Dark Days/Light Years, the ninth studio album by Super Furry Animals, was digitally released at 8pm on 16 March 2009 via the band's own website (www.superfurry.com) with a physical release following on the 21st of April on Rough Trade Records. The album's title is taken from a lyric in the song "Moped Eyes" ("dark days seem light years away").
Many of the songs on the album are based around riffs and grooves the band have been working on for several years and features only one slow song which "isn't slow at all". The statement went on to claim that the saxophone and lap steel guitar have been consigned to the "banned instrument directive of the SFA board" with drummer Dafydd Ieuan apparently developing a phobia of the latter.". The band originally planned to record the album in Miraval, France like their previous effort Hey Venus!, but decided to record in Cardiff with a considerably lower budget than previous efforts.
The completion of the album was documented by a series of 22 short films that were shown on the Super Furry Animals website, with one film added each day leading up to its original digital release. The videos were inspired by the Mike Figgis film Timecode and were described by The Guardian as "at once enormously dull, pleasingly insightful and curiously compelling."
Longtime sleeve designer Pete Fowler collaborated with Hey Venus! artist Keiichi Tanaami to produce the album's artwork. According to Rhys Tanaami wanted to work with the band having seen Fowler's previous Super Furry Animals record sleeves. The track "Inaugural Trams" includes spoken word German vocals by Franz Ferdinand's Nick McCarthy. The band broadcast a live show on their own website (superfurry.com) featuring songs from the album on the day of its digital release, which proved a success despite initial technical glitches. They didn't tour the album in a conventional manner, gigging infrequently.
The 12" vinyl release features different artwork from the CD version, and also has a free copy of the album on CD slipped inside the sleeve. The album peaked at #23 in the UK Album Charts in its first week of physical release. It may have charted higher but the band sold a number of pre-order copies and digital downloads via their website, which is not a registered chart company.
At just over an hour, it is the band's longest album.
To promote the album, lead singer Gruff Rhys described it as having a "biblical sound," and said that the band wouldn't be able to play any of its songs indoors.
Read more about Dark Days/Light Years: Lyrical Themes, Musical Style, Critical Reception, Tracklisting, Accolades
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