What really pins it all together though, are the strength of the hooks, the simple pop structures and the feeling that this record isn’t just a set of references thrown together, but the work of a band which wants to communicate with its audience.
Handsome Furs – Face Control
http://www.konkurrent.nl/ http://www.subpop.com/
A stonking record this, Incendiary can’t recommend it too highly. Despite the Furs nailing their colours firmly to the Art School mast, this is an accessible, hard edged and a slightly sleazy set of pop songs. In fact there were times when I was reminded of Soft Cell’s masterpiece, Non Stop Erotic Cabaret, especially when you consider that electronic pulse underpinning the opening tracks Legal Tender or Evangeline. At one point, the band play around with New Order’s Temptation on All We Want Baby, Is Everything. It could be 1982, it really could.
There are other things going on this LP; a predilection for weird, clunky, White Car in Germany-style synth noises, (Passport Kontrol) and (White City), or magnificently tinny-sounding Utopian rock (I’m Confused and the Dinger-‘Mode mutations seen in Radio Kalingrad). What really pins it all together though, are the strength of the hooks, the simple pop structures and the feeling that this record isn’t just a set of references thrown together, but the work of a band which wants to communicate with its audience.
Kitchen people can definitely dance to this.
Words: Richard Foster