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. About it, David J said “Sweet F.A was our coming of age album. A rite of passage and the Phoenix rising from both the literal and figurative flames”
-This is a double black LP with a gatefold sleeve
-Expanded with four extra tracks:
D1. My Dark Twin * previously unreleased outside of box set
D2. Butterfly * previously unreleased outside of box set
D3. Venus Child * previously unreleased outside of box set
D4. Pick Yourself Up * previously unreleased outside of box set