Hey Venus! is the eighth album by Welsh band Super Furry Animals. It was released on 27 August 2007 in the United Kingdom.[1]Hey Venus! is the band's first full-length release on current label Rough Trade Records and, at just over 36 minutes, is also their shortest-running studio release.[1][2] The title is taken from the first line of the song "Into the Night".[3]
The album was conceived as a "rowdy pop record",[4][5] both in response to Rough Trade's request for "one of those pop records like you used to make" and as a result of the "very different atmosphere" the band encountered at shows on the Love Kraft tour when the 'slow' songs from that album were played.[5][6] In contrast with many Super Furry Animals albums, no samplers were used during recording of Hey Venus! as the group made a conscious decision to create a "simple record" which "capture[d] the spirit of the band playing live in a room".[4][7] Dave Newfeld took over production duties from Mario Caldato Jr., who had worked on both Phantom Power and Love Kraft, as the band didn't want to "repeat [their] past two records".[4] As with Love Kraft, all members of the band contributed songs at the recording stage but, besides chief songwriter Gruff Rhys, only guitaristHuw Bunford ("Battersea Odyssey") and keyboard playerCian Ciaran ("Carbon Dating") ended up with their tracks on the finished album.[6]
The album follows the life and adventures of a character called Venus as she moves "from a small town to a big metropolis".[1] The band have given several explanations for the appearance of this narrative arc in the record claiming variously that Hey Venus! was conceived as a concept album,[1] that the similar themes in the songs were only noticed after they had been written and were used as a way of "structuring and compiling the album" and that the Venus concept was thought up after the album's completion in order to give sleeve designer Keiichi Tanaami "a reference point to make an illustration from."[8][9] After working with Pete Fowler since 1997's Radiator the band asked Tanaami to produce artwork for Hey Venus!,[2] having been "blown away" by his work on a Japanese tour.[10]
Critical response was generally positive with some reviews claiming Hey Venus! is "[the band's] most satisfying work" and exhibits a "full-fledged return to pop power".[11][12] Some critics, however, pointed out that the album has the "faint whiff of musical conservatism" and "must rank as [the Super Furry Animals'] least adventurous" record.[13][14]
Background
In an interview with Tiny Mix Tapes in January 2008, the band's vocalist, Gruff Rhys, stated that Hey Venus! was deliberately conceived as a 'pop' record following a request from the band's new record label Rough Trade:
...[Rough Trade] asked us 'Can't you make one of those pop records like you used to make'. So we looked at the songs we had, because we're always writing. We kind of chose songs that we could play as a band that would be quite simple to record that we thought was some kind of pop music.[5]
Rhys has also stated that after Love Kraft the band was "kind of thinking of making a loud record" following the "very different atmosphere" at initial shows on the Love Kraft tour when the group played the "slow" songs from that album.[4][6] Towards the end of the tour the setlist had become "full of fast songs from [the Super Furry Animals] back catalog" and this had an effect as the band entered into the studio for the Hey Venus! sessions: "It's definitely the first time our audience has influenced our music in that sense".[6] Rhys used his second solo album, Candylion, as an outlet for the quiet, acoustic songs that he had written rather than put them forward for inclusion on Hey Venus!:[4]
We wanted to make a really abrasive, loud record, so I figured I could keep fifteen-minute ballads like "Skylon!" and songs about lions made out of candy for the indulgent solo project.[9]
Short sample from "Show Your Hand", the album's lead single, illustrating the French horn part which "pushed the song back into contention and back on the record".[6]
Short sample from "Into the Night" illustrating the band's use of different instruments, in this case electric saz, alongside bass guitar, drums, keyboard and guitar.[15] Gruff Rhys has described the track as one of his favourites from the album.[5]
Short sample from "Battersea Odyssey" to illustrate the difference in vocal delivery and writing style of chief singer and songwriter Gruff Rhys and other members of the band. The track was written, and features lead vocals by, guitarist Huw Bunford and is one of only two songs on the album not written or sung by Rhys.[6]
The majority of the album was recorded at Miraval Studios, France,[16] picked, at keyboardistCian Ciaran's request, because of its large live room which enabled all the band to set up and play as a group.[17] The Super Furries wanted to "go somewhere new and have a cultural experience" while they recorded what is their eighth album together.[18] Recording in France also enabled the band to get away from distractions such as "clean[ing] the house".[18] Additional recording took place at Rockfield Studios, Monmouth while string instruments were recorded at Metropolis Studios, London.[16]
We were listening to the last Broken Social Scene record and we kind of looked at each other because we had been discussing producers. But, more specifically, we were looking for producers who could work with five really opinionated people who don't think alike, you know? ... We were thinking, 'Wow, BSS are a band with lots of members. It must be nuts making those records. Let's see if he's available.'[17]
Rhys has praised Newfeld for his "knowledge of pop and what makes people react" stating that "most of the time he just stood there by the desk" and "wouldn't accept a take until he was physically moved by it".[4]
As with Love Kraft Rhys was not the sole writer; guitaristHuw Bunford wrote "Battersea Odyssey" (inspired by Battersea Power Station), while keyboard player Cian Ciaran wrote "Carbon Dating".[6][19] Other members of the band contributed songs that do not appear on Hey Venus! but might "end up on the next record".[6] Newfeld also encouraged the group to improvise songs, two of which, "Semi Pro" and "Hot Nutz", appear briefly on footage of the recording process streamed at the band's website and included with American editions of the album.[6] Rhys claimed these tracks (along with 32 other improvised songs recorded during the Hey Venus! sessions) would "probably never be released" but give "a glimpse into the magic of the Super Furry Animals in the studio, and the kind of atmosphere that Dave created".[6][20] However, "Hot Nutz" was reworked as "Moped Eyes" for their next album, Dark Days/Light Years.[21]
Some of the songs recorded barely resemble their earlier demo versions including "Baby Ate My Eightball", which originally "had this sort of Miami based rhythm with babies crying and glasses smashing" and was "very abrasive".[2] The finished track (which features Huw Bunford "impersonating a police or ambulance siren with the backing vocals") was mixed three or four times and "barely resembles the original".[2]
Hey Venus! reflected the group's desire to "capture the spirit of the band playing live in a room".[7] The album was recorded "very quickly" and, as the band did not feel the need to "experiment so much with such a simple record",[7] is not particularly "sonically adventurous".[7] In Gruff Rhys's words Hey Venus! is "a straight up album of songs... with key changes and a live band playing them" with more emphasis "on songs than the arrangement".[4][18] According to Rhys "nobody brought samplers into the studio, so there's far less electronics than on a lot of our records... a lot of electronic music is quite a solitary pursuit. You sit at your computer or sampler and sometimes it's more of an individual kind of thing. Whereas with this record, we were trying to play as a band: a five people at once kind of record."[4]
Along with the bass, drums and guitar, several other instruments were used during recording including a dulcimer (for its "sixties spy movie sound"),[10][15] an electric saz (on "Into the Night"),[6][15] an "electric-sitar box" ("Like a drum machine for Indian musicians") and a harpsichord which, according to Guto Pryce, was used on a lot of songs "because it was there [Miraval studios], and it was more in tune than the pianos".[10] The latter had a strong influence on the album with Rhys stating: "when we found the harpsichord everything started to go 1960s... and we kind of followed that feeling..."[15] Although Gruff Rhys had initially told fans to expect a "speaker-blowing" LP the addition of instruments such as the harpsichord meant this was not the case; the album instead highlights the band's "musical sweet tooth".[9][22]
The band enlisted the help of several musicians when making the album including string arranger Sean O'Hagan (of The High Llamas), percussionist Kris Jenkins and others who the group have "built up relationships with over the years... the brass players we've toured with a lot ... Sean O'Hagan ... brought his string section in ... they've played on almost all our records".[15]
Sixteen songs were recorded for the album with only 11 making the final cut.[23] The band made a conscious decision to keep the number of tracks, and therefore the running time of Hey Venus!, down "because the last three albums have been almost an hour-long".[9] At just over 36 minutes, the album is the shortest full-length release by the band.[2] Some of the songs left off the record were "really heavy and raw" as a result of which Gruff Rhys feels Hey Venus! is "more consistent with our back catalog".[4] Both lead single "Show Your Hand" and "Suckers!" were originally cut from the album, for being "too generic" and too "obvious ... melodically" respectively, until the band was persuaded to reconsider.[4][6]Rough Trade Records boss Geoff Travis told the group that "Show Your Hand" was his favorite song and, following the tracks reworking to include a French horn part, it was reinstated.[6] Similarly "Suckers!" was "really pushed" by producer Dave Newfeld until it too took its place on Hey Venus!.[4]
The album was mixed by Chris Shaw and the Super Furry Animals at Rockfield Studios and the band's own studio, Pleasurefoxxx, in Cardiff with Dave Newfeld performing additional mixing duties on "Suckers!"[16]Mastering was undertaken by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, New York.[16]
Rhys has claimed to be particularly pleased with "Into the Night" (which "was kind of where my head was at, which is quite a ridiculous place to be") and "Carbon Dating" ("probably the most beautiful song on the record") while Huw Bunford has described the album as "one of [the] best records we've ever made".[5][15]
Themes
The album documents the life and adventures of a character called Venus as she moves "from a small town to a big metropolis".[1] The band has been consistent when describing this central story of "running away from relationships, breaking up in a small town, moving to the big city, losing yourself, having your innocence completely corrupted, and living to tell the tale as a wiser person",[9] however, several conflicting explanations have been given for the appearance of this narrative arc. Chief songwriter Gruff Rhys has claimed that Hey Venus! was conceived as a concept album:[1]
At lot of the songs have the same central theme ... Some songs link up to that story more than others, but some were left off the record, they'll be on the next one, which we're working on already. It started off as a concept, but then we chose songs for their merit rather than their themes.[1]
However, both drummerDafydd Ieuan and Rhys himself have contradicted this statement, Ieuan stating that, although there are "a number of crossovers between songs ... the similarities are more because all the songs were written during a certain period of time",[8] while Rhys claimed, in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, that he only noticed the similar themes running through the songs after he had written them:[24]
I came up with the idea of the kind of applying all of these different stories to this Venus character as a way of making this character represent all of these personal songs ... It was more a way of structuring and compiling the album after the songs had already been written than writing a concept album per se.[24]
A third explanation was provided by Rhys during an interview with American music magazine ALARM when he claimed that the concept only came about when sleeve designer Keiichi Tanaami asked what the album was about:
...We said all the songs were postcards from the life of this character Venus, who we fished out from a song called "Into the Night". So we applied the whole record to her, and it meant Mr. Tanaami could have a reference point to make an illustration.[9]
After the Super Furry Animals had decided to call the album Hey Venus! they remembered "slightly too late" that the name had already been used by Northern Irish band That Petrol Emotion for a single taken from their Chemicrazy LP. However, as Rhys and Guto Pryce in particular were fans of the band, they reasoned that it "wasn't necessarily a bad thing to share a name" with the song.[25]
Cover
Hey Venus! is the first Super Furry Animals studio album since 1996's Fuzzy Logic without a cover designed by Pete Fowler.[2] Instead, the band hired Japanese artist Keiichi Tanaami to produce the artwork for the album. According to bassistGuto Pryce the band was "blown away" by Tanaami's art during a tour of Japan a few years before the release of Hey Venus!:[10]
We love psychedelic art anyway, and this guy had a Japanese take on it. It's just something we suggested - he does the sleeve - and through a system of lawyers and translators, he actually said yes.[10]
The story of the Venus character helped the band give something to Tanaami that he "could read and maybe translate into a visual representation".[26] After hearing the album the artist came up with something "quite mental" according to Huw Bunford, who went on to state "it's amazing what he obviously heard in the music".[27]
The album cover received some criticism from journalists but Gruff Rhys has called it "great" and claims to love the fact that the "graphics and the words are placed in kind of, what seem to be random places... it's not a predictable record cover, it doesn't look like an album by the Editors or something".[28][29]
Release
Hey Venus! was released on CD, vinyl and as a digital download on 27 August 2007 in the United Kingdom and was the band's first release for the new label Rough Trade Records.[1] In the United States the album's release was staggered with vinyl and download versions being made available on 28 August 2007 and the CD version being released on 22 January 2008.[30] The latter came packaged with a bonus CD containing the b-sides of the "Show Your Hand" and "Run-Away" singles as well as video footage of the band recording the improvised songs "Semi-Professional" and "Hot Nutz" at Miraval Studios. Hey Venus! reached number 11 on the UK Albums Chart[31] and number 19 on Billboard magazine's Top Heatseekers chart.[32]
"Neo Cosumer" impacted US radio on 22 January 2008.[33] "Show Your Hand" and "Run-Away" were released as singles in the UK although neither reached the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart.[34] "The Gift That Keeps Giving" was given away as a free download from the band's website on Christmas Day 2007.[35]
Hey Venus! received a generally favourable reception from critics with The Independent stating that the album "marks a welcome return to form for the Furries" and is "fit to challenge Rings Around the World and Phantom Power as their most satisfying work"[11] and Artrocker calling it the Super Furry Animals' "eighth excellent album in a row".[49]AllMusic hailed Hey Venus! as a "full-fledged return to pop power ... by far the tightest record SFA has released since Radiator" while Yahoo! Music UK claimed the album is "among the greatest things [the Super Furry Animals] have ever done".[12][50]London'sTime Out described Hey Venus! as "a treasure trove of left-of-centre sun-pop that, by rights, should see them back on the radio all day, every day" and the NME claimed that the "melodies on Hey Venus! are certain to ensnare new hearts in a way hardly any bands who've been around as long as the Furries can".[28][51]
However, some reviews pointed out that the album has the "faint whiff of musical conservatism" with both Uncut and Q calling it a "missed opportunity",[13][14][44] the former going on to describe the record as "a consolidation of affairs rather than a step forward" and suggesting that, "while no means a stinker" it "must rank as their least adventurous" LP.[14]AllMusic countered this opinion, stating that Hey Venus! contains the kind of "subtle innovations that prove that the Furries can still surprise as they enter their second decade":[12]
The focus is solely on the song, with each of the 11 tracks standing on its own yet working together to create an addictive 37-minute pop album... just because this is disciplined in a way that Super Furry Animals haven't been in years doesn't mean they've ceased to progress.[12]
The track "Run-Away" was singled out for praise by several publications with the Independent on Sunday calling the song "outstanding",[52] Culture Deluxe claiming the track showed the Super Furries at "their pop-best" and proved they "could do no wrong" and the NME stating that "with a chorus as big as guitarist Huw Bunford's new serial-killer beard, it's up there with the most finely polished weapons in the SFA armoury".[28][53] "Baby Ate My Eightball" received some criticism, with The Independent claiming that it "falls short of expectations, its limp disco groove providing uncertain footing for Rhys's rococo confection of harmonies" and Uncut stating that the song, along with "Neo Consumer", doesn't "tell us anything we didn't already know" about the band.[11][14]
During shows on the Hey Venus! tour the band played in front of a backdrop featuring the lighthouse from Tanaami's cover art.
Following the release of Hey Venus! in the United Kingdom the Super Furry Animals embarked on an 11 date tour of Great Britain and Ireland, ending with two shows at London'sRoundhouse.[58] The group visited Japan and Europe before a US and Canadian tour in January and February 2008 during which fans could vote for songs they wanted to hear by using a "voting widget" on the blog page of the Super Furries' American record label, Beggars Banquet US.[59][60][61]
The band decided to keep the Hey Venus! tour simple as the elaborate stage designs and costumes used on previous tours tended to wipe out any profits created, resulting in "financial melt-down" for the group in 2006.[62]Huw Bunford told a Times journalist in August 2007 that the tour would be "like that bit at the end of the Mike Yarwood shows where he said, 'And this is me', no gim-micks. Just us."[62] Despite this the band did perform in front of a backdrop featuring the lighthouse from Tanaami's cover art and frequently wore hand-tailored suits, featuring patches designed by Tanaami, during shows.
Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993. For the duration of their professional career, the band consisted of Gruff Rhys, Huw Bunford, Guto Pryce, Cian Ciaran, and Dafydd Ieuan. An earlier incarnation of the band featured actor Rhys Ifans on lead vocals. The band are considered to be part of the renaissance of Welsh culture which emerged in the 1990s: other Welsh bands of the time include the Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Catatonia and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.
Gruffudd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, composer, producer, filmmaker and author. He performs solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals, which obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Prize. He won the 2011 Welsh Music Prize for his album Hotel Shampoo, which was followed up by American Interior in 2014, accompanied by a film, a book and a mobile app. His most recent album, Sadness Sets Me Free, was released in 2024. He is considered a figurehead of the era known as Cool Cymru.
Huw "Bunf" Bunford is a musician best known as the guitarist in Super Furry Animals.
Phantom Power is the sixth album by Welsh indie rock band Super Furry Animals, released on 21 July 2003 by Epic Records in the United Kingdom. The record was originally conceived as a ten-song concept album using D-A-D-D-A-D guitar tuning, but the band chose to abandon this idea during recording as they didn't want to constrain themselves. The group did attempt to create a "more coherent" album than their past efforts by choosing songs which worked well together. Phantom Power was recorded at the band's own studio, AV Happenings, in Cardiff with the Super Furries producing and engineering themselves for the first time. The album features a range of musical styles, from country rock to techno, although many of the tracks are based around the acoustic guitar. According to chief songwriter and vocalist Gruff Rhys, the album's lyrics deal with "broken relationships and war".
Fuzzy Logic is the debut album by the Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals. Recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, and released on the Creation label in May 1996, it was positively received by critics, who felt it was an eclectic if inconsistent mix of psychedelic music and glam rock, and was included in Q Magazine's list of recordings of the year. It has retained a modest respect among some critics; it was listed in Q's "Best British Albums Ever" in July 2004, and is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It contains two top 20 hits in "If You Don't Want Me to Destroy You" and "Something 4 the Weekend"; it also contains the singles "God! Show Me Magic" and "Hometown Unicorn". It reached number 23 in the UK Albums Chart on release. In 2013, NME ranked it at number 245 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Rings Around the World is the fifth studio album and the major label debut by Super Furry Animals. Released on 23 July 2001 by Epic Records in the United Kingdom, it was the first album by any artist to be simultaneously released on both audio CD and DVD. The record reached number 3 in the UK Albums Chart and includes the singles "Juxtapozed with U", "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" and "It's Not the End of the World?".
Guerrilla is the third studio album by Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals. The record was released on 14 June 1999 by Creation Records and peaked at number 10 in the UK Albums Chart. Guerrilla was conceived as a commercial 'pop' album and was produced by the band themselves, as regular producer Gorwel Owen felt exhausted after a busy schedule working for other bands. Recording took place at Real World Studios, Box, Wiltshire in mid-1998 with the group experimenting with a sampler for the first time and writing a number of songs in the studio. The band tried to create a 45-minute long, immediate sounding record, and therefore chose the upbeat songs from the 25 tracks which were recorded during sessions for the album. Guerrilla was chosen as the album's title as a pun on the group's name.
Love Kraft is the seventh studio album by Welsh indie rock band Super Furry Animals, released on 22 August 2005 through Epic Records in the United Kingdom. The album was recorded in Spain with producer Mario Caldato Jr and was something of a departure for the band, with all members contributing songs and lead vocals alongside Gruff Rhys who had been main songwriter for the Super Furries until this point. In selecting tracks for Love Kraft a conscious effort was made by the band not to choose songs on their individual merit but rather to pick those which went well together in order to create as cohesive an album as possible. The album's name was taken from a sex shop, Love Craft, near the Cardiff offices of the Super Furries' management team and is also a nod to American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.
Radiator is the second studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Super Furry Animals. It was released in August 1997 by Creation Records, and later the same year in the United States under Flydaddy Records. It peaked at number eight on the UK Albums Chart. In 2005, it was reissued with a bonus disc of other tracks from the time.
"If You Don't Want Me to Destroy You" is the fourth single, and the last to be taken from the album Fuzzy Logic, by Super Furry Animals. It reached #18 on the UK Singles Chart on its release in September 1996.
"Fire in My Heart" is the tenth single by Welsh rock band the Super Furry Animals. It was the second single to be taken from the group's 1999 album Guerrilla, and reached number 25 in the UK Singles Chart after its release on 9 August 1999. The track, originally titled "Heartburn", has been described by the band's singer Gruff Rhys as a country and western song with lyrics that offer "soul advice".
"(Drawing) Rings Around the World" is a song by Super Furry Animals and was the second single taken from the band's fifth album, Rings Around the World. The track reached number 28 on the UK Singles Chart on release in October 2001. Singer Gruff Rhys has described the song as being about "rings of communication around the world. All the rings of pollution".
"It's Not the End of the World?" is a song by Welsh band Super Furry Animals. It was the last single to be released from the Rings Around the World album and reached number 30 on the UK Singles Chart on its release in January 2002. Singer Gruff Rhys has variously described the track as being about the extinction of mankind and as "a romantic song about growing old".
"Golden Retriever" is a song by Super Furry Animals. It was the first single to be issued from the album Phantom Power and reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart on its release in July 2003. The song is about the relationship between singer Gruff Rhys's girlfriend's two dogs and was written in the same key, with the same guitar tuning and around the same time as several other songs from Phantom Power.
"Lazer Beam" is a single by Super Furry Animals. It was the only single to be released from the Love Kraft album and reached #28 in the UK Singles Chart, and as of 2023, remains their last UK Top 40 hit. The song is "about making your own reality" and tells the story of aliens coming down to earth to shoot humans with laser beams which "make them intelligent rather than being jerks". Some of singer Gruff Rhys's lyrics were lifted from a speech made by Tony Blair at the Labour Party Conference in 2004.
Slow Life is an EP by the Welsh alternative rock band Super Furry Animals, released in 2004. The EP was made available as a free download and also saw a limited CD release, bundled with remix album Phantom Phorce. Lead track "Slow Life" appeared on the 2003 album Phantom Power and was originally composed as a purely electronic song by keyboardist Cian Ciaran several years earlier. The band were keen to finish the track and Ciaran encouraged them to jam over his original version—this jam was then edited and made into the finished song. The track "Motherfokker" is a collaboration between the Super Furry Animals and rap group Goldie Lookin Chain.
"Show Your Hand" is a song by Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals and was the first single from their 2007 album, Hey Venus!. The single was made available for download on 16 July 2007 as an iTunes exclusive and was later released in physical formats on 13 August in the UK. The track failed to penetrate the UK singles chart's Top 40, peaking at #46.
"Run-Away" is a song by Super Furry Animals and the second single taken from their 2007 album, Hey Venus!. The song is an homage to the 'Wall of Sound' production made famous by Phil Spector, particularly in his work with 1960s girl groups.
"The Gift That Keeps Giving" is a song by Super Furry Animals taken from their 2007 album, Hey Venus!. It was given away as a free download single from the band's official website on Christmas Day 2007.
Dark Days/Light Years is the ninth studio album by Super Furry Animals, released digitally on 16 March 2009 via the band's website, with a physical release following on 21 April on Rough Trade Records. The album's title is taken from a lyric in the song "Moped Eyes".
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