++ALBUM++ review by Ric Rawlins

Super Furry Animals - Hey Venus!

Released on Rough Trade

SFA are back with their first album for Rough Trade - and Ric braves the surf and the psychedelia to find out if they're still playing their cards right.

Somewhere in the middle of this album, during a song that could feasibly soundtrack a Hawaiian acid house party, comes a neat observation: “The future ‘aint what it could’ve been”. It’s a fair point too - from No Wave to Nu Rave, the time span between musical happenings and the retro re-invention of them is thinning, like a slightly knackered ozone layer.

"This is an unpredictable beast, a beast full of Venetian mandolins, Amazonian bongos and unheard of space noises..."

SFA, on the other hand, have always been the band from Outer Space. Vague concepts such as 'surf music' and 'rave music' go some way to explaining their prolific history, but even at their most retro there’s always been a cut, a paste and a twist towards the future. It’s like their imaginations are taps that can’t be turned off.

It’s no surprise that the sleeve of ‘Hey Venus!’ features artwork by the first Japanese man to have publicly confessed to taking LSD – a man who used to stare at pizza toppings for his inspiration. This is an unpredictable beast, a beast full of Venetian mandolins, Amazonian bongos and unheard of space noises.

So what’s on the menu? We have ‘The Gateway Song’, which is 42 seconds of piano grunge, ‘Run-Away’, which would sound like classic Motown if it weren't for the classic Glam Rock in its centre… and then there’s ‘The Gift That Keeps Giving’. This is a repetitive burst of sunshine that keeps coming back to, yes, give more.

The single ‘Show Your Hand’ may be an endearing nod to the Beach Boys, but it’s not the most innovative thing here. As with any pop album worth its juice, it’s the heartbreak songs that cut the deepest. ‘Suckers’ is a vulnerable lament on all the idiots in the world, while ‘Carbon Dating’ addresses the fact that when relationships fail, human beings lose their dignity.

It should be said that this isn't the perfect Furries album: a couple of songs such as 'Baby Ate My Eightball' and 'Neo Consumer' are fun and experimental, but don't quite hit the mark. Also the nostalgic in me would hazard a guess that earlier records like 'Guerrilla' are going to be quite a feat to surpass.

'Hey Venus!' still brims with imagination though, and with another three albums in production it won’t be long before we see another huge, mad invention from this band - perhaps a glow in the dark Surround Sound DVD. So there you have it: Rough Trade have bagged themselves some genuine heroes, and ‘Hey Venus!’ is their eighth excellent record in a row. The future could be what it... er... could have been.

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COMING SOON: GRUFF RHYS TALKS TO ARTROCKER.COM ABOUT THE FUTURE AND PAST OF ALL THINGS SFA...

++ Ric Rawlins ++

Artrocker rating: 4

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