We’ve never been a massive selling or even potentially big pop band," lead singer/lyricist Richard Butler noted of Britain's Psychedelic Furs' status in America. "Maybe we'll be more accessible with this latest album."
Such a statement considered in conjunction with the Furs' enlistment of wonder-producer Todd Rundgren on their newest release, Forever Now (Columbia) might substantiate allegations regarding the Furs' intents to enamour themselves to the American listening public.
"No, it's not true that we're going after an American audience," Butler insisted. "We're interested in an American sound more, which is why we chose Rundgren, but we're not chasing an audience.”
"Success was never a motivation or else we wouldn't be the Furs," the lanky, shag-topped Butler emphasized.”
Nevertheless, Butler's distinctive gruff-verging-on-demonic vocal stylings a la Rotten/Pop/Bowie/Reed are intact on Forever Now, but the arrangements are more directed, the direction more precise, the mood more sanguine. Forever Now undeniably represents a departure from the Furs' eponymous 1980 politically inspired debut and the subsequent Talk Talk Talk, featuring Butler's tainted introspections about love. Both records were exercises in time travel through dense jungles of sound and abstract stream-of-consciousness lyricism. The nascent Psychedelic Furs—group who unselfconsciously borrowed from the dank burrows of the Doors and 13th Floor Elevator—created scenarios in which the path leading out of Hansel and Gretel's forest was forever obliterated; the listener was destined to 50 minutes of bleakly evocative lost horizons. In comparison, Forever Now is the Furs' sunny side.
Currently, the Psychedelic Furs are a streamlined version of their former six-member staff, with the nucleus (to be supplemented by hired players for touring) consisting of Richard Butler, his bass-playing brother Tim and guitarist John Ashton. Drummer Phillip Calvert recently replaced the suddenly departed Vince Ely. Despite the personal upheavals, the Furs seem destined to stabilize and to continue attracting fans.
"We were a band that started around the punk time (1977, specifically) but we weren't into punk. I thought it was just too negative. It's much easier to knock something down than it is to build it up," Butler said reflectively. He undoubtedly understands that sentiment better than ever now.