tracks on LP: India | Sister Europe | Imitation Of Christ | Fall | Pulse | We Love You | Wedding Song | Blacks / Song | Flowers

Record label: CBS 84084

Released: 07/03/80
Purchased: 14/05/83

THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS The Psychedelic Furs (CBS) WE’VE been led to expect something special from the first album by The Psychedelic Furs. As I understand it, ’60s psychedelia – when It wasn’t whimsically silly — was an acid-based stripping of the protective layers of the psyche, and rested on the premise that cathartic self-discovery would lead to greater wisdom.

But track after track, wave after wave of heavy, glossy, fluid sound suffers the same disability. It can’t cut; it doesn’t alter or enlarge perception.

Side one starts with a long, light stream of thin, subtle noise that slides into a hollow thunder of percussion with the primal impact of live drumming rolling round a huge hall. But the opening cry of ‘India’ isn’t revelationary – it’s flat. And the entire album is dogged by the same series of shallow disappointments.

The title ‘Imitation Of Christ’ suggests a tangle of concepts and contradictions that are ripe for emotive exploration. But the track conveys merely weak majesty, gentle melancholy and contains some too trite observations: “Jesus was a woman too / He loves like all of me and you.”

The Psychedelic Furs | S/T | CBS 1980

‘Sister Europe’ has an atmospheric blend of drifting sax, sour-sweet guitar, a tamed jungle of percussion and the repeated line “Sister of mine” that implies it’s aiming at desolate, inchoate desire. Instead It achieves the exotic, mannered glamour of a ’20s scene.

The album’s lyrics are an uneasy amalgam of the abstract and specific and, I suspect, are supposed to be surreal. But they lack the floating violence, the shocking exposure of submerged truth that truly stuns. And the problem is compounded by Butler Rep‘s flat rant, a deadpan delivery that smacks of petty indulgence rather than irrevocably damned decadence.

Thus ‘The Fall’ has stirring rhythmic stabs of drums, bass, guitar, thick, searing sax and finely phrased vocals. But what are they saying? “Marry and be my wife / You can have me all your life . . . I am you and you are me / Tie me down and we’ll be free.” Taken at face value this is facile. And neither verbally or vocally is it incisive enough for satire.

We Love You

The most successful numbers are lush, posh, pumping, luxurious punk. If that sounds silly, try playing ‘Pulse’ or ‘India’ after ‘Pretty Vacant’; the structure — not the content, intent or intrinsic importance— is the same. And on top of this dense, deluxe, often attractive instrumentation are words like “In the eastern carpet store / He is made of dreams / Put his picture on the wall / Just where the mirror gleams.”

The best song is still the first single. Lyrically ‘We Love You’ confines itself to mild sarcasm; musically it has a headier, less inhibited instrumental exhilaration and less contrived, self-important pretensions.

But if you bought the singles, you’ll have already heard three out of nine tracks on on this record. Although it retails at £3.99, in more ways than one The Psychedelic Furs’ album is not quite such a bargain as it first appears. (NME, 01/03/80)

FUR OUT, MAN

PSYCHEDELIC FURS: ‘Psychedelic Furs’ (CBS 84084)

I have not seen the Furs on stage so I came to this album not knowing what to expect. The first time I heard it I hated it. The second time I liked one track. Now I think about half of it is brilliant, can’t take the damn thing off the turntable or get the tunes out of my head.

They are a six-piece band with credits as follows; Butler Rep (words), John Ashton and R Morris (guitars), Tim Butler (bass), Duncan Kilburn (sax) and Vince Ely (drums). Born out of the Velvets / Bowie mould, the album reflects those debts from beginning to end. It has the Velvets ragged looseness, melodic but all the time swaying to the borders of chaos as if in danger of losing time and tune any second. And yet at its best this chaos conceals an enviable tightness and attack.

The lyrics are oppressive and anti-romantic, “Listen to the flowers fall/Paint the words upon the wall” (from ‘Pulse’) with Butler Rep’s sinister rasping half-spoken vocals complimented by the cutting edge of Duncan Kilburn’s excellent sax. Not easy listening, but compelling.

As one might expect with any debut album there are strengths and weaknesses. The riff of ‘We Love You’, the band’s first single and the opening track to side two, is the riff from ‘Waiting For The Man’. Straight. Unfortunately the lyrics reminded me more of Billy Idol than the majestic Lou Reed and the overall effect was to get me thumbing through my record collection looking for the Velvets original.

A more general fault is that many tracks simply are too long, losing their initial drive and direction. “The wedding song goes on and on,” sings Butler Rep, and it does, destroying the sense of latent power that make ‘Pulse’ and ‘Sister Europe’ such strong songs.

‘Sister Europe’ is derivative too, though of a style rather than a specific song. But this time, unlike ‘We Love You’, it works well, the result being a superb, insistent ballad. Opening with a heavy, steady drum beat, then solid bass with a menacing, slow guitar riff and sharp sax. Finally the dry vocals. Bowie-like without doubt and the best track on the album by a street.

Overall, an album well worth a listen. (Record Mirror, 01/03/80)