Back in the mid-Eighties there was a slew of films that were connected to a hit single. Some of the songs at least had something to do with the film – Electric Dreams (Phil Oakey) and Ghostbusters (Ray Parker Jr), for example, others were a bit of radio rock that just happened to feature – Crocodile Dundee with Live It Up by Mental As Anything, for example, and the most Eighties of all Eighties films, Top Gun, featured two, count ‘em, two, related tracks – Take My Breathe Away (Berlin) and Highway To The Danger Zone (Kenny Loggins).
But arguably it started here, with the track Pretty In Pink. Started, because John Hughes liked the track and used it loosely as the inspiration for his Brat Pack film five years later, with The Psychedelic Furs re-recording the piece for the film soundtrack (which heavily featured other New Wave/Post punk artists). When this album first came out, however, nobody had any thoughts of Molly Ringwald and teenage relationship troubles.
I was sixteen when the film was out, although I don’t think I saw it in cinemas (it wasn’t really my sort of thing then or now); however, the track still evokes the confusion and uncertainty of that age, partly through associations but also partly through the song itself, vocalist Richard Butler’s vocals being a mix of post-punk roughness infused with soulful sadness.
The question is, does the rest of the album stand up to its most famous track, to which the answer is, mostly, yeah. It’s not, at least, simply the Big Track done in other ways that are not quite as effective, but it does still convey that sense of churning emotion, not least the longer All Of This And Nothing.
Throughout, Duncan Kilburn provides some Bowie-esque saxophone that complements some of the tunes nicely, especially on No Tears. There’s a bit of a Bowie feel to the sound overall, so I wonder if it’s a deliberate homage. The other track that stood out to me was the chaotic Dumb Waiters – here perhaps the Furs sound more like early Roxy Music, leaping about all over the musical place and yet crafting a deliciously complex and rewarding whole from seemingly disparate parts.
As far as yet another example of New Wave/post-punk music goes, this one probably isn’t indispensible, occupying maybe a slightly edgier position than, say, The Teardrop Explodes in the pantheon, but a more poppy position than Joy Division. It’d be nice if they weren’t so tightly associated with the film, as the other tracks are worth a listen, but at the same time I’m not surprised that they’re only really remembered for the one track.
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