Search - Psychedelic Furs :: Book of Days

Too Good for the Masses, Obviously

Dan | Kodiak, AK United States | 11/15/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I love the Furs and find each one of their albums and their differences (sometimes subtle, sometimes not) enjoyable. I am utterly flabbergasted that "Book of Days" and the following year's "World Outside" failed to sell. Both albums are similar in style with "Book" being the slightly better of the two, but they are poetic, haunting, and musically fantastic.I'm further surprised that both the Furs and their label Columbia are treating both CD's like "red-headed stepchildren" by practically denying their existence. On the remixed early Furs releases, the liner notes show a list of ALL Psychedelic Furs releases and "Book" and "World" are both missing... Such a shame that because they didn't achieve commercial success they now are blighted from corporate memory... and future sales.If you can find "Book of Days" and you are a Fur's fan, I strongly suggest buying it... and "World Outside" too."

My favorite Furs album

trainreader | Montclair, N.J. | 06/26/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While "Book of Days" has a similar melodic sound to the Psychedelic Furs previous album, "Midnight to Midnight," it is darker, and superior in every respect -- musically and lyrically. This categorizes "Book" as a truly superb album - in my opinion the band's best - since "Midnight" is quite good. Here, Richard Butler sings of feelings of regret, hopelessness and squandered time, which is a marked departure to the feel-good theme of the previous album.



Interestingly, "Book" starts off with one of the less stellar tracks, "Shine," a song which doesn't reflect the general tenor of the album. It can be argued that, on all of the band's previous albums, the first track is the strongest one on the album, or close to it. This is definitely true on the prior two: "Midnight" ("Heartbreak Beat") and "Mirror Moves" ("The Ghost In You"). The second track, "Entertain Me," is probably my favorite song on any Furs album (tied with "India"). "Entertain Me" starts off with what sounds like a jet plane or a race car, which leads into an intriguing bass line, reminiscent of The Cure's "Shiver and Shake." I wonder if Kurt Cobain was influenced by this song when writing the lyrics for his masterpiece "Smells Like Teen Spirit."



The title track, "Book of Days," about a women who feels she's wasting her life away, is superb, as is "Should God Forget," "Parade," and "I Don't Mine." There is no filler on this album, and it can be listened to repeatedly without getting stale. Perhaps the debut album of "The Psychedelic Furs" was more innovative, but I believe that "Book of Days" remains the band's seminal work."

The Furs go Punk one last time

Dan | 04/18/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In a total reversal from their glossy, commercial 1987 release, Midnight to Midnight, The Psychedelic Furs released their least commercial album, Book of Days, in 1989. They even put the "The" back into their name, as Midnight to Midnight" identified them as "Psychedelic Furs." To put this album into some context, 1989 was the same year that featured albums by other 'new wave' acts like XTC, The Cure, Elvis Costello, Howard Jones, and Love & Rockets....all of which had at least some videos air on MTV, which was still crucial to commercial success. But Book of Days went unnoticed by me and it seems many others for years. Now that I have acquired a copy to complete my Furs collection, I can review it. Overall, this is a fine album. Being a biased Furs fan, I can't say the Furs ever made a bad album. Mirror Moves and Midnight to Midnight seem to be mentioned as their weaker efforts, but both yielded significant songs. But I think Book of Days ranks with their first two albums and their final CD as their very best (so their first 2 and final 2 would be my picks). This project had the Furs going back to what made them so different and exciting. Highlights include "Entertain Me," the title track, "Parade," and "Wedding." This album is dominated by a droning, post-punk sound that requires several listens to grow on you. There is not much melody or hooks here, but this is a memorable set of darker songs (with the arguable exception of two slightly-brighter songs, "Shine" and "Should God Forget"). It returns the stripped-down production that won fans in 1980-1981. Even the horns have been benched compared to all their previous efforts (a sax appears briefly on "Should God Forget" and "Wedding"). I don't want to overstate how excellent this album is, but I do have to say that it seems to be a descendant of the Cure's "Pornography" album (which we can all agree was groundbreaking - 10 years ahead of its time). That might explain why it would be treasured today, but not back in the late 1980's, when high-production values were expected from every major band. This is just the Butler brothers, John Aston, and Vince Ely doing what they do best, without any care of going gold, let alone platinum, and good thing too. Back in 1989, I was 16, and I still blindly assumed that most albums that weren't on the Billboard chart must not be that good. But I wised-up towards the end of the year and bought Michael Hutchence's 'Max Q" album, which is still a great forgotten classic. Now I wish I had discovered this one as well. But no matter, I can crank it up today. If you ever liked the Furs, this is a must for your collection."