Hey Venus!
Encyclopedia
Hey Venus! is the eighth album by Welsh
band Super Furry Animals
. It was released on 27 August 2007 in the United Kingdom
. 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. The title is taken from the first line of the song "Into the Night".
The album was conceived as a "rowdy pop record", 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. 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". 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". As with Love Kraft, all members of the band contributed songs at the recording stage but, besides chief songwriter Gruff Rhys
, only guitar
ist Huw Bunford
("Battersea Odyssey") and keyboard player
Cian Ciaran
("Carbon Dating") ended up with their tracks on the finished album.
The album follows the life and adventures of a character called Venus as she moves "from a small town to a big metropolis". 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, 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." After working with Pete Fowler
since 1997's Radiator
the band asked Tanaami to produce artwork for Hey Venus!, having been "blown away" by his work on a Japan
ese tour.
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". 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.
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
:
Rhys has also stated that after Love Kraft the band were "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. Towards the end of the tour the setlist had become "full of fast songs from [the Super Furry Animals] back catalogue" 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". 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!:
, picked, at keyboardist
Cian Ciaran's
request, because of its large live room which enabled all the band to set up and play as a group. The Super Furries wanted to "go somewhere new and have a cultural experience" while they recorded what is their eighth album together. Recording in France also enabled the band to get away from distractions such as "clean[ing] the house". Additional recording took place at Rockfield Studios
, Monmouth
while string instruments
were recorded at Metropolis Studios, London
.
After working with producer Mario Caldato Jr.
on their previous albums, Phantom Power
and Love Kraft
, the band "were looking for someone new to work with" as they didn't want to repeat these records. They chose Dave Newfeld to produce Hey Venus!, after hearing his work with Canadian indie rock
supergroup Broken Social Scene
:
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".
As with Love Kraft Rhys was not the sole writer; guitar
ist Huw Bunford
wrote "Battersea Odyssey" (inspired by Battersea Power Station
), while keyboard player Cian Ciaran
wrote "Carbon Dating". Other members of the band contributed songs that do not appear on Hey Venus! but might "end up on the next record". 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. 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". However, "Hot Nutz" was reworked as "Moped Eyes" for their next album, Dark Days/Light Years
.
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". 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".
Hey Venus! reflected the group's desire to "capture the spirit of the band playing live in a room". The album was recorded "very quickly" and, as the band did not feel the need to "experiment so much with such a simple record", is not particularly "sonically adventurous". 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". 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."
Along with the bass
, drums
and guitar, several other instruments were used during recording including a dulcimer (for its "sixties spy movie sound"), an electric saz
(on "Into the Night"), an "electric-sitar box" ("Like a drum machine for India
n 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 piano
s". 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..." 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".
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".
Sixteen songs were recorded for the album with only 11 making the final cut. 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". At just over 36 minutes, the album is the shortest full length release by the band. 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 catalogue". 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 were persuaded to reconsider. Rough Trade Records
boss Geoff Travis
told the group that "Show Your Hand" was his favourite song and, following the tracks reworking to include a French horn
part, it was reinstated. Similarly "Suckers!" was "really pushed" by producer Dave Newfeld until it too took its place on Hey Venus!.
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!" Mastering
was undertaken by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, New York
.
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".
has claimed that Hey Venus! was conceived as a concept album
:
However both drummer
Dafydd 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", 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:
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:
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.
without a cover designed by Pete Fowler
. Instead, the band hired Japan
ese artist Keiichi Tanaami
to produce the artwork for the album. According to bassist
Guto Pryce
the band were "blown away" by Tanaami's art during a tour of Japan a few years before the release of Hey Venus!:
The story of the Venus character helped the band give something to Tanaami that he "could read and maybe translate into a visual representation". 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".
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".
, vinyl and as a digital download on 27 August 2007 in the United Kingdom
and was the band's first release for new label Rough Trade Records
. 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. 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
and number 19 on Billboard
magazine's Top Heatseekers
chart.
"Show Your Hand" and "Run-Away" were released as singles in the UK although neither reached the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart
. "The Gift That Keeps Giving
" was given away as a free download from the band's website on Christmas Day 2007.
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" and Artrocker
calling it the Super Furry Animals' "eighth excellent album in a row". 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". London's
Time 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".
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", 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. 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":
The track "Run-Away" was singled out for praise by several publications with the Independent on Sunday
calling the song "outstanding", 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". "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.
* denotes an unordered list
the Super Furry Animals embarked on an 11 date tour of Great Britain
and Ireland
, ending with two shows at London's
Roundhouse. 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
.
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. 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." 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.
. Lead vocals by Gruff Rhys
unless otherwise stated.
Band
Recording personnel
Artwork
Additional musicians
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
band Super Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band that lean towards psychedelic rock and electronic experimentation. Since their formation in Cardiff, Wales in 1993, the band has consisted of Gruff Rhys , Huw Bunford , Guto Pryce , Cian Ciaran and Dafydd Ieuan Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band...
. It was released on 27 August 2007 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Hey Venus! is the band's first full-length release on current label Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
and, at just over 36 minutes, is also their shortest-running studio release. The title is taken from the first line of the song "Into the Night".
The album was conceived as a "rowdy pop record", both in response to Rough Trade's
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
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
Love Kraft
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....
tour when the 'slow' songs from that album were played. 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". Dave Newfeld took over production duties from Mario Caldato Jr.
Mario Caldato Jr.
Mario Caldato, Jr. is a Brazilian record producer and studio engineer best known for his work with the Beastie Boys and Tone Loc. Born February 24, 1961 in São Paulo, Brazil, he and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1963...
, who had worked on both Phantom Power
Phantom Power (Super Furry Animals album)
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....
and Love Kraft, as the band didn't want to "repeat [their] past two records". As with Love Kraft, all members of the band contributed songs at the recording stage but, besides chief songwriter Gruff Rhys
Gruff Rhys
Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
, only guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist Huw Bunford
Huw Bunford
Huw "Bunf" Bunford is the guitarist in the rock band, Super Furry Animals.-Biography:...
("Battersea Odyssey") and keyboard player
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
Cian Ciaran
Cian Ciaran
Cian Ciaran is the keyboard player in the band, Super Furry Animals.Ciaran is the brother of Dafydd Ieuan . He plays keyboards, electronics and occasional guitar, drums, steel drum and vocals...
("Carbon Dating") ended up with their tracks on the finished album.
The album follows the life and adventures of a character called Venus as she moves "from a small town to a big metropolis". 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, 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
Keiichi Tanaami
Keiichi Tanaami, born in 1936 in Tokyo, is one of the leading pop artists of postwar Japan, and has been active as multi-genre artist since the ‘60s as a graphic designer, illustrator, video artist and fine artist.-Biography:...
"a reference point to make an illustration from." After working with Pete Fowler
Pete Fowler
Pete Fowler is a Welsh artist best known for his artwork for the Welsh band Super Furry Animals. He is a freelance illustrator and "monster creator" inspired by Japanese art, folklore, myths, psychedelia and super nature...
since 1997's Radiator
Radiator (album)
Radiator is the second album by the Super Furry Animals. It peaked at #8 on the UK charts. In 2005, it was reissued with a bonus disc of other tracks from the time....
the band asked Tanaami to produce artwork for Hey Venus!, having been "blown away" by his work on a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese tour.
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". 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.
Background
In an interview with Tiny Mix TapesTiny Mix Tapes
Tiny Mix Tapes is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, as well as its mix tapes generator.-History:Originally called Tiny Mixtapes Gone to Heaven and...
in January 2008, the band's vocalist, Gruff Rhys
Gruff Rhys
Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
, 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 Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
:
Rhys has also stated that after Love Kraft the band were "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. Towards the end of the tour the setlist had become "full of fast songs from [the Super Furry Animals] back catalogue" 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". Rhys used his second solo album, Candylion
Candylion
Candylion is the second solo album by Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys. It also features Lisa Jen from the Welsh language band 9Bach on backing vocals and xylophone...
, as an outlet for the quiet, acoustic songs that he had written rather than put them forward for inclusion on Hey Venus!:
Recording
The majority of the album was recorded at Miraval Studios, FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, picked, at keyboardist
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
Cian Ciaran's
Cian Ciaran
Cian Ciaran is the keyboard player in the band, Super Furry Animals.Ciaran is the brother of Dafydd Ieuan . He plays keyboards, electronics and occasional guitar, drums, steel drum and vocals...
request, because of its large live room which enabled all the band to set up and play as a group. The Super Furries wanted to "go somewhere new and have a cultural experience" while they recorded what is their eighth album together. Recording in France also enabled the band to get away from distractions such as "clean[ing] the house". Additional recording took place at Rockfield Studios
Rockfield Studios
Rockfield Studios, near Monmouth in Wales and just outside the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire are where many of British rock music’s most successful recordings have been made.-History:...
, Monmouth
Monmouth
Monmouth is a town in southeast Wales and traditional county town of the historic county of Monmouthshire. It is situated close to the border with England, where the River Monnow meets the River Wye with bridges over both....
while string instruments
String section
The string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
were recorded at Metropolis Studios, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
After working with producer Mario Caldato Jr.
Mario Caldato Jr.
Mario Caldato, Jr. is a Brazilian record producer and studio engineer best known for his work with the Beastie Boys and Tone Loc. Born February 24, 1961 in São Paulo, Brazil, he and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1963...
on their previous albums, Phantom Power
Phantom Power (Super Furry Animals album)
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....
and Love Kraft
Love Kraft
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 band "were looking for someone new to work with" as they didn't want to repeat these records. They chose Dave Newfeld to produce Hey Venus!, after hearing his work with Canadian indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
supergroup Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed in 1999 by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Most of its members currently play in various other groups and solo projects, mainly based around the city of Toronto...
:
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
Mixing console
In professional audio, a mixing console, or audio mixer, also called a sound board, mixing desk, or mixer is an electronic device for combining , routing, and changing the level, timbre and/or dynamics of audio signals. A mixer can mix analog or digital signals, depending on the type of mixer...
" and "wouldn't accept a take until he was physically moved by it".
As with Love Kraft Rhys was not the sole writer; guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist Huw Bunford
Huw Bunford
Huw "Bunf" Bunford is the guitarist in the rock band, Super Furry Animals.-Biography:...
wrote "Battersea Odyssey" (inspired by Battersea Power Station
Battersea Power Station
Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Battersea, South London. The station comprises two individual power stations, built in two stages in the form of a single building. Battersea A Power Station was built first in the...
), while keyboard player Cian Ciaran
Cian Ciaran
Cian Ciaran is the keyboard player in the band, Super Furry Animals.Ciaran is the brother of Dafydd Ieuan . He plays keyboards, electronics and occasional guitar, drums, steel drum and vocals...
wrote "Carbon Dating". Other members of the band contributed songs that do not appear on Hey Venus! but might "end up on the next record". 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
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
editions of the album. 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". However, "Hot Nutz" was reworked as "Moped Eyes" for their next album, Dark Days/Light Years
Dark Days/Light Years
Dark Days/Light Years, the ninth studio album by Super Furry Animals, was digitally released at 8pm on 16 March 2009 via the band's own website with a physical release following on the 21st of April on Rough Trade Records...
.
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". 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".
Gruff Rhys
Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
's words Hey Venus! is "a straight up album of songs ... with key changes
Modulation (music)
In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...
and a live band playing them" with more emphasis "on songs than the arrangement". 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."
Along with the bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and guitar, several other instruments were used during recording including a dulcimer (for its "sixties spy movie sound"), an electric saz
Baglama
thumb|180px|Cura and bağlamaThe bağlama is a stringed musical instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Asia....
(on "Into the Night"), an "electric-sitar box" ("Like a drum machine for India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n musicians") and a harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
which, according to Guto Pryce
Guto Pryce
Guto Dafydd Pryce is a bass guitar player in the band Super Furry Animals.The name Guto is pronounced in Welsh....
, was used on a lot of songs "because it was there [Miraval studios], and it was more in tune than the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
s". 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..." 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".
The band enlisted the help of several musicians when making the album including string arranger Sean O'Hagan
Sean O'Hagan
Sean O'Hagan is a founding member of Irish indie band Microdisney. In the 1990s he formed The High Llamas and released a number of highly acclaimed albums showing influences as diverse as The Beach Boys, Ennio Morricone, Antonio Carlos Jobim and avant-garde electronica...
(of The High Llamas
The High Llamas
The High Llamas are a London-based musical group, formed by the Irish guitarist and songwriter Sean O'Hagan after the demise of his group Microdisney. O'Hagan writes and arranges the music and the rest of the group consists of drummer Rob Allum, keyboardist/cellist Marcus Holdaway, and...
), 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".
Sixteen songs were recorded for the album with only 11 making the final cut. 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". At just over 36 minutes, the album is the shortest full length release by the band. 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 catalogue". Both lead single "Show Your Hand
Show Your Hand
"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...
" and "Suckers!" were originally cut from the album, for being "too generic" and too "obvious ... melodically" respectively, until the band were persuaded to reconsider. Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
boss Geoff Travis
Geoff Travis
Geoff Travis is the founder of both Rough Trade Records and the Rough Trade chain of record shops. A former drama teacher and owner of a punk record shop, Travis founded the Rough Trade label in 1978.-Biography:...
told the group that "Show Your Hand" was his favourite song and, following the tracks reworking to include a French horn
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
part, it was reinstated. Similarly "Suckers!" was "really pushed" by producer Dave Newfeld until it too took its place on Hey Venus!.
The album was mixed by Chris Shaw and the Super Furry Animals at Rockfield Studios and the band's own studio, Pleasurefoxxx, in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
with Dave Newfeld performing additional mixing duties on "Suckers!" Mastering
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
was undertaken by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
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".
Themes
The album documents the life and adventures of a character called Venus as she moves "from a small town to a big metropolis". The band have 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", however, several conflicting explanations have been given for the appearance of this narrative arc. Chief songwriter Gruff RhysGruff Rhys
Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
has claimed that Hey Venus! was conceived as a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
:
However both drummer
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
Dafydd Ieuan
Dafydd Ieuan
Dafydd Ieuan is the drummer with the band, Super Furry Animals and The Peth. He currently lives in Cardiff with his wife Debbie, and their two children Cai and Lleucu....
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", while Rhys claimed, in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, that he only noticed the similar themes running through the songs after he had written them:
A third explanation was provided by Rhys during an interview with American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
music magazine ALARM
Alarm magazine
Alarm is a quarterly magazine based in Chicago, IL, USA that publishes "Music and Art Beyond Comparison." It covers emerging and mid-career musicians and artists with a focus on independent, underground, or otherwise non-mainstream music and art...
when he claimed that the concept only came about when sleeve designer Keiichi Tanaami
Keiichi Tanaami
Keiichi Tanaami, born in 1936 in Tokyo, is one of the leading pop artists of postwar Japan, and has been active as multi-genre artist since the ‘60s as a graphic designer, illustrator, video artist and fine artist.-Biography:...
asked what the album was about:
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
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
band That Petrol Emotion
That Petrol Emotion
That Petrol Emotion are a Northern Irish, London-based band with an American vocalist, Steve Mack.-Career:The band originally formed in 1984 from the ashes of the Derry Hitmakers, Bam Bam and the Calling and The Undertones. It was formed by guitarist John O'Neill and second guitarist Raymond Gorman...
for a single taken from their Chemicrazy
Chemicrazy
- Personnel :* Clif Birgden – Help* Steve Deutsch – Fretless Bass, Help* Andy Ferguson – Management* Joan Jones – Trumpet* Scott Litt – Producer, Engineer* Steve Mack – Booklet Design, Execution, Group Member* John Marchini – Group Member...
LP. However, as Rhys and Guto Pryce
Guto Pryce
Guto Dafydd Pryce is a bass guitar player in the band Super Furry Animals.The name Guto is pronounced in Welsh....
in particular were fans of the band, they reasoned that it "wasn't necessarily a bad thing to share a name" with the song.
Cover
Hey Venus! is the first Super Furry Animals studio album since 1996's Fuzzy LogicFuzzy Logic (album)
Fuzzy Logic is the debut album by the Super Furry Animals. It was listed in Q Magazine's Best British Albums Ever in July 2004, and in the same magazine's Top 10 Britpop Albums Ever in December 1996 and features in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die...
without a cover designed by Pete Fowler
Pete Fowler
Pete Fowler is a Welsh artist best known for his artwork for the Welsh band Super Furry Animals. He is a freelance illustrator and "monster creator" inspired by Japanese art, folklore, myths, psychedelia and super nature...
. Instead, the band hired Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese artist Keiichi Tanaami
Keiichi Tanaami
Keiichi Tanaami, born in 1936 in Tokyo, is one of the leading pop artists of postwar Japan, and has been active as multi-genre artist since the ‘60s as a graphic designer, illustrator, video artist and fine artist.-Biography:...
to produce the artwork for the album. According to bassist
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Guto Pryce
Guto Pryce
Guto Dafydd Pryce is a bass guitar player in the band Super Furry Animals.The name Guto is pronounced in Welsh....
the band were "blown away" by Tanaami's art during a tour of Japan a few years before the release of Hey Venus!:
The story of the Venus character helped the band give something to Tanaami that he "could read and maybe translate into a visual representation". 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".
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
Editors
Editors are a British indie rock band based in Birmingham, who formed in 2002. Previously known as Pilot, The Pride and Snowfield, the band consists of Tom Smith , Chris Urbanowicz , Russell Leetch and Ed Lay .Editors have so far released two platinum studio...
or something".
Release
Hey Venus! was released on CDCompact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, vinyl and as a digital download on 27 August 2007 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and was the band's first release for new label Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
. 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. The latter came packaged with a bonus CD containing the b-sides
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
of the "Show Your Hand
Show Your Hand
"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...
" 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
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
and number 19 on Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine's Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...
chart.
"Show Your Hand" and "Run-Away" were released as singles in the UK although neither reached the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
. "The Gift That Keeps Giving
The Gift That Keeps Giving
"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 bands official website on Christmas Day 2007....
" was given away as a free download from the band's website on Christmas Day 2007.
| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalogue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
27 August 2007 | Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove... |
Vinyl record | RTRADLP 346 |
| Compact disc Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... |
RTRADCD 346 | |||
| Download | — | |||
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
28 August 2007 | Rough Trade America | Vinyl record | RT-346-1 |
| Download | RT-346-5 | |||
| 22 January 2008 | Double compact disc | RTRADCD 423 | ||
| Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... |
12 September 2007 | Rough Trade Japan | Compact disc | XQCY-1003 |
Critical response
Hey Venus! received a generally favourable reception from critics with The IndependentThe Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
stating that the album "marks a welcome return to form for the Furries" and is "fit to challenge Rings Around the World
Rings around the World
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...
and Phantom Power
Phantom Power (Super Furry Animals album)
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....
as their most satisfying work" and Artrocker
ArtRocker
Artrocker is a UK-based collective involved in music promotion and publishing. It was started by Paul Cox and Tom Fawcett who had been co-promoters of a London night called The Sausage Factory...
calling it the Super Furry Animals' "eighth excellent album in a row". Allmusic hailed Hey Venus! as a "full-fledged return to pop power ... by far the tightest record SFA has released since Radiator
Radiator (album)
Radiator is the second album by the Super Furry Animals. It peaked at #8 on the UK charts. In 2005, it was reissued with a bonus disc of other tracks from the time....
" while Yahoo! Music UK
Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music, owned by Yahoo!, is the provider of a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming...
claimed the album is "among the greatest things [the Super Furry Animals] have ever done". London's
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
Time 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".
However, some reviews pointed out that the album has the "faint whiff of musical conservatism" with both Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
and Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
calling it a "missed opportunity", 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. 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":
The track "Run-Away" was singled out for praise by several publications with the Independent on Sunday
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
calling the song "outstanding", 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". "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.
Accolades
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iguana Music | Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... |
Best albums 2007 | 2007 | 93 |
| NME NME The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles... |
United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
Albums of 2007 NME album of the year Every December, British music magazine NME compiles a list of what it considers the best albums of the year. It was started in 1974. The list is usually published in one of the issues sold before Christmas – in 2006 it was published in the issue for December the 9th... |
2007 | 35 |
| Record Collector Record Collector Record Collector is the United Kingdom's longest-running monthly music magazine. It distributes both within the UK and worldwide. It started in 1979.-The early years:... |
United Kingdom | New release albums 2007 | 2007 | * |
| Uncut UNCUT (magazine) Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections... |
United Kingdom | Uncut 50 best albums of 2007 | 2007 | 17 |
Tour
Following the release of Hey Venus! in the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
the Super Furry Animals embarked on an 11 date tour of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, ending with two shows at London's
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
Roundhouse. The group visited Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
before a US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
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
Beggars Banquet Records
Beggars Banquet is an English independent record label that began as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin, and is part of the Beggars Group of labels...
.
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. Huw Bunford
Huw Bunford
Huw "Bunf" Bunford is the guitarist in the rock band, Super Furry Animals.-Biography:...
told a Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
journalist in August 2007 that the tour would be "like that bit at the end of the Mike Yarwood
Mike Yarwood
Mike Yarwood, OBE is an English impressionist and comedian. He was one of Britain's top-rated entertainers, regularly appearing on television from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s. He left Bredbury Secondary Modern School in 1956 and worked as a messenger and then salesman at a garment warehouse...
shows where he said, 'And this is me', no gim-micks. Just us." Despite this the band did perform in front of a backdrop featuring the lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
from Tanaami's
Keiichi Tanaami
Keiichi Tanaami, born in 1936 in Tokyo, is one of the leading pop artists of postwar Japan, and has been active as multi-genre artist since the ‘60s as a graphic designer, illustrator, video artist and fine artist.-Biography:...
cover art and frequently wore hand-tailored suits, featuring patches designed by Tanaami, during shows.
Track listing
All songs by Super Furry AnimalsSuper Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band that lean towards psychedelic rock and electronic experimentation. Since their formation in Cardiff, Wales in 1993, the band has consisted of Gruff Rhys , Huw Bunford , Guto Pryce , Cian Ciaran and Dafydd Ieuan Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band...
. Lead vocals by Gruff Rhys
Gruff Rhys
Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
unless otherwise stated.
- "The Gateway Song" – 0:43
- "Run-Away" – 2:53
- "Show Your HandShow Your Hand"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...
" – 2:51 - "The Gift That Keeps GivingThe Gift That Keeps Giving"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 bands official website on Christmas Day 2007....
" – 3:19 - "Neo Consumer" – 2:03
- "Into the Night" – 3:32
- "Baby Ate My Eightball" – 3:35
- "Carbon Dating" – 4:35
- Lead vocals: Cian CiaranCian CiaranCian Ciaran is the keyboard player in the band, Super Furry Animals.Ciaran is the brother of Dafydd Ieuan . He plays keyboards, electronics and occasional guitar, drums, steel drum and vocals...
- Lead vocals: Cian Ciaran
- "Suckers!" – 4:05
- "Battersea Odyssey" – 4:07
- Lead vocals: Huw BunfordHuw BunfordHuw "Bunf" Bunford is the guitarist in the rock band, Super Furry Animals.-Biography:...
- Lead vocals: Huw Bunford
- "Let the Wolves Howl at the Moon" – 4:41
US bonus disc
- "Never More" – 2:25
- "Aluminium Illuminati" – 2:37
- "These Bones" – 3:23
- "That's What I'm Talking About" – 5:41
- "Run-Away" (Video) – 2:56
- Video footage featuring the improvised songs "Hot Nutz" and "Semi-Pro" – 6:23
Personnel
The following people contributed to Hey Venus!:Band
- Gruff RhysGruff RhysGruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
– Lead vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
, electric sazBaglamathumb|180px|Cura and bağlamaThe bağlama is a stringed musical instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Asia....
, organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with... - Huw BunfordHuw BunfordHuw "Bunf" Bunford is the guitarist in the rock band, Super Furry Animals.-Biography:...
– Lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Battersea Odyssey" - Guto PryceGuto PryceGuto Dafydd Pryce is a bass guitar player in the band Super Furry Animals.The name Guto is pronounced in Welsh....
– Bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Cian CiaranCian CiaranCian Ciaran is the keyboard player in the band, Super Furry Animals.Ciaran is the brother of Dafydd Ieuan . He plays keyboards, electronics and occasional guitar, drums, steel drum and vocals...
– KeyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Carbon Dating" - Dafydd IeuanDafydd IeuanDafydd Ieuan is the drummer with the band, Super Furry Animals and The Peth. He currently lives in Cardiff with his wife Debbie, and their two children Cai and Lleucu....
– DrumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, backing vocals
Recording personnel
- Dave Newfeld – Production, additional mixing on "Suckers!"
- Myriam Correge – Recording assistant (Miraval Studios)
- Richard Matthews – Recording assistant (Rockfield Studios)
- Phil Ault – Recording assistant (Rockfield Studios)
- Chris Shaw – Mixing
- Super Furry Animals – Mixing
- Simon Dawson – Mixing assistant (Pleasurefoxxx Studios)
- Richard Matthews – Mixing assistant (Rockfield Studios)
- Greg Calbi – Mastering (Sterling Sound, New YorkNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
)
Artwork
- Keiichi TanaamiKeiichi TanaamiKeiichi Tanaami, born in 1936 in Tokyo, is one of the leading pop artists of postwar Japan, and has been active as multi-genre artist since the ‘60s as a graphic designer, illustrator, video artist and fine artist.-Biography:...
– Artwork - The Bait – Layout
Additional musicians
- Kris Jenkins – PercussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
(Tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11) - Gary Alesbrook – TrumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
(3, 4, 7, 10) - Nick Atwood – TromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
(3, 4, 7, 10, 11) - Martin Owen – French HornHorn (instrument)The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
(3) - Phil Woods – French Horn (3)
- Kathryn Saunders – French Horn (3)
- Matt Sibley – SaxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
(4, 7, 10) - Brian Wright – ViolinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
(3, 8) - Charles Nolan – Violin (3, 8)
- Rick Koster – Violin (3, 8)
- Laura Melhuish – Violin (3, 8)
- Amanda Britton – Violin (3, 8)
- Sally Herbert – Violin (3, 8)
- Marcus Holloway – CelloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
(3, 8) - Ian Burdge – Cello (3, 8)
- Sean O'HaganSean O'HaganSean O'Hagan is a founding member of Irish indie band Microdisney. In the 1990s he formed The High Llamas and released a number of highly acclaimed albums showing influences as diverse as The Beach Boys, Ennio Morricone, Antonio Carlos Jobim and avant-garde electronica...
– String arrangements - Super Furry Animals – String arrangements
Album chart positions
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| European Top 100 Albums European Top 100 Albums The European Top 100 Albums chart is the European adaptation of the Billboard 200 albums chart. It was created in March 1984.The European Top 100 Albums, commonly referred to as Eurochart Top 100 Albums shows the sales of an act in 19 European countries based on IFPI data.The European Top 100... |
40 |
| Ireland Albums Chart | 16 |
| U.S. Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical... |
19 |
| U.S. Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical... (Northeast) |
5 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
11 |
| UK Independent Albums Chart UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Chart or Indie Chart is a chart of the best-selling independent record releases in the UK.- History :In the wake of punk, small record labels began to spring up, as an outlet for artists that were unwilling to sign contracts with major record companies, or were not considered... |
2 |