(Drawing) Rings Around the World
Encyclopedia
" Rings Around the World" is a song by Super Furry Animals
and was the second single taken from the band's fifth album, Rings Around the World
. The track reached number 28 on the UK Singles Chart
on release in October 2001. Singer Gruff Rhys
has described the song as being about "rings of communication around the world. All the rings of pollution".
Critical reaction to the track was generally positive with many reviewers comparing the song to the work of other groups such as Status Quo, ELO
and The Beach Boys
. A promotional music video was produced to accompany "(Drawing) Rings Around the World"'s release as a single. Directed by Pedro Romhanyi the video features images of fictional television stations including "SFA TV", which shows the band playing along with the track. An alternative video, directed by Sean Hillen, was included on the DVD
version of Rings Around the World on its release in July 2001. This video features the lyrics to the track scrolling
slowly from the bottom of the screen upwards in front of an image of a globe
. The DVD version of Rings Around the World also includes a Llwybr Llaethog
remix
of "(Drawing) Rings Around the World".
, "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" is about "all the rings of communication around the world. All the rings of pollution, and all the radioactivity that goes around. If you could visualize all the things we don't see, Earth
could look like some kind of fucked-up Saturn
. And that's the idea I have in my head - surrounded by communication lines and traffic and debris thrown out of spaceships." Rhys has claimed that the theory was initially his girlfriend's Father's. The track was recorded in 2000 at Monnow Valley Studio
, Rockfield, Monmouthshire
and was produced
by the Super Furry Animals and Chris Shaw.
. The track begins with feedback
which plays while drums
and a guitar
, playing a riff based around a B chord
, fade in
. The first verse begins on 25 seconds with Gruff Rhys
singing the lines "You expose the film in me, we're drawing rings around the world" backed by harmony vocals on the title phrase. A short bridge
plays, during which the guitar chords change from B, E and F♯ to just E, F♯, E, F♯. Another verse, bridge and verse play before the last bridge which begins at 1 minute 23 seconds. The outro starts at 1 minute 32 seconds with Rhys singing "Ring ring, ring ring, rings around the world" over the chords B, D and F♯ backed by harmony vocals. A guitar
counter-melody
begins at 2 minutes 2 seconds and excerpts from phone calls the band made to random people around the world, including calls to the United States
embassies
in Madagascar
and Moscow
, a record shop in Osaka
and a record company in Australia
, play as the track fades out.
remix
of "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" is included on the DVD version of Rings Around The World
. The track is 3 minutes 33 seconds in length and begins with a reed organ
playing a riff in the key of B major
. The remix largely follows the arrangement of the original but, for the majority of its duration, dispenses with the instrumental backing, featuring just Gruff Rhys
's main vocals, the band's backing vocals and excerpts from the random phonecalls the group made alongside occasional organ and cymbal
s. Towards the end of the track the original version's guitar
, drums
and bass appear briefly before the song ends with the same reed organ riff that appeared at the start.
, Ted Kessler described the track as "Status Quo for Generation X
-ers with a Manhattan Portage full of millennial tension" and went on to ask "who said there was anything wrong with that?" in his review of the song on its release as a single, despite his earlier review of Rings Around the World
claiming that the album would benefit from the removal of the "Status Quo-ish title track". Q
described the track as "excellent" while PopMatters
claimed the song "sounds so much like ELO
that it blows away everything on last year's ELO reunion album
" and the Dallas Observer
stated that "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" is a "Beach Boys
/Beatles
/ELO homage as fine as the '70s heyday of Roy Wood
's Wizzard
or very early Cheap Trick
".Pitchfork Media
stated that the song "takes the upbeat Britpop
of their debut album
and layers on spectral details" while Uncut
described the track as "tooled up rock 'n' roll modelled on "Surfin' USA
". The Guardian
claimed the song's lyrics tackle environmental issues with a "sharp wit" while Drowned in Sound
saw them as evidence that chief songwriter Gruff Rhys
was "taking his lyrics a little bit more seriously". The song was placed at number 21 in the 2001 Festive Fifty
on John Peel
's BBC Radio 1
show. "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" appeared on the soundtrack to the 2001 film Me Without You
.
-directed music video
was included on the DVD
version of Rings Around the World released July, 2001. The video starts with a static shot of the 1994 collage The Great Pyramid
s of Carlingford Lough
, Irelantis by Hillen, which shows a man in a red jumper sat in a wooded area overlooking a river and three pyramids (this image was used for the front cover of all three formats of the single) The camera moves up to reveal a rotating globe
in a stary sky. As "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" begins to play, the text "In the beginning... No! Long before that..." scrolls
slowly from the bottom of the screen upwards. The song's lyrics are displayed in the same manner throughout the remainder of the video as several objects circle the globe including a flying saucer
, metal cube and fireworks
. Occasionally the camera switches to a close up view of the globe showing models of huge missile
firing electricity pylon
s. As the song comes to an end the text "Every building has been built" appears in the middle of the screen and the camera pans down to show a black-and-white version of the Hillen collage used in the opening shot.
Keyboard player Cian Ciaran
has stated that the band deliberately tried to avoid making videos that looked like just "another pop promo ... like MTV
" for the DVD version of Rings Around the World and asked the directors to make the visuals as "extreme as possible". Ciaran claims the diectors had to "work even harder at creating something interesting" due to the limited budget available.
the band made separate videos for Rings Around the Worlds three singles as they saw the videos included on the DVD release of the album as "pure art" whereas they needed promotional music videos that were more like adverts for the songs. The video begins with a shot of the band in an all white room playing along to the track. A station identification
logo for "SFA television" is seen in the top left and a green graphic appears, showing the volume level being turned up. The camera pans back to reveal a TV which switches channel from "SFA" to a station showing golf
. The rest of the video continues this pattern, continually flicking between the band and a variety of other stations, which generally feature similar logos to real life channels but with slightly different names e.g. "Cartoon Animals" (Cartoon Network
), "CVQ" (QVC
), "Animal Channel" (Discovery Channel
) Actors, news presenter
s, puppets, a golfer, an astronaut
and weatherman
sing along with the track as the television stops on the channel each appears on. As the video ends, the camera pans back to show a television in a room with a man having a telephone conversation. The camera continues to pan back showing this image on a television on a shelf in a small room. The camera pans back through three more televisions, each showing an image of the last shot, ending with a TV in a wallpapered room next to an electric fire. A few seconds before the video ends the screen turns to static
. The Pedro Romhanyi video appears on the DVD release of the band's greatest hits album Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1
and the Enhanced CD
version of the "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" single.
Super Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band that lean towards psychedelic rock and electronic experimentation. Since their formation in Cardiff, Wales in 1993, the band has consisted of Gruff Rhys , Huw Bunford , Guto Pryce , Cian Ciaran and Dafydd Ieuan Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band...
and was the second single taken from the band's fifth album, Rings Around the World
Rings around the World
Rings Around the World is the fifth studio album and the major label debut by Super Furry Animals. Released on 23 July 2001 by Epic Records in the United Kingdom, it was the first album by any artist to be simultaneously released on both audio CD and DVD...
. The track reached number 28 on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
on release in October 2001. Singer Gruff Rhys
Gruff Rhys
Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
has described the song as being about "rings of communication around the world. All the rings of pollution".
Critical reaction to the track was generally positive with many reviewers comparing the song to the work of other groups such as Status Quo, ELO
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...
and The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
. A promotional music video was produced to accompany "(Drawing) Rings Around the World"'s release as a single. Directed by Pedro Romhanyi the video features images of fictional television stations including "SFA TV", which shows the band playing along with the track. An alternative video, directed by Sean Hillen, was included on the DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
version of Rings Around the World on its release in July 2001. This video features the lyrics to the track scrolling
Scrolling
In computer graphics, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display. "Scrolling", as such, does not change the layout of the text or pictures, or but incrementally moves the user's view across what is...
slowly from the bottom of the screen upwards in front of an image of a globe
Globe
A globe is a three-dimensional scale model of Earth or other spheroid celestial body such as a planet, star, or moon...
. The DVD version of Rings Around the World also includes a Llwybr Llaethog
Llwybr Llaethog
Llwybr Llaethog are an experimental Welsh language band that effectively mix such varied musical genres as rap, dub, reggae, hip hop, and punk in their music....
remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
of "(Drawing) Rings Around the World".
Themes and recording
According to lead vocalist Gruff RhysGruff Rhys
Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
, "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" is about "all the rings of communication around the world. All the rings of pollution, and all the radioactivity that goes around. If you could visualize all the things we don't see, Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
could look like some kind of fucked-up Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
. And that's the idea I have in my head - surrounded by communication lines and traffic and debris thrown out of spaceships." Rhys has claimed that the theory was initially his girlfriend's Father's. The track was recorded in 2000 at Monnow Valley Studio
Monnow Valley Studio
Monnow Valley Studio is a recording studio in Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales.-History:In the 1970s, Monnow Valley Studio was the rehearsal facility of the famous Rockfield Studios. It became an independent studio in the 1980s and has been home to many top bands including Oasis, Stereophonics, and...
, Rockfield, Monmouthshire
Rockfield, Monmouthshire
Rockfield is a village in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, United Kingdom.- Location :Rockfield is located two miles north west of Monmouth on the B4233 road.- History & Amenities :...
and was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by the Super Furry Animals and Chris Shaw.
Musical structure
"(Drawing) Rings Around the World" is 3 minutes 29 seconds long and is in the key of B majorB major
In music theory, B major is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps....
. The track begins with feedback
Audio feedback
Audio feedback is a special kind of positive feedback which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input and an audio output...
which plays while drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and a guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, playing a riff based around a B chord
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
, fade in
Fade (audio engineering)
In audio engineering, a fade is a gradual increase or decrease in the level of an audio signal. The term can also be used for film cinematography or theater lighting, in much the same way ....
. The first verse begins on 25 seconds with Gruff Rhys
Gruff Rhys
Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
singing the lines "You expose the film in me, we're drawing rings around the world" backed by harmony vocals on the title phrase. A short bridge
Bridge (music)
In music, especially western popular music, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section...
plays, during which the guitar chords change from B, E and F♯ to just E, F♯, E, F♯. Another verse, bridge and verse play before the last bridge which begins at 1 minute 23 seconds. The outro starts at 1 minute 32 seconds with Rhys singing "Ring ring, ring ring, rings around the world" over the chords B, D and F♯ backed by harmony vocals. A guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
counter-melody
Counter-melody
In music, counter-melody is a sequence of notes, perceived as a melody, written to be played simultaneously with a more prominent lead melody. Typically a counter-melody performs a subordinate role, and is heard in a texture consisting of a melody plus accompaniment...
begins at 2 minutes 2 seconds and excerpts from phone calls the band made to random people around the world, including calls to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
embassies
Diplomatic mission
A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organisation present in another state to represent the sending state/organisation in the receiving state...
in Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, a record shop in Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
and a record company in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, play as the track fades out.
Alternative version
A Llwybr LlaethogLlwybr Llaethog
Llwybr Llaethog are an experimental Welsh language band that effectively mix such varied musical genres as rap, dub, reggae, hip hop, and punk in their music....
remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
of "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" is included on the DVD version of Rings Around The World
Rings around the World
Rings Around the World is the fifth studio album and the major label debut by Super Furry Animals. Released on 23 July 2001 by Epic Records in the United Kingdom, it was the first album by any artist to be simultaneously released on both audio CD and DVD...
. The track is 3 minutes 33 seconds in length and begins with a reed organ
Reed organ
A reed organ, also called a parlor organ, pump organ, cabinet organ, cottage organ, is an organ that generates its sounds using free metal reeds...
playing a riff in the key of B major
B major
In music theory, B major is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps....
. The remix largely follows the arrangement of the original but, for the majority of its duration, dispenses with the instrumental backing, featuring just Gruff Rhys
Gruff Rhys
Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
's main vocals, the band's backing vocals and excerpts from the random phonecalls the group made alongside occasional organ and cymbal
Cymbal
Cymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s. Towards the end of the track the original version's guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and bass appear briefly before the song ends with the same reed organ riff that appeared at the start.
Critical response
Critical reaction to "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" was generally positive with many journalists comparing the song to the work of other groups. Writing for the NMENME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, Ted Kessler described the track as "Status Quo for Generation X
Generation X
Generation X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X, is the generation born after the Western post–World War II baby boom ended. While there is no universally agreed upon time frame, the term generally includes people born from the early 1960's through the early 1980's, usually no later than 1981 or...
-ers with a Manhattan Portage full of millennial tension" and went on to ask "who said there was anything wrong with that?" in his review of the song on its release as a single, despite his earlier review of Rings Around the World
Rings around the World
Rings Around the World is the fifth studio album and the major label debut by Super Furry Animals. Released on 23 July 2001 by Epic Records in the United Kingdom, it was the first album by any artist to be simultaneously released on both audio CD and DVD...
claiming that the album would benefit from the removal of the "Status Quo-ish title track". Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
described the track as "excellent" while PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
claimed the song "sounds so much like ELO
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...
that it blows away everything on last year's ELO reunion album
Zoom (album)
Zoom is the twelfth and final studio album by Electric Light Orchestra, released on June 12, 2001 on Epic Records. The album was the band's first release of new material since Balance of Power, released in 1986. Upon release, the album charted at #34 in the UK Albums Chart and at #94 in the US...
" and the Dallas Observer
Dallas Observer
The Dallas Observer is a free alternative weekly newspaper distributed around the Dallas, Texas . At its inception, it was conceived as a weekly local arts and cinema review publication, with the credo "Advocate for Excellence in the Arts" on the cover. For a time during the early years, the paper...
stated that "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" is a "Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
/Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
/ELO homage as fine as the '70s heyday of Roy Wood
Roy Wood
Roy Adrian Wood is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the bands The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of these bands.-Career:Wood...
's Wizzard
Wizzard
Wizzard was a Birmingham-based band formed by Roy Wood, former member of The Move and co-founder of Electric Light Orchestra. The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits states, "Wizzard was Roy Wood just as much as Wings were Paul McCartney."-Biography:...
or very early Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1973. The band consists of members Robin Zander , Rick Nielsen , Tom Petersson , and Bun E...
".Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
stated that the song "takes the upbeat Britpop
Britpop
Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...
of their debut album
Fuzzy Logic (album)
Fuzzy Logic is the debut album by the Super Furry Animals. It was listed in Q Magazine's Best British Albums Ever in July 2004, and in the same magazine's Top 10 Britpop Albums Ever in December 1996 and features in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die...
and layers on spectral details" while Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
described the track as "tooled up rock 'n' roll modelled on "Surfin' USA
Surfin' USA
-Singles:* "Surfin' USA" b/w "Shut Down" , 4 March 1963, US #3; #34 UK-Personnel:*Brian Wilson - Vocals, bass, keyboards*Mike Love - Vocals, saxophone*Dennis Wilson - Vocals, drums...
". The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
claimed the song's lyrics tackle environmental issues with a "sharp wit" while Drowned in Sound
Drowned in Sound
DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
saw them as evidence that chief songwriter Gruff Rhys
Gruff Rhys
Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
was "taking his lyrics a little bit more seriously". The song was placed at number 21 in the 2001 Festive Fifty
Festive Fifty
The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's fifty best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show...
on John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
's BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
show. "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" appeared on the soundtrack to the 2001 film Me Without You
Me Without You (film)
Me Without You is a 2001 British film, starring Anna Friel, Michelle Williams and Oliver Milburn, and written and directed by Sandra Goldbacher.- Plot :...
.
Accolades
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Peel John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004... show, BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock... |
United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
John Peel's Festive 50 Festive Fifty The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's fifty best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show... |
2001 | 21 |
| The Village Voice The Village Voice The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City... |
United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
Pazz & Jop Singles of 2002 Pazz & Jop The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics... |
2002 | 139 |
Sean Hillen video
A Sean HillenSeán Hillen
Seán Hillen is an artist whose work includes collages and the creative use of photographs.-Early life:Hillen was raised in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland. He studied at the Belfast College of Art...
-directed music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
was included on the DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
version of Rings Around the World released July, 2001. The video starts with a static shot of the 1994 collage The Great Pyramid
Pyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
s of Carlingford Lough
Carlingford Lough
Carlingford Lough is a glacial fjord or sea inlet that forms part of the border between Northern Ireland to the north and the Republic of Ireland to the south. On its northern shore is County Down and on its southern shore is County Louth...
, Irelantis by Hillen, which shows a man in a red jumper sat in a wooded area overlooking a river and three pyramids (this image was used for the front cover of all three formats of the single) The camera moves up to reveal a rotating globe
Globe
A globe is a three-dimensional scale model of Earth or other spheroid celestial body such as a planet, star, or moon...
in a stary sky. As "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" begins to play, the text "In the beginning... No! Long before that..." scrolls
Scrolling
In computer graphics, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display. "Scrolling", as such, does not change the layout of the text or pictures, or but incrementally moves the user's view across what is...
slowly from the bottom of the screen upwards. The song's lyrics are displayed in the same manner throughout the remainder of the video as several objects circle the globe including a flying saucer
Flying saucer
A flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object sometimes believed to be of alien origin with a disc or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either...
, metal cube and fireworks
Fireworks
Fireworks are a class of explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event is a display of the effects produced by firework devices...
. Occasionally the camera switches to a close up view of the globe showing models of huge missile
Missile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
firing electricity pylon
Electricity pylon
A transmission tower is a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line. They are used in high-voltage AC and DC systems, and come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes...
s. As the song comes to an end the text "Every building has been built" appears in the middle of the screen and the camera pans down to show a black-and-white version of the Hillen collage used in the opening shot.
Keyboard player Cian Ciaran
Cian Ciaran
Cian Ciaran is the keyboard player in the band, Super Furry Animals.Ciaran is the brother of Dafydd Ieuan . He plays keyboards, electronics and occasional guitar, drums, steel drum and vocals...
has stated that the band deliberately tried to avoid making videos that looked like just "another pop promo ... like MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
" for the DVD version of Rings Around the World and asked the directors to make the visuals as "extreme as possible". Ciaran claims the diectors had to "work even harder at creating something interesting" due to the limited budget available.
Pedro Romhanyi video
A promotional music video, directed by Pedro Romhanyi, was produced to accompany the release of "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" as a single. According to Gruff RhysGruff Rhys
Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
the band made separate videos for Rings Around the Worlds three singles as they saw the videos included on the DVD release of the album as "pure art" whereas they needed promotional music videos that were more like adverts for the songs. The video begins with a shot of the band in an all white room playing along to the track. A station identification
Station identification
Station identification is the practice of radio or television stations or networks identifying themselves on air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name...
logo for "SFA television" is seen in the top left and a green graphic appears, showing the volume level being turned up. The camera pans back to reveal a TV which switches channel from "SFA" to a station showing golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
. The rest of the video continues this pattern, continually flicking between the band and a variety of other stations, which generally feature similar logos to real life channels but with slightly different names e.g. "Cartoon Animals" (Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
), "CVQ" (QVC
QVC
QVC is a multinational corporation specializing in televised home shopping. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania, United States, QVC broadcasts in five countries as QVC US, QVC UK, QVC Germany, QVC Japan and – QVC Italy to 200 million households...
), "Animal Channel" (Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
) Actors, news presenter
News presenter
A news presenter is a person who presents news during a news program in the format of a television show, on the radio or the Internet.News presenters can work in a radio studio, television studio and from remote broadcasts in the field especially weather...
s, puppets, a golfer, an astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
and weatherman
Weather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century...
sing along with the track as the television stops on the channel each appears on. As the video ends, the camera pans back to show a television in a room with a man having a telephone conversation. The camera continues to pan back showing this image on a television on a shelf in a small room. The camera pans back through three more televisions, each showing an image of the last shot, ending with a TV in a wallpapered room next to an electric fire. A few seconds before the video ends the screen turns to static
Noise (video)
Noise, in analog video and television, is a random dot pattern of static displayed when no transmission signal is obtained by the antenna receiver of television set and other display devices...
. The Pedro Romhanyi video appears on the DVD release of the band's greatest hits album Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1
Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1
Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1 collects all of the Super Furry Animals singles released between 1996 and 2004 as well as B-side "Blerwytirhwng?" . Songbook... was released in the UK in October 2004, debuting at #18 on the UK album charts...
and the Enhanced CD
Enhanced CD
Enhanced CD, also known as CD Extra and CD Plus, is a certification mark of the Recording Industry Association of America for various technologies that combine audio and computer data for use in both Compact Disc and CD-ROM players....
version of the "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" single.
Track listing
All songs by Super Furry Animals.- DigipakDigipakDigipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd., an Atlas Holdings company.-Features:...
Enhanced CDEnhanced CDEnhanced CD, also known as CD Extra and CD Plus, is a certification mark of the Recording Industry Association of America for various technologies that combine audio and computer data for use in both Compact Disc and CD-ROM players....
(6719082)
- "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" – 3:30
- "Edam Anchorman" – 3:23
- "All the Shit U Do" – 2:30
- "(Drawing) Rings Around the World (Video)" – 3:30
- 12"12-inch singleThe 12-inch single is a type of gramophone record that has wider groove spacing compared to other types of records. This allows for louder levels to be cut on the disc by the cutting engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range, and thus better sound quality...
(6719086), MCCassette singleA cassette single is a music single in the form of a Compact Cassette.- History :...
(6719084)
- "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" – 3:30
- "Edam Anchorman" – 3:23
- "All the Shit U Do" – 2:30
Personnel
- Gruff RhysGruff RhysGruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
– vocals - Huw BunfordHuw BunfordHuw "Bunf" Bunford is the guitarist in the rock band, Super Furry Animals.-Biography:...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with... - Guto PryceGuto PryceGuto Dafydd Pryce is a bass guitar player in the band Super Furry Animals.The name Guto is pronounced in Welsh....
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Cian CiaranCian CiaranCian Ciaran is the keyboard player in the band, Super Furry Animals.Ciaran is the brother of Dafydd Ieuan . He plays keyboards, electronics and occasional guitar, drums, steel drum and vocals...
– keyboards - Dafydd IeuanDafydd IeuanDafydd Ieuan is the drummer with the band, Super Furry Animals and The Peth. He currently lives in Cardiff with his wife Debbie, and their two children Cai and Lleucu....
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
Singles chart positions
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
28 |