). However, these songs, in my own opinion, are all well below the magnificence of Belfast. It's melanchoclic - Gruff sounds like he's going to cry nearly all the way through - but then it's oddly uplifting. A song about leaving the city almost under the cover of darkness shouldn't be almost happy should it? I didn't think so until I heard this. Amazing.