Customer Reviews

Midnight To Midnight

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I got this album on cassette when it first came out and I still listen to it often! I'll be needing to get the CD soon though, because my tape is worn out! 'Midnight To Midnight' really is my favorite album by the Psychedelic Furs. I've been trying to find bands that play music similarly, but I've had no success. So, I'll just keep listening happily to this album. Every song is hypnotically perfect!

By all means buy this album if you like the furs you wont be unhappy, however this is possibly the most ordinary of all their recordings seemingly aimed for the mainstream rather than producing the individuality and class their earlier and later works have.

Still on the bright side Richard Butlers voice always shines through.

I remember when Bob Mould, the driving force of the punk band Husker Du, formed the band Sugar and released the terrific "Copper Blue." On an interview, he said something like he didn't realize he could write such good pop songs. Well with "Midnight to Midnight," the Psychedelic Furs, continuing the trend started on some portions of their prior album "Mirror Moves," can clearly make the same claim. I don't know why the members of the band, in their pictures on the album, all look like they're on their way to some seedy all-male disco (hey - there's nothing wrong with that!), but "Midnight to Midnight" with its shimmering melodies and songs about love and heartbreak, is a very good album from start to finish.

As in "Mirror Moves," the best song on this album is probably the first track -- "Heartbreak Beat" with its slow build-up and uplifting chorus (can anyone sing a phrase like "And it feels like love" as convincingly as Richard Butler?). The title track is also quite excellent ("love is no law, love is no crime" -- huh?), and "Shock," "Shadow In My Heart," and "All of the Law" are other stand-outs.

One quibble I have is that in these later albums, Butler doesn't appear to put in too much of an effort lyrically. Early albums contained more obscure themes, whereas here, the lyrics seem to be an after-thought. In any event, I thoroughly enjoy "Midnight to Midnight," and like the band's subsequent, somewhat darker album, "Book of Days," even more.

Many Psychedelic Furs fans feel that, of all the albums they released, this is their worst. Sure, the cover photographs (with band members dressed in gaudy leather) have been, perhaps rightfully, derided, but when you ignore the image the band was projecting and focus on the music, you're in for a treat. I can honestly say I like every one of the songs on this album, although highlights include "Heartbreak Beat" (the album's most successful release), "Shadow In My Heart", "Angels Don't Cry", "Midnight to Midnight", and the excellent closing track "No Release". Recommended.

Side One
1. Heartbreak Beat
2. Shock
3. Shadow in My Heart
4. Angels Don't Cry
Side Two
5. Midnight to Midnight
6. One More Word
7. All of the Law
8. Torture
9. No Release

This is the worst Furs album -- everything else they ever did (and including the 2 albums by Love Spit Love) was fantastic.

To me, it feels like a tired effort -- an attempt to milk the late 80s glam image of the Furs' when they no longer had the heart for it.

It also alienated a lot of their original fans, so that the critics unfairly panned the Furs 2 great albums that came afterward in the 90s, as well as the 2 great Love Spit Love albums.

If you like top 40 with a slight alternative edge, you might like this. But if you really want to know what the Furs were all about, start with a different album, and add this one only when you feel you've got to have them all...

From what I gather of P.F. fans, there are two kinds, the ones that like this album, and don't really like the rest, and the ones that hate this album and love the rest. I guess I am one that likes this album, but I do like the rest also, just not quite as much. I can understand why some fans dislike this album, it is their most polished and slick recording. Even the band admits this and considers it a fault. I guess mainly why I like it though is due mostly to the nostalgic value. Heartbreak Beat, Angels Don't Cry and All Of the Law remind me of some of the best times of my life, when I was a kid. I own quite a few albums by the Furs, including Talk, Talk, Talk, which most hardcore fans would admit is their best album, but I still like Midnight better. I like Butler's voice on this recording, it sounds a lot less harsh, much more listenable. I won't say emotional, because all of his vocals were that, but his voice is so smooth on Midnight. Plus it has such a classic, great 80's sound. I am also a fan of Love Spit Love, and this album reminds me most of that. I think everyone has heard Heartbreak Beat at one point in time, it was such a huge hit, so I would recommend buying this album if you like that song. For everyone else, it's going to be hit or miss, so listen before you buy it.

Some would say that this album is when the Furs finally sell out.

The cover and inner art definately give the impression of image over substance, but to lump this album with other "image" albums of the time would be missing the point. The Furs, like all other bands, evolve over time and this album shows the Furs in an interesting moment in their evolution. Sitting between punk and pop they pave their own vision. While punk died and pop whitherd, this album lunged into new ground.

Listen and enjoy all the way through. My favorite too.

If you're catching up with the furs, buy this one last. It has a few good songs but their earlier (and later) efforts are superior.