There’s something to be said for unabashed romanticism. And the accomplished Welsh band Super Furry Animals can certainly bring the love when they want to. It’s one of their many, many moods. A song like “Presidential Suite” from 2001’s hyper-ambitous Rings Around the World makes a virtue of beautiful horn-fueled, almost Bacharach-esque balladry — even if the lyrics are a scathingly sarcastic tribute to the foibles of 90s world leaders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOPyzAsYajQ

Rings features the Super Furry Animals showing off a dazzling array of musical approaches, from growling techno-punk to historical story songs to funked up tongue-in-cheek message music. One old friend of mind compared it to a modern day White Album. All in all, there’s a ton of good stuff to choose from. But call me a sucker for sophisticated love songs (not silly, though, despite the album cameo by Paul McCartney — the song actually features legendary misanthrope John Cale). “Presidential Suite” always reminds me of the scene in To Catch a Thief when Cary Grant & Grace Kelly kiss and then we cut to that cinematic symbol for something more profound outside their posh Monaco hotel room — “There were fireworks in the sky/Sparkling like dragonflies”. Strange that a Welsh alternative band in 2001 could bring a comparison from Hitchcock from the 50s to mind but there it is. Must be the universal language of love — and cinema — by way of Cardiff.