Press praise and insult for The World Woke Up Without Me

Kerrang
Glorious return from troubled experimental rockers
After the sudden death of their drummer and guiding light Steve Smith, it looked like it was all over for Venus Ray. But, despite a hellish year, the band has pulled itself together and produced a compelling, offbeat second album that's a fitting tribute to their lost friend. Throughout The World..., Venus Ray demonstrate that they're equally confident in tackling dumb, sing-along anthems and slow, introspective ballads, each track featuring layers of quirky sound and a fuzzy electronic edge that elevates the band above most of their garage-rock contemporaries.

Still smarting from their unexpected loss, the band is consequently a little restrained on certain tracks and you never really get to hear Venus Ray rocking out. But, as a return from the brink of disaster, The World... sounds fresh and optimistic, showing that the band has an exciting future ahead of them.
David McComb

The Daily Mirror
The sequel to their striking Chuck Berry vs. IBM debut was curtailed when drummer Steve Smith died. But the bizarre Venus musical workshop has adjusted well with fun-filled harmonies, mutant electronics, garage moshing and rocking fervour.
Gavin Martin

Mojo May 2003
Titled in tribute to drummer Steve Smith, whose tragic death delayed the Londoners' sophomore album. Venus Ray's sinewy-tense edges are a touch Pavementesque, but the way Hurricane pays tribute to Jonathan Richman's Roadrunner indicates their truer roots. Darkness understandably permeates their grooves, but triumphantly so.
MA

Uncut May 2003
Second from retrograde avant-pop Londoners.
In title alone this is much more downcast than their 2001 debut Chuck Berry Vs IBM, and with good reason. The death of Venus Ray drummer Steve Smith midway through recording turned this otherwise confident successor into an involuntary epitaph. Maybe it's coincidence but there's definitely something hauntingly melancholic about the Pavement-ish opener Melody or the gentle, soporific Sunglasses. At least Smith went out rocking, drumming up a storm on Hurricane, typical of their Big Star-meets-Joe Meek soundclash.
Simon Goddard

The Independent 21st March 2003
For their second album, The World Woke Up Without Me, they have painstakingly created crude new equipment to record music built on the foundations of punk, dub and early rock'n'roll. Their song Electric Guitar is a juddering, surging tribute to the instrument';s continuing appeal. 'Heal my heart, heal my soul, electric guitar, electric guitar' Diggory Kenrick prays, in a song caught between giving the game up ('nothing left to live for'), and the triumph of its dubbed-up, guitar-drenched chorus.
Nick Hasted

Drowned In Sound
The world woke up without this crew of warped indie boys, leaving them alone in an unknown place of wreckage to have every imaginable emotion inflicted upon them, until finally, blinking in the light, they were let loose upon the world that had deserted them and unleashed their diary of what they had been through in that strange place.

The intricate and delicate harmonies - soaring one minute, plummeting the next - juxtaposed with vehement, vitriolic drums and occasional swoops of an electronic something or other make this an obviously personal work; listening to it is sometimes like reading someone's diary, intruding on their life as they pour out their life and soul and secret passions. Best of the bunch are opener Melody and the euphoric Electric Guitar, the former both menacing but optimistic, the latter embroidered by a swagger many other bands can only dream of. But amidst the moments of bruised revelations and quietly hopeful beauty there are passages of repetitious filler if this album truly was someone's diary, these bits would be descriptions of what they ate for breakfast and exactly why they like the people they do. Probably good stuff if you know the person or share their fascination with cornflakes, but otherwise indulgent and just plain bewildering.

Hurricane was well chosen as the first single, being as it is an upbeat and insanely catchy little number, but don't dive in and expect an album of the same. The World Woke Up Without Me is an account of their time in the dark condensed into bite sized fragments and given baffling names such as Gullybank Rock it'll never be played on the radio, but in its own little way it definitely rawks.
Rating: 4/5
Steph Nelson

Bang June 2003
These guys are essentially pissing about.


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