The Psychedelic Furs
Mirror Moves

THE REVIEW

Fourth album for The Psychedelic Furs: the memory immediately goes to two hits contained in the record, "The Ghost in You" and "Heaven". It was 1984 and the new wave was shooting its final rounds. So much so that some bands, Simple Minds to name one, had put aside the drive for research and experimentation and those who could were enjoying the success of a hard-earned place in the sun in the more reassuring territory of the mainstream: The Psychedelic Furs, to mention another.

Thoroughbred Londoners, they recorded "Mirror Moves" in Los Angeles and New York, bidding farewell with a wave of the handkerchief to their debut days, which had seen them among the emerging bands and then protagonists of the punk and post-punk scene. But this album is something else by now, and stylistically it approaches more to a melodic rock or a pseudo-pop.

"The Ghost in You", indeed. The opening track of the album, and who could question it? The introductory melody entrusted to the keyboards acts as a bait, the vocal parts – both the main ones and the supporting choruses – do the rest, and the fish take the bait. "Heaven", does anyone have something to say? At the time, it was in heavy rotation on MTV, with that beautiful video of the psychedelic furs happily under the downpour, singing in the rain.

And if this album is ultimately saved, we owe it to the frontman Richard Butler, one of the most remarkable voices of the '80s: a phlegmatic but expressive voice, rough without being raucous, which like many other vocalists of that generation finds its inspiration in David Bowie, succeeding in the best cases in emancipating from it.

As happens in "Here Come Cowboys", a perfect track in itself: bad guitars with a metallic and severe tone, heavy rhythm, the serene and sharp voice of Butler. It's a pity that the rest of the album is not all at the same level, otherwise, in front of the mirror, we would have found a work of a completely different caliber.