Furs

there are never enough lost causes in the world for tom...

I write because "President Gas" has been on my playlist for aaaaages. I used to be into them when I was v.young and didn't know what was cool or not, and then I wasn't into them, but at this distance I couldnt remember why I'd stopped liking them. I wonder. He's got an interesting voice.

Will I look like too much of a sad groupie of all things Bowie- derived if I say I rilly rilly liked everything they did up 'til Mirror Moves?

Yes, I'm afraid I will. Oh well...

They were alright. Actually, I think that song from that film hurt them artistically. They kind of turned into INXS.

I always liked "India".
Richard Butler's voice gets on my nerves after about 45 minutes - so I can listen to them in short doses, but rarely choose to.

Thesis: better than Suede.

(not saying much obviously).

They were alright. Actually, I think that song from that film hurt them artistically. They kind of turned into INXS.

I think you're right -- they re-recorded the song for the movie, all the edges have been smoothed out. Not only that, they put in horns! Gah!

Since that was such a sucess they proceeded to play it safe, try to keep the fans they got as a result of the movie's success by blanding out their sound quite a bit.

ILE regular Alex T used to claim that their 1990 album was a blinding return to form nay the best record of their career. I remember it being probably the most tuneless thing I've ever heard.

What I heard off it (a couple of songs) it seemed pretty bad, yeah.

Of course since I have not heard the whole album I have no right to comment. ;-)

Doesn't Pinefox like them? I used to vaguely like them way back, until I actually bothered sitting down and listening. I realized that the first two albums are two of the most joyless records I've ever heard. And it's not aggressive joylessness (say like Black Flag) just drug-dulled, petulant, passive whining. I've never heard anything after TTT.

'Talk Talk Talk'=classic classic classic--one of my half dozen favourite albums of the '80s. Pure surface genius. Richard Butler's voice is brilliant, somewhere between Rotten, Bowie, and Liam (which is to say, he's got a great sore throat). Fave lyric #1: "You don't have a point of view/you don't have to say you doooo." Fave lyrics #2: "How can you believe in them? Don't believe in ANYthing." (Emphasis important.)

which album was "Love My Way" on? I love that song.

That was "Forever Now", which was pretty good. "Talk Talk Talk" was the one, though.

Back when I was a young h.s. lass, the Furs were one of those bands you were supposed to be embarrassed to like. I remember one guy telling me that trendies only liked them because they liked saying the name - "there is nothing 'psychedelic' about them!". But a lot of the eighties stuff I like is the stuff that was slammed as 'derivative' and that has an obvious sensual appeal. That voice was gorgeous. Although, as someone pointed out elsewhere, he does use the word 'stupid' too much.

Oh, great, of course. So say I. Nicole ID'd the key point about them -- namely, love the early albums, fear the later downturn. There are some great songs on the last two, though, when they got their act back together -- "House," "Should God Forget," "Until She Comes." Further wibbling at the usual AMG review locations.

Good album filler on the Pretty In Pink soundtrack.

They had their moments. I didn't mind a couple of the songs on Midnight to Midnight though, admittedly, I was in learning mode at the time and would probably find it dire now, to borrow a common ILM term. One of my pals recently went to a concert where the Furs were sharing the bill with Echo and the Bunnymen, and the report I got back was that while Echo was absolutely fab, the Furs reunion smacked of nostalgic desperation: while it was competent enough, it didn't really have much spark...and the new songs were pretty lousy, apparently. I was never into the Furs enough to feel compelled to revisit them, though.

I never really cared much for them, but I remember... shit, 10 years ago, I was at the home of Blake from Jawbreaker after a San Francisco show, and in his room he had a poster and a bunch of P. Furs records... He swore they were his favorite band, so now whenever I hear a Jawbreaker/Jets to Brazil tune, or even a Psyechedelic Furs song, I hear the connection.

I'm amazed to see that no one has a positive word for that first record of theirs, which I love to a possibly irrational extent. Because ... well, punk was so mostly the same, and then it mostly dribbled itself straight forward into new wave, but I am consistently fascinated by all of those bands who were "spinning off" punk and new wave in 78/79, and whose individual quirks ended up setting a more general tone into the 80s. (I think what this means is: I also love Cure and XTC records from the same period.)

That said, The Psychedelic Furs, with its ecstatically involving snottiness ("We Love You") and its dulled, pained snottiness ("Wedding Song") and one of its worst songs still pointing weirdly ahead of its time ("Imitation of Christ," which was clearly an "experiment" but actually, and maybe unfortunately, quite prescient) and its actually sort of psychedelic qualities -- insofar as if the drone of Krautrock in any way constituted "psychedelia," then surely this borders, at moments -- it amazes me. I've just checked the AMG entry for it while writing this, and it turns out you can get Ned's take by heading there.

As for the remainder of their career, I can't say that I've done a whole lot of digging into it, album-by-album: I have mainly heard the singles and I have heard the collections, both of which imply that they sort of drifted in and out of sounds that worked and sounds that didn't. They were better the closer they stayed to a punk-based dramatic script: "President Gas" works, "Heartbreak Beat" doesn't. I've begun to realize, though, that a lot of the tracks that sound most embarrassingly of-the-period -- the "It was the 80s: mistakes were made" songs -- are still remarkably well-written. I hate to admit that it was hearing that two-time Friend-fucker from Counting Crows sing "The Ghost in You" that made me remember how emotionally affecting that song could be when you're not thinking about how fluffy the keyboards sound (which nobody was at the time, for it was the 80s and fluffy keyboards still amazed us).

And I heartily second Kerry on the "stupid," plus I'd add "useless," but plus I'd add that hardly anyone can say the words "stupid" or "useless" with as much sneering snot and venom as Butler could but still not sound like a scary jerk. He says "stee-yiiiouu-pid" in such a way that you just mentally agree that whatever he's talking about must really deserve it.

A freind of mine from high school used to say they had the word "flowers" in every song. Well, it does pop up a lot.

They're why I started the "Word Sets" thread on ILE. I chose heaven, hell, stupid, useless, broken, painted, lie, flowers, fall, papers (newspapers).

"punk was so mostly the same" = because it only consists of one record as proved by mark s and sterling c!!

rab butler or whatever he's called has a grate voice, "president gas" is a grate song, and paul morley's review of the second LP was the gratest piece of rock writing evah er written not least because it stealed nitsuh's WORD SETS idea, more than 20 years ago

now i read thread sssh

For me they were a classic case of a band that got worse with each album (though I stopped following them pretty quickly, after their 3rd, I guess, so who knows? but anything I have ever heard after that didn't do much for me). I still think the introduction to "India" is pretty good, and the song in general is okay. "Mr. Jones" and "Pretty in Pink" (original version only) were favorites of mine. I certainly played their first couple a lot in high school. I think they were the first place I ever heard the place name "Goa," so I guess they had some educational value. Maybe I should upgrade to getting their first two on CD. Only have vinyl now (and no turn-table) plus a taped copy. We are all stupid we all dream.

that two-time Friend-fucker from Counting Crows

Best description of Adam Duritz evah.

Lisa Kudrow probably feels rejected.

Usually the first thing that comes to mind whenever I think of the Furs is the mental image from the Heaven video where he's spinning around in that rain and it's so obviously frigid there that you can clearly see his breath and considering how arduous and long the usual video shoot is I always think "wow, he must have been so incredibly cold!".

I really really like "Love My Way" and "Heaven." I have been know to listen to them over and over and over -- mixing them into each other no less.

FANTASTIC.

The first two albums are great from stem to stern - then success loomed and they fired Duncan, their saxophone player, whose contributions really set them apart. The version of "Pretty in Pink" from the soundtrack was to those of us who'd loved the original, an utter travesty -- like Radiohead doing a poppier, less depressing "No Surprises."

Their late album "Book of Days," after everyone had written them off, was actually pretty fine, and the last song on it is one of their best ever. Regarding eighties bands, I carry a torch for the Stockholm Monsters, but even their own mothers have no idea who or where they are. JD

Book of Days (1989) = possible masterpiece. Astoundingly desolate theme of title track: a girl who feels old - then grows old, by the end of the song. Shiver to think. 'Torch': allow him that gloriously clichéd Eliotism ('burnt-out days like cigarettes / for your hollow phrase') one more time.

World Outside (1991): adorable. Distant kbds of 'Until She Comes' (I bought a 45 w/ RemiX too on some market); urgent grace of 'Get A Room', which mixes the emotionally small and large and finds them inhering in or echoing each other.

First LP: I like it, punXoR art sneer, PuLsE. Forever Now: dig those easy slashing guitar riffs. Talk Talk Talk: terrific numbers like 'No Tears' (demonstrAAtions, oh, yes), 'All of This and Nothing' (fantastic, dustbin riff circles behind the chorus). 'Pretty In Pink' over-exposed but still a masterpiece and needs no interruption from me.

The provinces, forgotten listening lives, late nights, orange light on wet roads. 1989. Cold summer afternoons: cold fish fingers.

Massive lyrical presence for me: hidden 'influence'.

Best Furs lyric contender: 'I've been waiting all night for someone like you / But / You'll have to do'.

John re: Stockholm Monsters see http://www.ltmpub.freeserve.co.uk/ and http://www.stockholm-monsters.freeserve.co.uk/home.htm.

The news that the master tapes for Alma Mater and the singles have been found, and will be rereleased via LTM has made my day!