Tag Archives: Music Reviews

Psychedelic Furs, Made Of Rain (2020) A (On Time!) Review

Back in the 1980’s, one of my favorite bands was The Psychedelic Furs. Their music was post-punk/new wave but they seemed to steer a course uniquely their own, with hits including Pretty In Pink, the song which became the basis/title to a John Hughes directed film…

Here’s one of their biggest hits and one of my favorites, Love My Way (love the drumming toward the end of the song!)…

And here’s the absolutely haunting and lovely The Ghost In You

The group seemed to build steam, becoming better and better and more popular with each new album. Then came their 1987 album Midnight To Midnight, which I personally loved but which others seemed to feel was a big drop in quality for the Furs, as well as embarrassing for the images they used (specifically, all that flashy leather) on their album cover and interiors…

Midnight To Midnight

While I loved the album, their subsequent follow up albums, 1989’s Book of Days and 1991’s World Outside, also in my estimation pretty damn good works, seemed to show interest in the Furs and their music was in decline among the general public. Neither album -at least that I can remember- made much of a splash and after the World Outside release, it seemed the Furs were done.

Lead singer/writer Richard Butler would go on to release two albums under the Love Spit Love moniker and, again, I liked them but yet again they didn’t seem to make many waves with the public.

The Psychedelic Furs, however, reformed and continued touring and, while doing so, Richard Butler and company decided they didn’t want to simply keep repeating/singing the old standards. They developed an itch to create a new album with new songs.

So an astonishing twenty nine years after the release of their last album, The Psychedelic Furs last week released their brand new album Made of Rain.

Made of Rain

Frankly, I was both astonished and pleased with the new material.

This is a strong album which is very much filled with the Furs’ best type of songs: At times morose, mysterious, and heart-felt.

One song in particular just blows my socks off, No-One

Just… wow.

While I feel that song is the highlight of the album, there are plenty of other great tunes to dig into, including The Boy That Invented Rock and Roll and Don’t Believe.

The album sounds like it could have been released in/around the time the other wonderful Furs albums were released. Yeah, I guess you could take that as a backhanded compliment: Jeeze, have they progressed any in all these years?

It isn’t a backhanded compliment, though. When picking up a Furs album, one expects a certain sound and tone and this album has it in spades.

A critic noted this album was like David Bowie’s Blackstar, a magnificent new work which neatly fits into and compliments the others.

While I hope this isn’t the last we hear of new Psychedelic Furs works, it shows that when Butler and company got together and decided to do something new, they didn’t just rest on their laurels. They came back with a beautiful, wonderful new work which proudly sits among their best.

Highly recommended, especially for Furs fans like myself!