superfurryanimals-heyvenus music reviews Virgin Media
Eight albums in, SFA deliver some fantastic, straight-up pop songs - just because they can
Having released seven excellent albums over an eleven year career, Welsh five-piece SFA face heady expectations with Hey Venus!. Perhaps knowing this, they’ve shaken things up. Sure, pop melodies have always been their forte but were largely melded to epic psychedelic excursions and techno bleep wig-outs. Such explorations are now on the back burner, as is the delicious melancholia of previous album Love Kraft. Instead, we get an SFA album of tight, direct pop songs, clocking in at under 40 minutes.
Such a surprise can make Hey Venus! sound unambitious on first listen. It’s not – it’s just different. Give it a few more spins and its exuberance, along with melodies to make you tingle, hoik you out of any initial disappointment. Of its many highlights, RunAway’s Sixties Phil Spector swing and swathe of Brian Wilson-esque harmonies and Neo Consumer’s frazzled glam stomp echo the gleeful punch of their debut Fuzzy Logic. Meanwhile, Carbon Dating’s fairground organ and string swoon will make you see light from a rotating glitter ball sparkle around a faded ballroom. But thrills are everywhere throughout this fantastic pop record. This national treasure of a band continue to surprise – unsurprisingly, they’ve delivered yet another gem.
More to try:
The Beach Boys: Smiley Smile
The Shins: Wincing The Night Away
The Aliens: Astronomy For Dogs
Super Furry Animals: Fuzzy Logic
