Hey Venus!
by Super Furry Animals
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. The A.V. Club
    100
    It's unabashedly a pop album, and by restraining its inventiveness, the band maintains a warm of sense of Zappa-esque liveliness.
  2. Delusions of Adequacy
    90
    This is a band that is as strong as ever and on the pleasurable Hey Venus! sound downright terrific.
  3. AllMusic
    90
    By far the tightest record SFA has released since "Radiator"--boasting no song over five minutes and four clocking in under three--this is a concise, song-oriented record, which is somewhat ironic since it began its life as something as a concept album.
  5. The Guardian
    80
    The only shortcoming is how quickly it's all over. Roll on number nine.
  6. Hot Press
    80
    If the last 10 years have taught us anything, it's that Super Furry Animals march resolutely to their own quixotic beat.
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  7. musicOMH.com
    80
    Hey Venus!, then, is not the type of progressing heavyweight that has marked the output of later day Super Furries. As a shorter, lighter effort, though, it is every bit as tantalising, thickly coated in SFA-brand special sauce and still worth its weight in goal.
  8. Drowned In Sound
    80
    Hey Venus! is the most concise album in the band's history.
  9. New Musical Express (NME)
    80
    11 years into their career, SFA have produced some of their most beautiful songs yet.
  10. Dot Music
    80
    Hey Venus! is conspicuously short and sweet, and as a result among the greatest things they've ever done.
  11. Village Voice
    80
    There's a newfound depth of feeling in their eighth-album expertise that bitters the sweetness of Beach Boys tributes like 'Show Your Hand.'
  12. PopMatters
    80
    Hey Venus! is everything its predecessor was not: immediately likeable, swiftly paced, and mercilessly brief.
  13. Billboard
    80
    The latest from this genre-bending Welsh band is largely a smoothed-out pop record, reining in some of Super Furry Animals' more left-field tendencies and tenderly nurturing the catchy, chart-friendly hooks of Gruff Rhys and company.
  14. Pitchfork
    78
    It's fair to say the songs lack the epic sweep of the last couple of albums, but there's still little about Hey Venus! to fault beyond the faint whiff of musical conservatism.
  15. cokemachineglow
    73
    Hey Venus! is like a really good haircut: it's brisk, light around the ears, and after so many 'do permutations it's bound to get some compliments about how civilized it looks, how grown up.
  16. Spin
    70
    The lower-key approach pays off here. [Sep 2007, p.138]
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  17. Tiny Mix Tapes
    70
    When all these cuts add up, we wind up with an album’s worth of pleasantries.
  18. Under The Radar
    70
    Dependability is ultimately the albatross one acquires after a career of brilliance. You know what you’re going to get. And what you get with Venus is plenty great, and, like their manufactured counterparts in dependability, more than worth the investment. [Fall 2007, p.83]
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  19. Paste Magazine
    70
    The first half of Hey Venus! is the band’s most sustained barrage of hooks and video game psychedelia in years. However, the album soon descends into epic overtures like the ponderous “Battersea Odyssey” that lose some of that creative spirit.
  20. Stylus Magazine
    67
    What Hey Venus! ultimately is, is a good record of classy pop/rock songs, arranged and produced well, shot through with a degree of personality and skill, and almost completely lacking in the inspired, eclectic madness which made "Radiator and Guerilla" so damn good.
  21. Uncut
    60
    Hey Venus! is an attractive album with a broad appeal – Rough Trade wanted a pop record and got one--but it also feels like a missed opportunity, a consolidation of affairs rather than a step forward.
  22. BBC collective
    60
    No doubt fans’ll love it, but virgins shouldn’t expect to swoon at this end-of-the-pier jamming.
  23. Q Magazine
    60
    Hey Venus! feels like a missed opportunity. [Sep 2007, p.94]
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  24. Mojo
    60
    The gleeful exuberance of Hey Venus! finds the band refreshed.... If Hey Venus! lacks anything, it's the thumping-heart centerpiece that made SFA's early records so special. [Sep 2007, p.108]
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  25. Observer Music Monthly
    60
    They fail to develop their retro psychedelia influences, and use fairground organs and cutesy strings as lazy shorthand for dreamy nostalgia. The result is a pleasant record that's lacking in personality.
  26. NOW Magazine
    60
    The album's psychedelic pop runs out of gas near the end in cringe-worthy Battersea Odyssey and Let The Wolves Howl At The Moon, but by then you're won over and wondering how you slept on this band for the past nine years.

Awards & Rankings

95
#95 Most Discussed Album of 2008

User Reviews

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User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 39 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 39
  3. Negative: 3 out of 39
  1. LiamR
    Feb 24, 2008
    10
    I was ready to give this album a 9, and pretty much say how it was a slight disappointment but never the less one of SFA's greatest I was ready to give this album a 9, and pretty much say how it was a slight disappointment but never the less one of SFA's greatest albums. But then "Baby Ate My Eightball" came on, and I realized that this is once again, a triumph.… Full Review »
  2. EmilyW.
    Feb 12, 2008
    9
    Iban L., the fact that you say Ween's album was a disappointment, like that was actually a surprise, makes your 3 rating completely Iban L., the fact that you say Ween's album was a disappointment, like that was actually a surprise, makes your 3 rating completely irrelevant. Glad to see this album getting more love from the critics after the new release. Definitely not a letdown after Love Kraft (in fact, much better) and one of the 20 best album of 2007.… Full Review »
  3. Liz
    Jan 22, 2008
    9
    Pure pop joy. It would get a 10 if it wasn't so short.
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