Super Furry Animals Hey Venus! Grade: B

Among us fans of contemporary British rock, it's a common refrain: "Why isn't this band big in America?" Granted, Super Furry Animals could never be "big" per se -- they're too weird -- but in a country where The Flaming Lips and Of Montreal are soundtracking commercials, one could reasonably ask why SFA isn't more popular. After all, for SFA "strange" hardly means "difficult," "overly-intellectual" or "unpleasant" -- their songs are catchy, beautiful and upbeat, even when they're about having "Ice Hockey Hair," speculate whether rocks are secretly alive or are sung entirely in Welsh. If you haven't yet, do yourself a tremendous favor and get a copy of their 2005 collection Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1.\nNow, that said, SFA's latest album, Hey Venus!, is unlikely to finally give them a breakthrough over here. Well, OK, that's partly because it's currently only available as an import -- but, more importantly, it's like a gorgeous six-figure sports car that only packs a tiny four-cylinder engine. That is to say, song after song is pretty and starts off promisingly but doesn't go anywhere. \nNot that it doesn't have wonderful moments. Opening track "The Gateway Song" packs more hooks into 43 seconds than most bands can manage in four minutes and, as the name suggests, leaves you gagging for more. "Neo Consumer" is a shining bit of pop-rock to pogo up and down to. And "Into The Night" offers the charmingly geeky aspects of prog rock (lyrics about flying through the universe, spacey effects) without the filler (12-minute drum solos, etc.).\nBut other tracks too often settle into a groove in their first 30 seconds that they never leave, simply repeating until things wind down. They're still lovely and, for most bands, this would still be enough -- but SFA are capable of so much more.