Slow Life - Recording and Themes

Recording and Themes

"Slow Life" was written in two stages. According to bassist Guto Pryce the "electronic part" was composed by keyboard player Cian Ciaran "quite a few years" before its eventual release. The band had tried to fit this early, purely electronic, version on previous albums but had "never got 'round to it". By the time the group came to record Phantom Power they were anxious to release the song, however Ciaran was reluctant to leave it in its original form and encouraged the rest of the band to jam over his original track. According to singer Gruff Rhys the instrumentation was recorded "pretty much live" after which lyrics were written and the band's 10 minute jam session was "chopped ... up and made into a composed song" with the electronic section intact. Strings were later added by Sean O'Hagan. Rhys has stated that renting their own studio in Cardiff has given the band the ability to work on tracks such as "Slow Life" over a period of years—the group visit the studio almost every day and play: "the best parts on any of our records, I think, come out of a couple of us being in our little room in Cardiff at three in the morning, just wigging out and being ecstatic in the music."

According to guitarist Huw Bunford the track had the working title "Miami Vice" as it featured a drum roll similar to one used in the theme tune to the 80's television show of the same name. The band decided not to keep this name as they were keen to avoid links with a particular place—Bunford gave the example of the song's use on a travel documentary about Miami as something the group did not want to see. Some promotional copies of Phantom Power featured "Slow Life" as the first track although it eventually appeared as the last track on the officially released version of the album. Gruff Rhys has stated that the song had to go at either the beginning or the end of the record as it is the "most sonically impressive" track on the album. Rhys has described his lyrics as "regurgitating what we hear on the news, recycled, vomiting them all back". The Guardian has interpreted the song as a "cutting critique of middle-east colonialism".

The track "Motherfokker" is a collaboration between the Super Furry Animals and Welsh rappers Goldie Lookin Chain with chorus vocals provided by Cian Ciaran. The two toured together in 2004 and Gruff Rhys has praised the group, stating that "their range of references are insane. They're extremely bright. They're crazy." Rhys has explained that the song is about "an incredibly large aircraft from outer space. are the aliens and its about the people of Earth coming together as one". The two groups have performed the track together several times at Super Furry Animals' concerts including the 2004 Reading Festival and a date at the Brixton Academy on 22 September 2005.