The Psychedelic Furs are an 80s band. I say that having only looked at the album cover and the year Talk Talk Talk was released. And I don't mean they are a regular band that happened to exist in the 80s, like Dire Straits. I mean they play 80s music, full of synths, reverb, and punky British accents. It takes five seconds of listening to the first song, "Dumb Waiters" to convince myself I'm totally right. This song is particularly shrill and annoying with the synths.
Most of the instruments and vocals are really washed out and blended together, which makes it something of a shock about halfway through "No Tears" when a perfectly clear saxophone breaks in for a solo. Later songs do apply the standard reverb to the saxophone sound, which only makes it sound fifty times more awful. Side 2 of the album opens with "Into You Like A Train", which aside from having the most charming title of all time, the song sounds way too similar to the song that closed out side 1, "Mr. Jones". They were similar enough anyway that I had to make sure my iPod wasn't skipping, if that's possible.
"All Of This And Nothing" was OK, especially the parts with no vocals. The lead singer has a lifeless and disinterested scratchy low-tenor that makes me wonder how he has enough energy to get up in the morning. There isn't much more to say. It's 80s music after all. 2 stars.
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