January 4, 1999

Sexy World

[B]The Yummy Fur[/B] have taken their familiar sci-fi conspiracy theorists' paranoia to new heights on this, their third album....

4 / 10 The Yummy Fur have taken their familiar sci-fi conspiracy theorists' paranoia to new heights on this, their third album. 'Sexy World' is a domain inhabited by aliens - which the Fur, in a moment of fey postmodernism, refer to as 'Ridiculants'. This, and other such imaginings, means that 'Sexy World' becomes something of a - horror! - concept album.

It's not their fault that they've ended up this way, though. Oh no - it's those squeaky popsters Bis who are to blame. For while the Fur can remember the C86 wars, and have earned their stripes on the odd Peel session, it was fellow Glaswegians Bis who got the credit for making candy-coated punk pop the thing it is today.

Instead of living in Bis' shadow then, we find the Fur have instead invested even more heavily in analogue-heavy, short, noisy belts of sound - 13 of them on this in all - and with singer John McKeown's tortured Metal Mickey/vocoder meanderings it makes for a very prickly, very strange experience. In fact, it could be the sound of men drowning in a half of lukewarm lager in the indie disco at the end of the universe.

Cab for the Ridiculants, anyone?