Pulsating electronic beats, a voice not far from Alan Vega (Suicide), demented guitar riffs, an absurd amount of infectious hooks...not more than a few seconds into first song "Legal Tender" and this album has already taken us by storm in every possible way. But the fact that its momentum never stops until the very end is a bit of a surprise. A husband & wife duo, Handsome Furs is also a side-project of Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade) with a first record ("Plague Park") that didn't create much waves back in 2007. But fast forward to 2009, and we now have an amazing collection of addictive songs in our hands, which even include a re-writing of a New Order's 1982 classic ("Temptation") among them. What's even more surprising is how everything is so spared and focused to achieve maximum effect, using a very simple and direct approach: invent a single hook and repeat it until it has revealed all its potential and urgency. Following this rule, there's no need for much more than three-chord melodies, skeletal drum machines, one guitar, handclaps and keyboards... and the world is ours. Want to know the name of that New-Order-based song? Fittingly, "All We Want, Baby, Is Everything". (7,5/10)
Handsome Furs - I'm Confused (video)
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