MOG

_"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace"_

If I could ask my body rather than my brain to nominate the world’s greatest band, the answer I’d receive is Super Furry Animals.

How would I receive such a communication, I hear you cry pedantically. Why, sweat ducts on the back of my hand would squeeze out enough perspiration to form the letters, SFA. Now, can we move on, please?

The point is, these five psychedelic Welshmen have given me enormous _visceral_ pleasure over the years.

Let me count the ways:

1. Absolutely amazing fucking songs. 2. That’s it.

Oh, I could go about lots of other things.

Like their senstational gigs, which normally end in a 20 minute techno wig-out while a Bill Hicks sample intones “All governments are liars and murders” over and over and over until your pleasure ducts explode.

OR

When they brought in Paul McCartney to chew celery on Rings Around The World (best thing he's recorded since the Fab Four?)

OR

They turned down $1.8 million from Coke for song “Hello Sunshine” because they heard rumours of company-directed killings of trade-union members in Colombia.

OR

The fact that around the same time Oasis’ Noel Gallagher was infamously shaking hands with Tony Blair after Labour’s 1997 election victory, SFA were releasing their greatest anti-authoritarian anthem, “The Man Don’t Give A Fuck.”

OR

The army tank they bought to arrive in at festivals.

OR

Their three-gigs-in-one-day tour, which included a 2pm show called Song Bingo, where the band spun a large wheel on stage that had numbers corresponding to a song in their back catalogue, then gave a prize to the audience member with the matching ticket, and would then play the song “if we can remember it” (they couldn’t remember some).

OR

That they frequently take to the stage dressed as _actual_ furry animals.

But I won’t.

_I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise_

See, SFA are all about the music, _maan_. Psychedelic, eclectic, adventurous, melodious music.

Debilitating drug habits, band member bust ups, the skinniest of skinny jeans? Not their style.

Sadly, neither is massive chart success.

This baffles SFA fans, and we all have our theories as to why. They range from the band's potentially off-putting name to their often leftfeld subject matter (songs about the El Niño-Southern Oscillation weather phenomenon, anyone?)

Here's my theory: most great songs - SFA's included - contain a mix of abstract and direct lyrics, giving you something clear and identifiable to sing along to, and also (and forever) something to ponder the meaning of. Sometimes SFA come heavy with the abstract, particularly in the all-important chorus, and as a result, lose the mainstream music fans who purchase the bulk of chart tunes.

The Super Furries have carried on strong, none the less. In terms of musical development and sheer output they've easily outstripped more famous Britpop contemporaries, most of whom had finished as musical powers, if not become defunct altogether, by the end of the 90s.

_I love thee with a passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose_

Sure, there was a recent dip in quality. The albums Phantom Power and Love Craft, fell well short of the greatness of Fuzzy Logic, Rings Around The World, Guerrilla, and Myng. A fact that depressed me no end.

So, it was with tentative ears, if such a thing is humanly possible (well, you believed the sweat ducts stuff), that I listened to new record, Hey Venus!

I've now lived with the album for two weeks (hey, I had to be sure). Thankfully, after over a decade making music, this is arguably their strongest collection of songs yet.

It contains all the eclecticism and adventure one could hope for, even dipping its toe into Turkish rock and doo-wop. The lyrics hit just the right note between the abstract and the direct.

But most importantly, Hey Venus! has one toe-tapping, glorious tune after another, making it the best undiscovered album of 2007.

World's greatest band? No sweat.

_"With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death"_ _- E.B Browning_

In the Comments: Two more crackers from Hey Venus! plus my favorite all-time SFA track