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Jun 19, 2017 By Christopher Roberts Super Furry Animals

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Britpop outliers and survivors Super Furry Animals are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their 1997 sophomore album Radiator with a 20th anniversary reissue. It comes out July 20 via BMG and comes with 30 bonus tracks, including the album’s B-sides, demos, the Ice Hockey Hair EP, and other rarities. The band has now shared one of the bonus tracks, a weird cover of The Smiths’ 1985 single “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side” (which also appeared on their 1986-released third album, The Queen Is Dead). The cover was commissioned for a CD mounted to the cover of a French magazine, but was never used and remained unreleased until now. The 8-minute long cover barely features any lyrics, starts with a conversation between frontman Gruff Rhys and a friend, and is largely electronic in nature. Listen below, followed by the reissue’s tracklist.

Rhys had this to say about the cover in a press release: “We wanted to translate the lyrics of The Smiths track into French, so I spoke to a French friend of mine, who was actually working in Manchester, hence the half-French, half-Mancunian accent on the spoken introduction. It didn’t quite work out that way, although there are elements of the translation on it if you listen carefully, so what we have instead is an instrumental homage. I can’t remember why it didn’t get released, but am glad it hasn’t been lost forever and Furries, perhaps even Smiths fans, can now make their own mind up on how it compares to the original.”

Radiator 20th Anniversary Reissue Tracklist:

Radiator (2017 Remaster - CD & Vinyl)

1. Furryvision^TM
2. The Placid Casual
3. The International Language of Screaming
4. Demons
5. Short Painkiller
6. She’s Got Spies
7. Play It Cool
8. Hermann ♥‘s Pauline
9. Chupacabras
10. Torra Fy Ngwallt Yn Hir
11. Bass Tuned to D.E.A.D
12. Down a Different River
13. Download
14. Mountain People

Ice Hockey Hair E.P. (CD Only)

15. Smokin’
16. Ice Hockey Hair
17. Mu-Tron
18. Let’s Quit Smoking

Etc. (CD Only)

19. Smoke
20. Dim Ysmygu
21. The Boy With the Thorn in His Side (The Smiths Cover)

Clarity Just Confuses Me (Bonus Tracks)

B-Sides & Such (CD Only)

1. Cryndod Yn Dy Lais
2. Hit And Run
3. Foxy Music
4. Pass the Time
5. Calimero
6. B Side
7. Carry the Can
8. Wrap It Up
9. Trôns Mr. Urdd
10. No.K.
11. Play It Cool (U.K. Album Mix)

Demo Session, Big Noise Studios, Cardiff, December 1996 (CD Only)

12. SFA Theme (Demo)
13. The International Language of Screaming (Demo)
14. Torra Fy Ngwallt Yn Hir (Demo)
15. Down A Different River (Demo)
16. She’s Got Spies (Demo)
17. Hit and Run (Demo)
18. Mountain People (Demo)
19. Play It Cool (Demo)
20. Bass Tuned to D.E.A.D (Demo)
21. Naff Gân (Demo)
22. The Placid Casual (Demo)
23. Music Box (Demo)

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