Neon Neon: Praxis Makes Perfect

In 2008, Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys and LA beatmaker Boom Bip (aka Bryan Hollon) created an ode to ill-fated carmaker John DeLorean, and set it to an appropriately ‘80s backdrop of sleek synths and crisp beats.

Like its predecessor Stainless Style, Praxis Makes Perfect is dedicated to a historical figure, this time the rather less famous – outside Italy, at least – publisher and leftwing activist Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. But although Stainless Style was designed in such a way that subject matter and sound palette aligned, that’s not the case here. Rhys and Hollon decided that since they had established their aesthetic, they’d better stick to it, and so there’s a slightly odd disconnect between these tales of mid-20th century literary and political life, and electronic sounds straight out of the ‘80s.
If you can get past that, there’s plenty to enjoy, not least Rhys’ reliably tuneful approach. Despite the turbulent subject matter – Feltrinelli had a colourful life and a controversial death – this is a pop record, with some moments of crystalline brilliance. ‘Dr. Zhivago’ (Feltrinelli smuggled the manuscript out of Russia to get it published) has a chorus to die for; ‘Shopping (I Like To)’ is a simultaneously frothy and brainy slice of Italo-pop; and ‘Mid Century Modern Nightmare’ is an anti-bourgeois treatise that you can dance to.
Praxis Makes Perfect lacks the sheer novelty and some of the unity of purpose of Stainless Style, but it’s certainly 2013’s best pop record about an entrepreneurial communist.

Key Track: ‘Mid Century Modern Nightmare’