Gruff Rhys Yr Atal Genhedlaeth. Release Date : March 15, 2005. Label: Rough Trade. Rating: Confusingly cool. (Screw points. To each his own!) Help help I don't know what's going on! Foreign languages are scary. Well... yeah I guess it's foreign, considering I'm living in Canada. Ancient foreign languages. Actually, I don't know how old Welsh is. According to Wikipedia, somewhere around 500AD is when it started cropping up, so I guess that's pretty ancient. And now this super oldschool language is... a... pop album. By a Super Furry Animal. Ahhhh! There's always something a little comical about rock/pop music being sung in other languages. I'm sure that seems insensitive, but English is still the International Language Of Music, for anyone who cares about things like international (okay okay, US) charts. But any time I hear, say, a Japanese pop group or a German death metal band, I can't help but giggle at how awkward it sounds. This doesn't apply so much to swimmy or alternative music like Sigur Ros or Kent, or regional/traditional music. This is creative though - Rhys actually knows Welsh. Or, at least has enough of a handle on it to put together an album. I mean, Big Sugar put out French albums that sounded a bit clumsy because Gordie Johnson of course is not French, but he pulled it off. All the liner notes are in Welsh too. When sung, it sounds quite Scandinavian. I suppose with the proximity to Scandinavia, the old UK languages probably had some influence. I always enjoyed history but i never absorbed much about the particulars, so excuse my doltishness. If you are a Celtic historian, please contact me and let me know where this fine fine language came from. Okay I am caught up in the Welshishness and ignoring the music. It's rad! It has to be, with Mister Furry Animal in charge. It is a bonafide pop album. Sure, I have no freeking clue what the hell the songs are about, but there's sampled womens screams, hip hop, and pop pop pop. It's so colourful and fun and would be a great album to flick on at a party to get people grooving. This is like scooter-wars type pop. It's really really pop. "Caerffosiaeth" is pretty bonkers. Funky and monotone, like old hip hop or that "I Wanna Dance With You" song by Whitney Houston. Okay, I know that's not hip hop but it has the same bippity noises and hand-claps. Song of choice : Overjoyed by "Pwdin Wy 1" and "Ni Yw Y Byd." Can someone translate for me please? Please? Did he just say 'tuchas'? Isn't that a Jewish word for butt? -Andy Scheffler Elsewhere Gruff Rhys website Published : January, 2007.