In late July 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, The Psychedelic Furs released their first album in almost 30 years.  Made of Rain found original members Richard and Tim Butler, joined by Paul Garisto, Rich Good, Amanda Kramer, and Mars Williams, in top form.  Presumably there were plenty of fans ready to hear new Furs music after appearances of their classic songs in the film Call Me by Your Name and the television fantasy Stranger Things.  As of this writing, 1982’s “Love My Way” as featured in the former and “The Ghost in You” as heard in the latter have respectively accumulated over 91 million streams and 21 million streams on Spotify alone.

Both of those tracks, as well as “Pretty in Pink” which inspired the 1986 teen dramedy of the same name, are heard on Edsel’s new 2-CD, 29-song career-spanning compilation (also available as an 11-song single LP).  The Best of the Psychedelic Furs traces the English band’s evolution from 1980’s self-titled debut through 2020’s Made of Rain.  In his new liner notes, journalist Ian Peel poses the question, “Where exactly do The Psychedelic Furs sit in the history books, and why?”  He correctly opines that they’d figure prominently in chapters on post-punk, new wave, new pop, and alt-pop (“and inevitably, inadvertently falling down the cracks in between”).  That diversity of sound is heard on the Edsel compilation featuring productions by Steve Lillywhite, Todd Rundgren (who expanded their sonic palette with additional instrumentation), Keith Forsey, Chris Kimsey, and others.

The Furs had considerable chart success in their native England, notching eleven hits on the U.K. Singles Chart.  All of those are featured on this collection other than the 1986 soundtrack re-recording of “Pretty in Pink.”  The grittier original version of the song is included, however.  Three of the band’s four U.S. pop chart entries (all of which also are among those U.K. hits) are here: “Love My Way,” “The Ghost in You,” and “Heartbreak Beat.” (The exception is once again the 1986 re-recording of “Pretty in Pink.”)  Five Furs songs made the U.S. Modern Rock/Alternative Airplay chart, and of those, the chart-topping “All That Money Wants” and “House” are here.  1991’s World Outside is the only one of the Furs’ eight studio albums to be wholly unrepresented despite it having yielded the Modern Rock No. 1 “Until She Comes.”

For more than forty years, The Psychedelic Furs have remained true to themselves.  The band took a hiatus for most of the 1990s (during which time Richard Butler formed the band Love Spit Love, recording two albums) but they’ve been back on the road since 2000.  The Best of the Psychedelic Furs is available now.  It’s been remastered by Phil Kinrade; the 2CD version (housed in a digipak) includes a 16-page booklet with photos, credits, and Peel’s essay.  The LP has those on an insert, too.  You’ll find order links for both the 2CD and 1LP formats as well as the track listing with discographical annotation just below!

The Best of the Psychedelic Furs (Edsel EDSL0085 (U.K.), 2021)

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Disc 1

1. Pulse
2. Sister Europe
3. We Love You
4. Imitation of Christ
5. India
6. Pretty in Pink
7. Mr. Jones (Single Version)
8. Dumb Waiters
9. All of This and Nothing
10. Into You Like a Train
11. She is Mine
12. Love My Way
13. President Gas
14. Sleep Comes Down
15. Only You and I
16. Forever Now
17. No Easy Street

Disc 2

1. The Ghost in You
2. Heaven
3. Heartbeat
4. My Time
5. Like a Stranger
6. Alice’s House
7. Heartbreak Beat
8. Midnight to Midnight
9. Angels Don’t Cry
10. All That Money Wants
11. House
12. Don’t Believe

Disc 1, Tracks 1-5 from The Psychedelic Furs (CBS, 1980)
Disc 1, Tracks 6-11 from Talk Talk Talk (CBS, 1981)
Disc 1, Tracks 12-17 from Forever Now (CBS, 1982)
Disc 2, Tracks 1-6 from Mirror Moves (CBS, 1984)
Disc 2, Tracks 7-9 from Midnight to Midnight (CBS, 1987)
Disc 2, Track 10 from All of This and Nothing (CBS, 1988)
Disc 2, Track 11 from Book of Days (CBS, 1989)
Disc 2, Track 12 from Made of Rain (Cooking Vinyl, 2020)

1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Side A

1. Love My Way
2. Pretty in Pink
3. The Ghost in You
4. Sister Europe
5. Heaven
6. Heartbeat

Side B

1. India
2. President Gas
3. House
4. All That Money Wants
5. Don’t Believe