Gruff Rhys has confirmed that his forthcoming solo album is set to be called ‘Hotel Shampoo’.
Alongside his work with Super Furry Animals, Gruff Rhys likes to explore new directions under his own name. Its a sobering thought that his solo project contains ideas rejected for being too damn weird for SFA.
Working in a hoard of new material earlier this year, Gruff Rhys is due to return with his third solo album in February. Titled ‘Hotel Shampoo’ the album is named after the singer’s unfortunate habit of hoarding mini shampoo bottles and other complimentary hotel products whilst on tour.
The singer’s collection has grown to mammoth proportions, with Gruff Rhys building an art installation out of the hotel products. On display at the Chapel Arts Centre in Cardiff, fans can see the Hotel Shampoo installation now.
“In 1995 I began touring the world industrially as a pop musician. A gleaming new cosmos of hotel accommodation opened up for me and in an instant I was seduced by the free product available in the rooms. I hoarded these objects in a rush of mild kleptomania. Every room in my house began to amass these plastic bottles and various, hotel-related things from every continent on earth (except Antarctica). Having never kept a journal these items have become like diary entries, triggering memories of all those buildings and random people I’ve met and inspiring some of the songs on the album.”
“As an act of revenge against the colonisation of our house, I vowed to build a hotel out of the items and sleep in it. The resulting Hotel Shampoo creation serves as a monument to the waste that’s produced in our disposable age and to catalogue my transient existence.”
The final tracklisting for ‘Hotel Shampoo’ has been confirmed, opening with the recent single ‘Shark Ridden Waters’. Available now, the track opens a typically diverse album from the Welsh songwriter.
Gruff Rhys is set to release ‘Hotel Shampoo’ on February 14th. Tracklisting:
Shark Ridden Waters
Honey All Over
Sensations In The Dark
Vitamin K
Take A Sentence
Conservation Conversation
Sophie Softly
Christopher Columbus
Space Dust
At The Heart Of Love
Patterns Of Power
If We Were Words (We Would Rhyme)
Rubble Rubble
