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Gruff Rhys: Sadness Sets Me Free review – an irresistible mix of melancholy and joy
Lyrical diatribes against the government, the monarchy and property developers are rendered in light, lush instrumentation on Rhys’s 25th album
S adness Sets Me Free is, by his own estimate, about the 25th album from Gruff Rhys, if you include his work with Super Furry Animals and all of his various side projects. They Sold My Home to Build a Skyscraper – about cultural spaces being razed to make way for luxury flats – is a case in point, its downbeat lyrics (“They floored my people down with sandpaper”) at odds with its gloriously infectious Tropicália inflections. Although many of the songs tackle dark topics, most notably the breakup recounted in I Tendered My Resignation, they’re leavened with smart and arresting lines, such as “I said, ‘I’m a barista’/ She heard ‘barrister’” in Celestial Candyfloss.
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