THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS
Talk Talk Talk
[Columbia NFC 37339]

I have to admit that I liked this album an awful lot when I first heard it. In fact I still like it an awful lot. My reasons have changed though, and it’s very important where you put your stock if you’re going to like it also.

This is about my fourth or fifth draft of the review and I’ll be damned if I’m going to stop this time. My first read like hero-worship, using phrases like “amazing album,” “possibly the best this year,” and “haunting stylists.” Since then the praise has died for the band. It’s a redundant, boring album which no one will remember in a year. The band is dead. Long live ... the Producer.

Steve Lillywhite has fooled everyone again. Just like he did with Penetration, just like he did with Ultravox!, just like he will again with someone else, he has fooled us. Lillywhite has a natural talent for masking all the scratches and dents in his subject, and creating the illusion of genius. Poor Mr. Lillywhite. Little does he know that he is detracting attention from the proper target of praise: Himself. This album is perhaps his finest since [XTC’s] Drums and Wires. But then he had something to work with; here he doesn’t. The Furs’ first album was a grand statement in minimalism. With round-robin producers Lillywhite, Martin Hannett, and themselves keeping the sound fresh from song to song, the album didn’t drag as this one does. While the subject matter was a bit juvenile, it was creative and angry, suitable to their aggressive music. Here it’s wimpy and wishy-washy (albeit inspired wimp-wash), and the guitarists still only know three chords. It doesn’t fit.

The lyrics are good now, and would have sounded better on, say, an early Bowie or Doors album. But when the guitars are crunching power triplets, you’re not really sure if she really is “Pretty in Pink.” Not do you care.

Two songs work well. “She Is Mine” is a poignant and realistic view of the state of romance. “… They’re making up things/ That we all heard before/Like Romance and Engage and Divorce…,” is a stark way of looking at things, but it’s true, isn’t it? “Some people are dancing/and some fall in love/to the music of military tunes.” The sadness is punctuated by a somber accompaniment, rare for the Furs and complete with more than four chords, another rarity!

“Into You Like a Train” is just that. ‘‘Lovers come and go/Or make you Mrs. Anyone/Or make you Mister Me/l’m into you like a train…” With its kickass train-guitars and thundering drums (my, my how Lillywhite loves drums!), this song fulfills the Furs’ potential.

As I said, I still like this album. I just make believe that I was never fooled and go on listening. Bravo Steve! Boo Furs!

-J. E. Sumrell