NAKED LOVES : 4. THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS - TALK TALK TALK

Picture this. In 1982, a fifteen year old schoolboy makes his first pilrimage to Virgin Megastore on Oxford Circus armed with £40 earned whilst working for his grandfather during the holidays. Safe in the knowledge there wasn't much he couldn't afford, just what would he return home with?

Talk Talk Talk was my introduction to The Psychedelic Furs. I had heard lead-off single Pretty In Pink on the radio but what really got me interested was that the cassette of the album (yes, I know, hipster way before hipster) had been reduced to just £2.99 by those lovely people at the Megastore.

I liked the angular new wave imagery of the album/tape sleeve and the band looked cool in the same way that The Cure looked cool in the early eighties. All messy hair and eyeliner. It's always been an immense source of frustration to me that 'the Furs' (as us true fans call them (shoot me!)) have never been particularly revered or heralded. Every album (OK, maybe not Midnight to Midnight) is fantastic and of all the post-punk bands theirs is the sound which has aged the best. And what about Richard Butler's voice? That's a thing of great beauty indeed...

Talk Talk Talk is a narcotic album which begins with the lop-sided warp of Dumb Waiters . It's intense and demanding with suitably unhinged guitars and a vocal recorded deep in the bowels of hell. It's a great way to start an album. Sex is well documented on this record via the excellent I Wanna Sleep With You and Into You Like A  Train but the lyrics only speak of honest emotions with all the subtext and rock-star innuendo removed.

There's not a dud song on display here and Steve Lillywhite's production is clear and unobtrusive. No Tears is an understated letter to melancholy and resignation whilst Mr Jones clatters away, lost in its own madness, detailing, the bowler hatted commuter set who stalked the railway stations and office blocks of middle class England circa 1981.

Side two doesn't disappoint either with It Goes On barrelling into So Run Down. Interestingly, this track is basically the blueprint for The Smiths 'What Difference Does It Make', still yet to be written, of course. Then we get to perhaps the most interesting part of the album. By rights, I shouldn't have liked All Of This And Nothing because its dares to stray into slightly prog-pop territory. At 6.23 long it certainly wasn't a particularly concise pop moment, which at that time was definetly where my head was at. But there's something deeply hypnotic about this song and its slightly disconnected introduction that kept me coming back for more. Im still love it today. The album finishes with the understated but glorious She Is Mine. This is still one of my fave Furs tracks ever and evferytime i heard it I just wanted to start the album all over again so I could get to it again!

Talk Talk Talk is an exceptional album made by a slyly influential band.

I bought a lot of music on that first day in London but nothing has lasted as long as this one. And before you ask, it wasn't too long before I ditched the sale-priced cassette and upgrade to vinyl.

A joy from start to finish.