★★★★
The Psychedelic Furs could occupy space in multiple chapters of music’s annals: post-punk, new wave, new pop, and alt-pop. Despite this, they’ve maintained a sound that is both consistent and distinctive, if not always reliably distinguished, because – like many bands of their era – they rather lost their way after a decade. This is something they appear to acknowledge: there’s only one track, House, from 1989’s Book Of Days and none from 1991’s World Outside. This means the second disc tracks a downturn through 1984’s Mirror Moves and 1987’s Midnight To Midnight, rescued only by the swirl of Don’t Believe from last year’s outstanding comeback, Made Of Rain. More from that album would have been welcome, in fact, but fortunately Disc 1 is almost infallible, with Pulse’s urgent punk and Sister Europe’s sinister Cure-like creep from their 1980 debut and, from 1981’s Talk Talk Talk, Dumb Waiters’ squawking sax riff and All Of This And Nothing’s spiky claustrophobia (not to mention the original Pretty In Pink). It peaks with the swooning Love My Way, full of China Girl-style marimbas, and the menacing President Gas, both from 1982’s Forever Now.