super furry animals:what do you all think

The last decent band on Creation, for what it's worth.

If I can namedrop for a second, a friend and I were talking to Martin Carr before a Brave Captain gig a couple of months ago and according to him(Martin Carr, not my friend)the next Furries album is what Radiohead were trying to do with Kid A except its actually good. Sounds as if it could be interesting anyway.

I am still amazed how these guys seem unable to release bad or even mediocre albums. My least favourite album by them so far is "Guerilla", but even that one is a great pop album.

Still waiting for them to get their deserved mainstream breakthrough. A lot of considerably more weird and unsellable music than SFA has managed to crossover to the Mainstream after all.

I must admit I haven't heard "Mwng", but the others I would rank like this:

1. Radiator
2. Rings Around The World
3. Phantom Power
4. Love Kraft
5. Fuzzy Logic
6. Guerilla

1. Guerilla
2. Rings
3. Radiator
4. Fuzzy
5. Phant
6. Lovekraft

I have persevered with 6, but it's a hard life when you play the game, its so easy all you got to do is fall in love, flay the furries...

Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah, the singles comp would be at position 0, but that's unfair as their singles are all ruddy fantastic.

My list then:

1. Fuzzy Logic
2. Guerilla
3. Radiator
4. Rings
5. Mwng
6. Love Kraft
7. Phantom

1. Radiator
2. Guerilla
3. Mwng
4. Rings Around The World
5. Fuzzy Logic
6. Phantom Power
7. Love Kraft

I had been saying that they were the best band of the last 10 years thru 2004, Phantom Power was a grower and now really enjoy it. I'm pretty disappointed with Love Kraft, so they have been knocked from that position this last year. Still a great, great band and don't think they are finished by any means. [Crossing fingers]

...and as I write, Receptacle For The Respectable turns into a bubblegum death-metal track. Hell yeah.

rollocks

i know you're dying to tell us what your best album of 97 is.

Yes, I agree. The B-sides of that era (Spaced Out) is also a really strong bunch of non-album songs (with 'Ice Hockey Hair' also).

Run Xtian Run is fantastic though, best track on that album by some way (although I like Presidential Suite as well).

see, i do like stuff!

just, well, predominantly from the late '90s...

mountain people >>>>> the private psychedelic reel

I have too much foolish teen nostalgia for the latter to ever be able to agree with this. Download is my favourite track on the album, it deserves more love

suckers is the worst song on Hey Venus! and it's slightly worse than Beetlebum.

why do you think suckers is the worst? because it's the only one to show any sort of sophistication? because it's the only one that isn't a 'simple pop thrill'?

beetlebum is several degrees of fahrenheit better than anything on this album, and is on a par with the weakest tracks on RATW.

Maybe you didn't get this album, really. The only problem with "Hey Venus!" is that it's not very ambitious.

Anyway is miles better than all the too ambitious pastiches of Mr. Dan Abnormal.

Probably I cannot explain myslef very clearly in English.

<i>I don't want to listen to this again but I may have to. How fucking complacent it sounded, though, how utterly insipid.

-- Just got offed, Friday, 24 August 2007 19:52 (2 weeks ago) Link</i>

out of interest how does music sound 'complacent' (other than by saying 'when it sounds like this album')?

Beetlebum is better than all bar about three SFA songs.

Every time this thread is bumped I keep expecting to be told they've split.

It sounds complacent because it sounds like SFA don't feel the need to innovate, to push themselves; it sounds like they've complacently decided to knock out a very straightforward pop album that'll sell nicely and get them some plaudits from the simplicity-loving British music press. It sounds like they expect everything they release to be a 'pop gem', whereas actually they're not working nearly as hard as they ought to be doing, either mentally or physically.

I think they wrote better songs for this one than any of the last three.

"Suckers" is not a bad song, just there's 8 better on this album than that.

<i>Beetlebum is better than all bar about three SFA songs.</i>

wrong. about 327.5 times wrong.

formatsorry

It sounds complacent because it sounds like SFA don't feel the need to innovate, to push themselves; it sounds like they've complacently decided to knock out a very straightforward pop album that'll sell nicely and get them some plaudits from the simplicity-loving British music press. It sounds like they expect everything they release to be a 'pop gem', whereas actually they're not working nearly as hard as they ought to be doing, either mentally or physically.

ok. i think there's a quote further up from gruff about how geoff travis asked for a 'pop album'. the rumours are they had 40 songs from which came 'hey venus' and (if we believe) the 'other album' coming pretty soon. so perhaps they not being complacent but being label-friendly for an album (or so).

seems interesting that with every album after 'radiator' there is substantial criticism that with each new album they haven't made the one they should-have/were-supposed-to-have made. if only they had really grasped how their career was supposed to have panned out... kind of 'must do better', when they really don't (forgive the ref) give a f*ck whether their career works out how critics think it should.

that's why i find puzzling the criticism that they are complacent. not giving a f*ck is the very opposite of complacency.

not giving a f*ck is the very opposite of complacency

no it isn't. complacency stems from a combination of increased self-worth, stagnation, and lack of thoroughness. one of the contributive factors to this is not giving a fuck about self-improvement.

at least all their other albums showed some form of progression!

at least all their other albums showed some form of progression!

well all the criticism of 'love kraft', for one, was that it wasn't progressing along the lines deemed to be the ones sfa should develop on. and what of the critical consensus (usually backed up on ilm) that their second album is their best? hardly an indication of subsequent progression.

is it that they are complacent if they don't do what listeners expect them to? listeners can be complacent too, in their expectation of "progression".

you might think the songs are stagnant, or not thorough (i don't agree: there are plenty of early sfa songs that are equally fluffy/poppy but that still have some substance), but how do the songs show "increased self-worth"? i suspect they don't, but your comments seem to imply you feel sfa haven't ticked the boxes you expected they would do.

i think they are one of the more rigorous-thinking bands around at the moment. they just ain't going to do progression in any other way other than their own. that doesn't make them complacent necessarily.

Hello Teflon Monkey, are you _the_ Teflon Monkey?

no we are all the small cat!

It's simpler than all that. This is the first SFA album I've heard that doesn't demonstrate that the band has extended its repertoire and done something it didn't (or couldn't) do before. Radiator may be viewed rightfully as their best (RATW being my subjective pick), but at least all their other albums showed an ambition to try something new. Hey Venus is comfort-zone complacency, full stop.

Far from fulfilling my expectations, I WANT SFA to confound them, to dash them, to create astonishing and unprecedented delights. This album merely undercuts them.

You are overthinking this, Louis, they are an indie pop band, not fucking Luciano Berio.

Also hey get this none of their other albums are particularly groundbreaking either. At the best (including RATW) they've always been about straightforward pop songs with added knobs on. Only difference this time is that they couldn't afford the knobs.

Perhaps they should have put a bagpipe solo, a symphony orchestra and a 2-step beat on Show Your Hand and then you would have been all 'OMG MIND BLOWING STRETCHING THE BOUNDARIES MAN!'

they're better than Bario.

Perhaps they should have put a bagpipe solo, a symphony orchestra and a 2-step beat on Show Your Hand and then you would have been all 'OMG MIND BLOWING STRETCHING THE BOUNDARIES MAN!'

You don't seem to understand what astonishes me in music. Gratuitous appendices are dull. The entire song must tend towards an original, exciting vision. Show Your Hand is a boring song, and with a bagpipe solo it would be a boring song with an annoying bagpipe solo.

RATW's pop songs are anything but straightforward in conception or execution, and the album as a whole works as one piece. It's not a case of tarting up verse-chorus pop with bizarre instrumentation. That album created wonder out of contrasting sound-patterns, great melodies/rhythms, and continual structural reconfiguration. Songs like 'No Sympathy' don't come about by logjamming a bit of techno onto a country song. The whole thing is a coherent, creative vision, and it flows beautifully.

they are an indie pop band

-- Matt DC, Friday, 14 September 2007

Also hey get this none of their other albums are particularly groundbreaking either. At the best (including RATW) they've always been about straightforward pop songs with added knobs on.

-- Matt DC, Friday, 14 September 2007

qft & lolz :D

Only difference this time is that they couldn't afford the knobs.

I thought they'd decided to leave the knobs off the 'hey venus' songs to make the album simpler, more direct. perhaps the next one will have knobs turned up to 11.

Songs like 'No Sympathy' don't come about by logjamming a bit of techno onto a country song.

Funny, I thought that was exactly what they did. That was in the middle of their phase of logjamming a bit of techno onto anything that wasn't nailed down, live at least.

Live, yeah, they were apt to do that, but on record, the way that 'No Sympathy' gradually and elegantly slips from one format into the other suggests planning, composition, and a coherent train of thought. It's not as simple as one stuck on the end of the other.

Yes I think they planned, composed and thought of it as well. Well done them.

Step away from the thread.

What I mean is that the whole song was conceived before being practiced or played; Rhys himself at the time said it was the best he'd written. It wasn't a simple case of sticking two disparate musical formats in juxtaposition; the two were merged, placed in healthy symbiosis, and made to suit rather than repel one another.

grr southall's weighing in too

ooh, grr is it?

(watches)

They're immense talents who've written and recorded an insane amount of quality music. They've had their low points recently, but the idea that they just arbitrarily destroy their music with noise or add it to sound weird really annoys me. It might not work for you, but I think that the abrasiveness apparent in some music coalesces beautifully. "The Piccolo Snare" is one of their best songs, and it ends in an excellent electronic outro.

If you want contrived, listen to that The Aliens album.

And Dom's presence wouldn't be missed in these threads. We get it, SFA are shit and belong in the wastebin with Shed 7. Fuck off with that. It's boring. They've proven themselves critically going on 10 years, and it's not due to charity.

They're immense talents who've written and recorded an insane amount of quality music. They've had their low points recently, but the idea that they just arbitrarily destroy their music with noise or add it to sound weird really annoys me. It might not work for you, but I think that the abrasiveness apparent in some music coalesces beautifully. "The Piccolo Snare" is one of their best songs, and it ends in an excellent electronic outro.

If you want contrived, listen to that The Aliens album.

every word OTM

"I am the robot man", no, you are the irritating berk I want to punch. Repeatedly.

I actually think they get better with every release, but it's my personal opinion...anyway they are one of the few consistent bands that more than 10 years into their career managed to stay coherent, have ideas and didn't lose their credibility.

Hey Venus! is just a reaction to LK, it's compelling and short, though maybe not THAT epic or ambitious. Still it has some of the best tunes of 2007 in it.

I was right with them until Love Kraft, but this new one's even less memorable than the last.

You're wrong, pft. They're not getting better. You're not even staying consistent with your opinion. It's "less ambitious" and less creative, yet somehow Hey Venus! is their best yet just because it's a reaction to what made them so memorable as musicians.

I love a lot of the songs off their last two (Zoom, Cabin Fever, Gift That Keeps On Giving, etc). They could just as easily have made their last two albums techno-based and we'd be sitting here talking about how they can't write simpler songs anymore. The Furries can't win!

Teflon- better cause they have always had the problem of writing concise and straightforward pop tunes; this time they did.

they have always had the problem of writing concise and straightforward pop tunes

This is a problem???

Firstly: they haven't. See: Fire In My Heart, The International Language of Screaming, even (Drawing) Rings Around The World (although despite its joyfully simple structure and bassline, is deceptively complex in terms of its sound), and many others. Secondly: their best work is the material of theirs that challenges 'pop', that evokes an original vision, and that marks them out as different. If everybody simply wrote 'concise and straightforward pop songs', we'd live in a very boring world. Fair play to them that they've written a few; they're good at them; but a whole album's worth? Give me a break.

Also, Cunga, I really, definitely would not be moaning if Hey Venus had been a (good, original) psychedelic techno freak-out.

Actually it is.

If they would have released a double album out of material from Love Kraft and Hey Venus! it would have been a perfect record; cause Hey Venus is strong where LK failed and they just seem complementary.

I think the only reason I'm not heartbroken about Hey Venus! is the fact that Candylion is pretty good and that Gruff's solo show rivals SFA at their best. He's just an incredible musician and showman.

Now, let me listen to my Ffa Coffi Pawb albums...

"Actually it is.

If they would have released a double album out of material from Love Kraft and Hey Venus! it would have been a perfect record; cause Hey Venus is strong where LK failed and they just seem complementary."

It's fine if you think this is their best record. Just don't expect many people to agree or care. I don't think they're headed down the right road with the multivocalist thing. Gruff just blows the other guys out of the water.

Maybe they "quit smoking" and acid and took coke.

I don't regard Hey Venus! as their best, still some critics have been too bad- it's a solid, concise and sunny record with top tunes in it.

pft OTM

what does otm stand for?

one track mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BANdftxuqlM

What do you think of Runaway video?

mwng is awesome

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dAvn-Xe3cZQ

Opener: Alternate Route To Vulcan Street >>> Zoom >>> Drygioni >>> Crazy Naked Girls >>> Hello Sunshine >>> God! Show Me Magic >>> Furryvision >>> Check It Out >>> The Gateway Song
Closer: Slow Life >>> Cabin Fever >>> Mountain People >>> the one on Mwng >>> Pric >>> Fragile Happiness >>> Keep the Cosmic Trigger Happy >>> For Now And Ever >>> Let The Wolves Howl At The Moon