Hey Venus! (SFA OK!)

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Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Joined
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So, The Super Furry Animals are probably my second-favorite band in the world, right now. What a wonderful turn of events, then, that their new album, the marvelously titled Hey Venus!, should leak to the masses almost two months prior to its official release!

It's not their best record and it's not the best record I've yet heard, this year, but it is FUCKING AWESOME, all the same! It largely steers the band away from the relative stagnation of the past two efforts (the borderline-bad Phantom Power and the pretty-but-forgettable Love Kraft) by getting back not as much to the outrageous eclecticism of albums like Radiator, Guerrilla Mwng, and, to a lesser extent, Rings Around the World, as to the more ephemeral sense of boundless energy and fun which surrounded these, their best records.

The songs are largely short, snappy, vaguely (very vaguely, mind you...my prose is lacking in creative punch, here, and I'm not feeling putting in the effort to be properly descriptive) punkish-Beach-Boys-sounding tunes which don't ask for much but which pay pretty good dividends. Lead single "Show Your Hand" is a fantastically fun listen, and the album feels to me like it could be quite single-ready. "Neo Consumer" and "Baby Ate My Eight Ball" get back not only to the goofy, stupid, and, above all else, fun wordplay of the old stuff, and also contain punch, instantly memorable hooks.

Great stuff, all around, and even the recently bland, mid-tempo, (again vaguely) psych-ey-Beach-Boys numbers are fun, again. Tunes like "Let the Wolves Howl at the Moon," "Carbon Dating," and "Suckers" close the album out with style and grace. It's a succinct record which refuses to overstay its welcome, and it proves that my post-Candylion skepticism about this record was shockingly uncalled for. That shit still sucks, but this shit does not.

Look around. It's being posted on blogs all the world over, and I suggest that you get on it, try it on for size, and then, if it's your bag, pick up a copy when it drops, at the end of the summer. Fun, fun, fun stuff.

Let it be known:

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amazing, new SFA stuff, one of my all-time favorite bands

time to surf the internet looking for this leak
 
Hey, what's your verdict on that Patrick Wolf record, Jack?

...Oh, and SFA. Uh, yeah. Shit's everywhere. And it KICKS.
 
I can't be objective with Patrick Wolf, I just love him, and "The Magic Position" is an awesome pop record, one of my favorites this year, what do you think?

yeah, SFA, they always kick ass
 
Already leaked?...very cool hmmm shall go a hunting now....but I basically love everything the furries have ever done except maybe Love Kraft...I quite like Phantom Power:shrug:
 
In a perfect world, these guys would be as popular (and respected) as Radiohead. They are just as, if not more innovative, and are able to do so while still writing great pop music that ALSO manages to occasionally be political or insightful about the world we live in.

Thanks for the leak tip, IYS, but I take issue with your dismissals of the last two albums. Phantom Power may seem like a letdown after the sprawling majesty of RATW, but at least half the songs on there are great. Radiohead titles their album from the same year Hail to the Thief and gets all this credit for being political. SFA actually digs a little deeper with their artistic protest and it slides by unnoticed.

As for Love Kraft, I think it's one of the greatest pop albums of the last decade. While the spreading around of the songwriting duties lessens the focus a little, it's just nice to hear someone attempting Brian Wilson-level arrangements. So underrated. I'll take it over Fuzzy Logic or Radiator any day.

Going off to find this NOW.
 
lazarus said:
In a perfect world, these guys would be as popular (and respected) as Radiohead. They are just as, if not more innovative, and are able to do so while still writing great pop music that ALSO manages to occasionally be political or insightful about the world we live in.

Thanks for the leak tip, IYS, but I take issue with your dismissals of the last two albums. Phantom Power may seem like a letdown after the sprawling majesty of RATW, but at least half the songs on there are great. Radiohead titles their album from the same year Hail to the Thief and gets all this credit for being political. SFA actually digs a little deeper with their artistic protest and it slides by unnoticed.

As for Love Kraft, I think it's one of the greatest pop albums of the last decade. While the spreading around of the songwriting duties lessens the focus a little, it's just nice to hear someone attempting Brian Wilson-level arrangements. So underrated. I'll take it over Fuzzy Logic or Radiator any day.

Going off to find this NOW.

Laz,

Love ya, man, but I couldn't disagree more. It's not that I haven't spent enough time with Phantom Power or Love Kraft, either; believe me when I say that I have tried and failed in equally desperate ways to appreciate those albums.

It's not like they suck, in my eyes...they're just...they're not enjoyable for me to listen to. By the time either album is wrapping up, I've already spent the last 15 or 20 minutes checking my watch, you know?

Phantom Power is a terrific five-song EP dressed up as a full-length (for my money, you take "Golden Retriever," "Hello, Sunshine," "Out of Control," "Slow Life," and a random, for-me-interchangeable song from the LP, just to keep things fallible and, as a result, interesting), and Love Kraft sounds a bit murky, I think, to bring up Brian Wilson. Sure, "The Horn," "Lazer Beam," and "Atomik Lust" are fantastic, but the rest of the album has repeatedly failed to captivate me. I would love for it to, as I don't even hate the artwork, like a lot of die-hard acid casuals do, but it just isn't happening. It's been two years, you know? Not gonna happen.

As for Gruff's politics, if we can call them that, they're hardly as interesting or progressive as they are muddy and proto-hippie. I mean, I agree with the dude that some shit out there is pretty fucked up, these days, but I don't think singing about "Ninja Jihad" and screaming, "SUCK MY OIL!" sounds particularly compelling. I love him and I love the band, but the dude's no rhetoritician. He flits around a lot (just who is "The Man" who don't give a fuck...?), and the cultish nature of we, as SFA fans, and the band itself leads us, I think, to give him a lot more credit than closer inspection tells us we actually should. I do it a lot, too, but when I step back and really think about it, it's not too impressive. I'm all over peace, love, Doris Day, and mu-tron rainbows, but that kind of stuff is hardly politically engaging, let alone legitimately discursive. I just don't see SFA digging much deeper (as you put it) than the potheads in dormitories all the western world over, frankly. Fine ideas when you don't investigate them, but hardly deep.

Personally, I enjoy Hail to the Thief for how insular, poetic, and fractured its politics are. It doesn't come out and say anything as bluntly as Gruff often does, but it has plenty to say. "A Punch Up at a Wedding" has a good deal to say about America and Britain, as does "A Wolf at the Door," which left me weeping at the state of the world, the first time I heard it. Other songs which I've found political relevance within include "Where I End and You Begin," "2+2=5," and "Sit Down. Stand Up.," amongst most of the others, on the record. The album's not perfect, as no albums are or ever will be, but I think it's captivating. Is it explosive or paradigm-shifting? Fuck no, it's not (and I can understand your vitriolic reaction, given how many people tend to react to Radiohead in such a way)! But, for me, it's enjoyable, exciting music which perfectly captures--both in terms of its sonics and its lyrical content--the unstable nature of the world, circa 2003. It's grand stuff, and pretty complex for a mainstream piece of music, if you give it a good, hard, close read.

Anyway. The new record still kicks. Have you had a chance to hear it, yet...? Let us know what you think!

--IYS...

P.S. I agree 900% with you that SFA should be at least as popular as Radiohead. If nothing else, they make pop music so far ahead of the pop music Radiohead has made that it's almost absurd. When their work is viewed across a continuum, then I think that your Wilson-invoking, at least in terms of strength of singles, is quite applicable. I fuckin' LOVE me some Radiohead, but it does sort of sicken me that SFA don't have a dozen worldwide number one singles. It's a travesty.
 
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Thanks for the long reply IYS. I can appreciate how Love Kraft is a bit of a chore. It's not arresting in the way that the earlier work is, but I find a great sunny day listen. Sometimes I like the langorous stuff, and it's just so beautifully done. When I saw them live on that tour it was probably one of the greatest shows I've ever seen, so that helped.

Phantom Power is certainly a mixed bag. It's definitely a few songs too long, with a couple songs on "side two" that could be pruned. I think the whole first side is successful, and in addition to the songs you mentioned, I'd add Venus & Serena (nearly perfect pop confection, with those lead guitar parts that are just aural bliss), The Piccolo Snare (fucking great title), Sex, War & Robots (horrid title, great outro) and Liberty Belle. Speaking of the latter song, I was thinking much more about that track when I was referencing the album's politics than the outburts on Out of Control. To wit:

"Liberty Belle is ringing out across the sea
And everyone sings along
Though she's singing way out of key
From the shores of Galilee
To the runways of Anglesey
You know we're digging to hell
Right past our oil wells
As the magpies fly from Tallahassee
To the sky

Memory Lane forgot her way after all this time
And she never learned from her mistakes
And all the crime
That caused the gulf of misery
That's separating you from me
You know we're digging to hell
Drowing in our oil wells
As the seagulls fly from Abu Dhabi
To the sky

The birds still sing their melodies
Songs of love and food and trees
Oh my, how they fly
So little do they know, yeah
Yet their days are numbered so
Alarms are ringing in the trees:

You know you're digging to hell
Drowning in your oil wells
As the ashes fly from New York City
Past the grimy clouds above New Jersey
Past the kids who like to smoke like chimneys
To the sky"

Maybe it's a bit hippie at times but I still think it's a great lyric. It's not as subtle as Radiohead's recent topical allusions, but this song is more about conjuring up images than sloganeering. That last stanza is chilling. More importantly, it's married to a really catchy tune that doesn't oversell the politics.

Back to Radiohead, though. Don't get me wrong, HTTT was by #1 album of 2003. I think it may be the most impressive music they've made, even if it's a little scattershot and could have lost a couple tracks itself. I find A Wolf at the Door as powerful as you do, believe me (BTW, am I the only one that hears the song as Beck rapping over a twisted version of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata?). I'm eagerly awaiting the next album, and if it sounds like I'm slagging them it's just my jealous SFA enthusiasm.

I have to give Hey Venus a few more listens, but normally I'm not a big fan of short albums. The whole thing is strong, though I don't know if it has any more standout tracks than the last two. It's just more consistent, I guess. But it's still them, and easily is one of the best things I've heard this year. I wouldn't call it disappointment; rather like I had a scrumptious dinner with a smaller portion that left me wanting more, while knowing the cook was more than capable of serving up a bigger platter.

Hey, at least it didn't take them 4 years to put the damn thing out.
 
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They're supposed to be putting out two more albums over the next six months, Laz, if that helps. Hey Venus! was trimmed of a good number of tracks which're supposedly going to make up a second LP, and then they're doing some orchestral thing, or something.

I read a whole bunch of stuff about it, a few months back, but I can't remember where. Sorry for the lack of citation and for what could be slightly incorrect information.

"Liberty Belle"--poetic, yes, but I still think it's, like, embryonically political, at best. I don't think it's a bad song, though...I just don't think it's too good a song, either. At any rate, I still think they're one of the two or three best bands in the world, and easily in my top fifteen of all time (if not my top ten).
 
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