Playlouder - Music is the Network

Have you seen what you can do here? Has it yet occurred to you that, yes, you can read this review while you listen to the album ‘Hey Venus’ in the Playlouder area marked Music (see tab above). Clever huh? Fires, floods, pestilence and disease may be on their way, but at least you can judge with your own ears and catch that snivelling, smart arse critic out for the lazy, dilettante chancing fuck you always knew him to be in the first place. Yes, the future is bright.

So with some reticence I continue. But before we embark, I should warn you of one thing. Personally I thought 'Love Kraft' and 'Phantom Power' were unwieldy, undisciplined and over indulgent, whereas I utterly loved the eclectic madness and dense production of 'Rings Around The World'; up to this point I’ve yet to meet a Furries fan who agrees with me.

So it will be little surprise to learn that I am a fan of 'Hey Venus', even if I think it’s their most contrived offering to date. If the last couple of records were loose to the point of prolapse, ‘Hey Venus’ is deliberate and meticulous; it is an album that was designed rather than written. The tunes are fantastic (especially ‘Neo Consumer’, with it’s striking melodies and erratic timing it sounds like Kim Wilde’s ‘Kids In America’ meets The Beatles’ ‘Good Morning’), but there are a plethora of clever studio and songwriting tricks employed in order to create a modern psychedelic pop album. It’s like Girls Aloud with a lot more weed.

'Show Your Hand' and 'Run-Away' both contain key changes that would make even Louis Walsh feel shame, while the latter overtly pilfers from The Ronettes. You’re meant to know this of course, which makes Gruff’s languorous, lysergic delivery all the more enjoyable. The Beach Boys, naturally, are all over this record from the word go [the superfluous few second early charge of ‘The Gateway Song’.] The Furries only fluff their lines a couple of times, with the 70s Kung-fu nonsense of 'Into The Night', and the amusingly-titled though ultimately ponderous 'Baby Ate My Eightball'. Hey Venus might not quite be out of this world but the Super Furry Animals are so much better when they’re flying closer to the sun.