Velocity : Design : Comfort

The Habitat 67 housing project is prominently featured in the album's artwork.

Velocity : Design : Comfort was recorded at the home of Sweet Trip member Roberto Burgos.[4] A computer was used to record the album.[4] Both Burgos and Valerie Cooper, the other half of Sweet Trip, performed vocals on the record.[5]

According to Burgos, Velocity : Design : Comfort was conceptually influenced by advertising and general consumerism, which is reflected in the album title – which he envisioned as a hypothetical slogan for a luxury car – and some of the track titles (including "Pro : Lov : Ad" and "Design : 2 : 3").[6] He interpreted the album as having "a recurring theme of convincing someone you love to leave it all behind, fall in love with you, and run away to an ideal world".[6]

The cover artwork for Velocity : Design : Comfort features the Montreal housing complex Habitat 67.[6] Burgos suggested that the album's themes are further reflected in the artwork's depiction of Habitat 67, which he described as "the ideal of a modern, modular building that is supposed to make lives better."[6] Cooper offered a different perspective and said that she did not view the artwork as a representation of a "fictional world or idealized utopia", but was simply drawn to its simultaneously jarring and soothing quality.[6]

Sweet Trip's label Darla Records described Velocity : Design : Comfort as being "awash in ethereal Slowdive, Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine guitars and vocals, Aphex Twin and Squarepusher leftfield electronic and acoustic beats, and ambience."[4] AllMusic critic Tim Sendra compared its sound primarily to that of My Bloody Valentine.[7] Burgos stated that much of Sweet Trip's music, especially on their earlier albums, is steeped in shoegaze influences, although "not always in an in-your-face kind of way."[6] He said that he aimed for Velocity : Design : Comfort "to sound like flipping channels late at night and seeing and hearing all kinds of weird infomercials", keeping with the advertising theme explored on the album.[6]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]
Sputnikmusic	4.9/5[2]

Reviewing Velocity : Design : Comfort for AllMusic, Tim Sendra praised the album as "a record that is overflowing with small details and sonic surprises that make each song a delight and add up to push the record into minor classic status", while citing Sweet Trip as being part of a "charge" of artists that "make very forward-thinking records that confound expectations and don't leave the past (i.e., melody and songcraft) behind."[7]

In 2019, Far Out Magazine's Carly Wu listed Velocity : Design : Comfort as the seventh best shoegaze album of all time, declaring that, "[o]f shoegaze and electronic experimentation, it's splendidly animated and fiercely unstoppable; all in all a multi-layered brain-melting listening experience."[8]

All tracks are written by Sweet Trip (Roberto Burgos and Valerie Cooper).

Note

• The track order for LP editions repositions "Chocolate Matter" between "Dsco" and "Velocity".[9]

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[5]

Sweet Trip

• Roberto Burgos (credited as Roby) – instruments, programming, vocals
• Valerie Cooper (credited as Valerie Reyes) – vocals

Additional musicians

• Sue Mee – vocals on "To All the Dancers of the World, a Round Form of Fantasy"
• Aaron Porter – tablas on "Sept"

Production

• Kevin Bartley – mastering
• Sweet Trip – production, mixing

Design

• Elle – design
• Fortunato – design

• Velocity : Design : Comfort at Discogs (list of releases)