The Psychedelic Furs: 2 Albums: Psychedelic Furs 1980 + Talk Talk Talk 1981

The Psychedelic Furs are a British new wave band founded in London in February 1977. Their name was inspired by the 1966 Velvet Underground song "Venus in Furs". Led by singer Richard Butler and his brother Tim Butler on bass guitar, the Psychedelic Furs are one of the many acts spawned from the British post-punk scene. Their music went through several phases, from an initially austere art rock sound, to later touching on new wave and hard rock.

By this time, 1977, the group had become a sextet, adding guitarist John Ashton and drummer Vince Ely. This was the lineup on their first single, "We Love You," which was released in 1979. It was followed by another single, "Sister Europe," then in 1980 the group's mostly Steve Lillywhite-produced eponymous debut album. "The Psychedelic Furs" dark mixture of punk attitude, post-punk moroseness, and classic songcraft took the record into the Top 20 in the U.K. and earned them a U.S. release as well.
The band scored several hits in their early career. In 1986, filmmaker John Hughes used their song "Pretty in Pink" for his movie of the same name.

The Furs did find success in the US with their next release, 1981's "Talk Talk Talk", which saw the band making its debut on the US Billboard 200 chart. In the UK, the album yielded two charting singles, "Dumb Waiters" and the original version of "Pretty in Pink". The latter song served as inspiration for the 1986 John Hughes film of the same name, and was re-recorded for the platinum-selling soundtrack - though Richard Butler was later adamant that the cinematic interpretation had very little to do with the song's original intent.

In 1982, the band was reduced to a quartet with the departures of Morris and Kilburn, and moved to the U.S. in search of a producer. The band recorded their next album, "Forever Now", with record producer Todd Rundgren in Woodstock, New York. Released in September 1982, this album contained "Love My Way", which became another UK chart entry, and also their first US Billboard Hot 100 single.

Ely left the band after Forever Now (though he would later return in 1988). The next album, "Mirror Moves" was produced by Keith Forsey (who also programmed the drums and became the band's

drummer), and featured the songs "The Ghost in You" and "Heaven". Both charted in the UK, and "Heaven" became the band's highest charting UK hit at the time, peaking at No. 29. Columbia Records opted for "Here Come Cowboys" for the corresponding US release, which failed to chart, but "The Ghost In You" was a hit on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, "The Ghost In You" also charted. "Mirror Moves" became a Top 20 album on the Canadian Albums Chart and was named the No. 1 album of 1984 by Toronto new wave radio station CFNY.
Richard Butler in 2006

PSYCHEDELIC FURS  1980 (CD reissue) 2002

The Psychedelic Furs is the debut studio album by the Psychedelic Furs. It was released on 7 March 1980 by Columbia Records. It was reissued with bonus tracks in 2002 by Columbia/Legacy.
The original UK LP had nine tracks. The US LP contained 10 tracks, deleting one track from the UK LP ("Blacks/Radio") and adding two others ("Susan's Strange" and "Soap Commercial"), and changing the order of the tracks significantly. The CD reissue contained 13 tracks, beginning with the original nine UK LP tracks (programmed in their original order), then adding the two additional tracks from the US LP release, plus a version of "Mack the Knife" and a demo of the album track "Flowers".

[  AllMusic Review by Ned Raggett  [-]
Emerging from the incipient post-punk London scene with a healthy fascination for late-'70s Bowie (and in turn, for his own attraction to Krautrock), the then-sextet kicked up a slightly monochromatic

but still attractive storm on their debut. Richard Butler's Thin-White-Duke-after-smoking vocal rasp has a surprising appeal, serving up a wry, slightly detached series of lyrics on life. The members of the core band, meanwhile, had clearly honed their chops well on-stage; Ashton's lead guitar work avoids both wankery and simplicity in favor of a balanced, artistic power.

Production mainly comes from Steve Lillywhite, who smartly steers away from the soon-to-be-clichéd touches he would bring to U2's early work. "India" is a good example; it has a brooding, quiet beginning with strange telegraphic signals and turns into a brawling rocker without sounding like the Edge or Larry Mullins going off. The record comes off as serious without being self-consciously deep, occasional toe-dipping into humorous aside ("We Love You" has Butler idly listing off things he loves, sometimes with appropriate if sarcastically delivered song quotes: "I'm in love with Frank Sinatra...fly me to the moon...").

"Imitation of Christ" is the most frazzled, with lyrics detailing someone else metaphorically nailing himself up over a light but still strange guitar line. "Wedding Song" is amusingly prescient as one of the first "white rockers go hip-hop" numbers of its kind, along with Blondie's "Rapture," though its inspiration could equally be dub. Ely lays down a pounding funk beat while Butler breaks into a midsong rap no better or worse than most such efforts of the time.]

The Psychedelic Furs ‎– The Psychedelic Furs

Label: 2002 by Columbia/Legacy.

Format: CD, Album, Reissue

Country: Europe

Released: 2002

Genre: Rock

Style: New Wave, Post Punk

TRACKS (CD reissue) 2002

01. India – 6:21

02. Sister Europe – 5:38

03. Imitation of Christ – 5:28

04. Fall – 2:40

05. Pulse – 2:37 (produced by Howard Thompson, Ian Taylor and the Psychedelic Furs)

06. We Love You – 3:26 (produced by Howard Thompson, Ian Taylor and the Psychedelic Furs)

07. Wedding Song – 4:19

08. Blacks/Radio – 6:56

09. Flowers – 4:10 (produced by Howard Thompson, Ian Taylor and the Psychedelic Furs)

 Bonus Tracks

10. Susan's Strange – 3:13 (produced by Martin Hannett)

11. Soap Commercial – 2:53 (produced by Martin Hannett)

12. Mack the Knife (Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Marc Blitzstein) – 4:18 (produced by the Psychedelic Furs)

13. Flowers (Demo) – 5:36 (produced by the Psychedelic Furs)

MEMBERS

Richard Butler – lead and background vocals

John Ashton – guitar

Tim Butler – bass guitar

Vince Ely – drums

Roger Morris – guitar

Duncan Kilburn – saxophones

Technical

Howard Thompson - executive producer

Phil Thornalley - engineer

Steve Lillywhite - producer

IMITATION OF CHRIST LYRICS

Another Christ is on the cross

The nails are words, the nails are lies

To make it crawl and make it scream

And make it real and make it bleed

And make it bleed and make it bleed

And make it bleed and make it dream

Imitation of Christ

Imitation of Christ

This you who lie and scream

You fall to dust, you fall to dust

In walls of word, your words are blind

You speak and you are dumb and blind

The word that is your god

Is you who fall so low and fall so far

Imitation of Christ

Imitation of Christ

Fly to the moon, dear, sew it on a stool

Tie it on the carpet, all the cowboys fall

See the cowboys fat and reeling

Dancing underneath the ceiling

Leave the bar, the theatre's closing

Make a wall of your religion

Imitation of Christ

Imitation of Christ

Mary, Mary, mother, mother

You and me and God the father

Jesus is a woman too

He looks like all of me and you

Your money talks and all your friends

Will laugh at her pathetic tits

Imitation of Christ

Imitation of Christ

Imitation of Christ

Imitation

MP3 @ 320 Size: 134 MB

Flac  Size: 389 MB

TALK TALK TALK  1981 (CD Reissue, Remastered 2011)

New wave icons the Psychedelic Furs built a career on mysterious pop songs guided by the world-weary and unmistakable vocals of Richard Butler and an always-evolving sound that started off as stark post-punk then took detours into synth pop, dance rock, and mainstream alternative. Along the way, they released a classic album that fused the energy of punk with the brightness of new wave (1981's Talk Talk Talk) and a string of singles highlighted by "Love My Way," "Heaven," and "Heartbreak Beat" that proved popular and influential.

Their classic song "Pretty in Pink" became the inspiration for the film of the same name and others showed up regularly in movies and TV shows. Though the band ran aground in the early '90s, they returned a decade later to launch a successful career as a live act, and with 2020's release Made of

Rain, showed they could still deliver epic and meaningful records.

[  AllMusic Review by Ned Raggett  [-]
This time working solely with Steve Lillywhite, the Furs introduce a brighter, poppier side to their underground rock edge, with smashing results throughout. The group produces some powerful songs, even more rough-edged than before. Especially striking is "Dumb Waiters," with its queasy, slow-paced arrangement that allows both Kilburn's sax and Ashton's guitar to go wild.

However, the six still create some undeniable pop classics. Most well-known is the lead track, "Pretty in Pink," inspiration for the iconic John Hughes film years later and re-recorded as a result. The original is still where to go, though, with Butler's catchy description of a romantically unsure woman matched by a killer band performance. Similarly lighter numbers on the record call to mind a rockier version of Roxy Music's output in later years: elegant, romantic angst given a slightly rougher edge in both music and vocals.

"She Is Mine" is especially fine as a gently swinging number with some of Butler's best, quietly ruminative lyrics.

Straight-up anthems abound as well, the best being the amazing "Into You Like a Train," which mixes the blunt desire of the title with a sparkling Ashton guitar line and a fast rhythm punch. Talk Talk Talk ends on another high with "All of This and Nothing." A soft, acoustic guitar-sax-rhythm combination introduces the song, then fades away for the main section to begin; Butler details bits and pieces from a lost relationship over a sharp full-band performance, and a final drum smash leads into a reprise of the start -- a fine way to end a fine record.]

The Psychedelic Furs ‎– Talk Talk Talk

Label: Legacy ‎– 5063632000, Columbia ‎– COL 506363 2

Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered 2011

Country: Europe

Released: 2002 reissue

Genre: Rock

Style: New Wave, Post-Punk

TRACKS

01. Dumb Waiters     5:04

02. Pretty In Pink     3:58

03. I Wanna Sleep With You     3:19

04. No Tears     3:17

05. Mr. Jones     4:03

06. Into You Like A Train     4:35

07. It Goes On     3:52

08. So Run Down     2:54

09. All Of This And Nothing     6:23

10. She Is Mine     3:53

Bonus Tracks

11. Mr. Jones (Single Version)    3:26

12. So Run Down (Early Version)  3:05

13. All Of This And Nothing (Demo)   9:02

Mastered At – Sony Music Studios, New York City

Phonographic Copyright (p) – Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd.

Copyright (c) – Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

Credits

Bass – Tim Butler

Design – Steven Newman

Drums, Percussion – Vince Ely

Guitar – John Ashton, Roger Morris

Horns, Keyboards – Duncan Kilburn

Mastered By – Mark Wilder

Producer – Steve Lillywhite (tracks: 1 to 10)

Vocals [Words] – Richard Butler

Written-By, Arranged By – The Psychedelic Furs

Notes

Originally stickered "Sony Music nice price"...

Track 13 ends at 3:51, followed by silence, and then a promotional radio medley from 4:24 to 8:58.

Mastered at Sony Music Studios, New York

MP3 @ 320 Size:  130 MB

Flac  Size: 389 MB