The Psychedelic Furs

Moniker to the contrary, the Psychedelic Furs bore little in common with the concurrent "psychedelic revival" of early-'80s British bands like Echo & the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes. Instead, they married post-punk guitar rock with an artier, Bowie-derived archness and a touch of the Velvet Underground's atmospheric din. The guitars of John Ashton and Roger Morris combine with Duncan Kilburn's gloriously trashy sax to produce a wall of sound that's involving but never overwhelming. Kudos for shaping this gargantuan aural attack must go to producers Martin Hannett and Steve Lillywhite.
Over this transcendent racket, Richard Butler lays down his precocious, 40-packs-of cigarettes rasp. His world-weary, stream-of-consciousness poetics color the proceedings considerably. Johnny Rotten's snotty punk iconclasm is the building block for much of this album, but the band's larger agenda is already being implemented.

Tracklisting