HEY VENUS!

This is the first SFA album on the label Rough Trade. The label wanted a pop sounding album like they used to make, so SFA put together a bunch of poppier songs which sound similar to Elvis Costello for the most part and only leaving a few really good songs like "Baby Ate My Eightball" and "Carbon Dating". The songs are short and so is the album at just over 36 minutes, it is the shortest album that the band made.

The songs on the album were quickly recorded without any samples or computerized recording techniques as the band was also trying to achieve the feeling that the songs were recorded by the band together in a room. They achieved that goal, but unfortunately the songs ended up feeling hollow and not very adventurous. Yes there are highlights to the album, but not enough to merit the high quality of playful songwriting and risky music that they had been experimenting with in their more recent past.

Not a recommended SFA album. It's just not deep or challenging enough as "Phantom Power" or the most recent gem of an album "Dark Days/Light Years". Start with those albums since they are much better. This one only gets 3 stars because even if it's poppier, at least they can make interesting sounding pop, but it's nothing close to their better albums.