Arkive

Having signed to Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label, the band was guided by the legendary producer in a return to more guitar-based songs for 1996's Sweet F.A. The album cover features a striking photo of a burnt guitar which was retrieved from the debris after a fire broke out at Rubin’s mansion, where the band were living while working on songs for the album. They lost all of their gear, some of their demo recordings, and nearly their lives as well. The resulting album was inspired by some of their earliest influences – The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, The Doors, Can. It spins tales of passion and loss, carried on a fluid, moody throb. Undulating, hypnotic rhythms twine around melancholy lyrics which examine life at a primal level, as ethereal electronic effects play counterpoint to earthquake reverberating guitars. The track “Sweet Lover Hangover” was an alternative radio hit.