Gruff Rhys - “Honey All Over”

Shout out to the front man of our beloved hairy mammals. This favorite was left out from last year’s hunt. I always wanted to post it somewhere but I was just stupid not to do that. Now, want to know what I love about it? Please scroll down then. Thanks!

From Hotel Shampoo, Gruff Rhys’ 3rd solo album, “Honey All Over” is a tasty representative. The album is Rhys at his most convenient and orchestrated. The jolly sweet soft pop of the song attracts more charm when you hear three different drum sequences jammed carefully into the come and go of verse and chorus. However, they bizarrely don’t disarrange the elements and make the single miraculously remain a pop song to whistle to. 

The album title and the single’s artwork are inspired by Gruff’s habit of keeping shampoo bottles from hotels he resides at over the years. Delicious! And I’m still yet to decipher the puzzle of my weakness in bands from Cardiff. I have never been to Wales. No clue. Maybe it’s Ryan Giggs.

» Tony Da Gatorra vs Gruff Rhys - “In A House With No Mirrors”

It sorta looks like a guitar hero battle when you look at that vicious “vs.” on the artist name. Most of us know the virtuoso that Gruff Rhys of the lovely Super Furry Animals is, but not many of us know this other guy Tony Da Gatorra. All we ever know about him so far is that he’s a Brazilian TV and VCR repairman who’s registered a new instrument called “Gatorra” that is part drum machine and part guitar! He listens to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and he has this blog in which he scribbles long-windedly and in his own language. Which part of this guy is interesting enough for Gruff Rhys for deciding to release a 10 song LP with him, we really draw a blank here!

This reportedly experimental album is called The Terror Of Cosmic Loneliness and it will be released on July 26th on OVNI (Turnstile). Judging by this one electro-pop song “In A House With No Mirrors”, Rhys hasn’t bothered himself writing creative lines really and maybe you’ll find pleasure just listening to that dreaded new instrument. I’m still digging in search of fun here. Maybe I need some Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru inside info before I can come to a rational conclusion. But nothing yet.