I’m confident that if Super Furry Animals had been around in the early '70s not only would they have been the biggest band in the world but they would also have been enlisted by filmmaker Stanley Kubrick to score his adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. Their knack for oddball baroque orchestration and their delicate layering of sound would have made them a natural choice for the project -- after all, a score performed entirely in Welsh would have only added to the film’s surreality. And while Mwng is not a soundtrack to any film in particular, it could certainly serve in such a capacity for any film you’d care to name.

Mwng is the fourth Super Furry Animals album proper, and one which finds them not only embracing their native tongue but also indulging themselves (as well as their music) in the voluminous pop excess of the 1970s. Where their previous album, Guerrilla, bleeped and clicked, Mwng swells and sways, gently taking your hand and slowly leading you down SFA’s yellow brick road of whimsical pop. Songs like “Dacw Hi” and “Pan Ddaw R Wawr” open themselves up to reveal layer after layer of shimmering guitars and velveteen harmonies; this is what the mid-70s Beach Boys would have sounded like had Brian Wilson not lost the plot. “Y Gwyneb Iau” is so silky smooth that you’ll swear that it was an outtake from Serge Gainsbourg’s infamous Melody Nelson album. Old fans need not fret, though -- glimpses of days (not to mention albums) past is provided by the incessantly swirling opener "Drygioni", as well as the utterly weird first single “Ysbeidiau Heulog”.

The U.S. edition of Mwng is packaged with a bonus disc of B-Sides and outtakes entitled Mwng Bach. Included on the bonus disc is the spitting, crunching psych-out of former B-Side “Calimero” which by itself is worth the price of admission.

Though not instantly apparent, the sheer triumph of Mwng lies in its ability to use a language most of us cannot begin to fathom to produce one of the most beautiful sounds in the whole world. Kubrick might be gone, but the Super Furry Animals are here to stay.