Once they've clocked up a decade and nearly as many albums, the majority of journalists would have a tendency to begin referring to a band as 'veterans' without fear of reprisal. After all, most bands' career trajectories take in a classic debut album, maybe their defining work would come with the third or fourth and then a gradual decline with only the occasional spark of genius later on.
SUPER FURRY ANIMALS, though, have proved with regularity that they are anything but 'most' bands and as they return with their tenth album 'Hey Venus!' and a new label (Rough Trade) they remain more lividly vital and creatively progressive than the majority of the haircuts being thrust forward by the dear old NME this or any week you care to mention.
Because, apart from sharing its' title with a great, lost single by the stupidly under-rated That Petrol Emotion, 'Hey Venus!' is (again) a typically,bright, fresh and envelope-shoving affair from the ever-loveable SFA.
It must be said, mind, that most of the band's by now well-documented pop immediacy is shoehorned into the album's ecstatic first half this time round. 'The Gateway Song' is the epitome of its' title: at barely 40 seconds or so it's a perfectly-formed but all-too-brief glam rock stomp, short and sweet like a thinner 'Do Or Die'. It gives way to the wonderful 'Run-Away' which - complete with its' spoken Gruff intro - is a damn-near seamless slice of Spectorian pop majesty with tambourines, timpani and bells on. Literally. It's surely a contender for a single and houses arguably the record's best lyric ("Those who cry and run away/ live to cry another day").
Talking of singles, the recent 'Show Your Hand' formed the latest instalment in the Super Furries' ever-extending of spot-on hit 45s (or whatever we're supposed to refer to singles/ downloads as these days) and its' gorgeous chorus, femmy backing vocals and inevitable Brian Wilson leanings all spur Gruff into one of his loveliest, breathiest vocals to date. It's quickly superseded by another relaxed, sunkissed beauty in the hazy and delicious 'The Gift That Keeps Giving': a further sure-fire single contender and a winner for anyone who loves SFA in laid-back, 'Hello Sunshine' mode.
Just in case it's all getting a little TOO smooth, a dopily brilliant chant of "ah oh ha oh oh" leads the way into 'Noo Consumer': SFA in anthemic, rock'n'roll stratagem mood, super immediate and vibrant and a reminder that these canny boyos can knock out the likes of these with a seeming nonchalence that puts most of the competition in the shade to this day. The playful, cod-funk workout of the ensuing 'Into The Night', meanwhile, would normally try the patience, but when allied to SFA'S madcap logic and glorious chorus approach it succeeds with charm to spare.
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Rather like Pere Ubu's 'Cloudland', the album's thus-far exemplary string of unassailable pop gems is cut with the coming of an altogether more challenging second half, though. Yes, the celebratory mid-point is straddled by the celabratory, SFA-by-numbers of 'Baby Ate My Eightball' (think a more downbeat 'Man Don't Give A Fuck') but the ensuing 'Carbon Dating' - with its' pump organs, 'Get Carter-style piano strings and waltz-style tempo - allows us to drift into far deeper, darker waters.
Which isn't to say it's any less enjoyable, it's simply that it requires a little more cerebral input, but where SFA are concerned that's always worth a gamble. Indeed, given a few plays, the likes of the low-key 'Suckers' and the Beatles/ Dukes of Stratosfear-style whimsy of 'Battersey Odyssey' begin to show their true, psych-infested colours. Expecting a 'Mountain People'-style epic to end, your reviewer was initially rather more surprised by 'Let The Wolves Howl At The Moon' which seems almost TOO laid back at first. However, its' unhurried, after hours groove, gospel-style backing vocals, steadily rising crescendo and lyrical defiance ("bring down the chandeliers/ bring down these darkest years") make perfect sense after a few plays. Though one can only hope Gruff isn't referring to SFA'S surely still-rosy future when he sings "let the wolves howl at the moon/ for the end it comes too soon."
Besides, while they're still mining a rich seam of form it's hard to believe we could be contemplating anything but a further decade of magnificence from these Welsh wizards. Predictably, 'Hey Venus!' is another one for Gruff and co. to be justly proud of and demonstrates that while these Super Furries might be getting a little longer in the tooth, their collective canines remain poised and fang-like and more than capable of biting chunks out of the younger pretenders any time you like.
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