The Wrong People [CD]

I love this LP. I used to play it non-stop. And now finally on CD. Wow!

My favourite track was definitely She Gets Out The Scrapbook - fantastic story telling lyrics, emotionally charged, written with a passion that really comes out of the music and twisting vocals, "did we really live like this"?

Brilliant Mind was the biggest selling single - and it is a brilliant track. Catchy, moody, bouncy, all the best of 80s electro-pop, full bodied melodies, love the sax, and clear strong vocals.

Shake Like Judy Shakes and Love Your Shoes, carry on the bouncy themes of Brilliant Mind. I Miss You, slows down a notch, and then we enter the more manic melodies of Pierre's Fight and the Sound of the Bell and Escape Into My Arms. Great tracks all, least that's how I remember it.

When Furniture appeared seemingly out of nowhere with Brilliant Mind and this album in 1986, I was inclined to see them as the only real competition to The Smiths in terms of a British band capable of great wit, intelligence and emotional depth with a distinctive style and top notch songs. And with better singing. It's debatable even as to whether The Smiths ever produced anything as cohesive as The Wrong People, never mind at their first attempt at a full length album. While the bonus B-sides, remixes and particularly unreleased demos are all welcome, it is the original long player that more than justifies the purchase. Barely recognisable as a product of the 80s, every track stands up well today. Never have jazz rhythms, melodies and inflections been married to pop music in such a palatable way (we are not talking Simply Red here). Occasionally veering on avant garde like the cacophonous sections of the single, anchored to fantastic tunes and lyrics that ring so true they border on painful, it's still a gripping listen. I take the meaning of the title to be about falling in love with the wrong people but there's black humour in all but most despairing tracks and the album proper ends on an upbeat resolution. I'm inclined to agree with most fans that the astonishing centrepiece She Gets Out The Scrapbook is the standout track but I am yet to hear a better opening salvo to an album than the first 6 tracks here. Comparisons are difficult so the best thing is to say that if you liked Brilliant Mind there are an embarrassment of riches to be discovered herein.

It's hard to believe that some 24 years ago Furniture released their third album "The wrong people". The band had been doing the rounds in the late 1970's, their first mini album "When the boom was on" released in 1983 was a low key, semi jazzy affair, even so the grit, humour and that dark streak of trademark Furniture was present (the album even featured the original version of "I miss you"). The band's second album "The lovemongers" was more accomplished, still sparse, but just as gritty, the band had developed their sound and in places and it was clear to hear just how good this band were, the original version of "Love your shoes" was enough to hook anyone in, anyone that heard it that was and sadly at the time very few had.

By 1986, little else had been heard of the band until the excellent news that the band had signed to the successful Stiff label and that an album was imminent, at last, a large label had heard the potential in this band that only the select few had been enjoying for the previous three years. The first single from the album "Brilliant mind" was well, brilliant, amazing lyrics, punchy bass, it set a mood, told a story, finally the public took notice, it made number 21 in the UK charts, suddenly the future looked extremely bright. The wrong people" was released later that year, it was a masterpiece, the production, the strings, the keys, everything had been turned up five notches from the sparse production of the first two albums. The songs were flawless, the opening "Shake like Judy says", washed over the listner creating a desperate ache, it fell stright into the re-worked "Love your shoes", it was full throttle Furniture (how this single failed to chart is beyond belief). "She gets out the scrapbook" is the band's jewel in the crown, six minutes of heartache, told in a story, it builds to a huge crescendo of sound, if this track didn't move the listner to tears the follow up "I miss you" most certainly did (this is one of the saddest songs ever written, if you've ever been lost in the desolate hurt of a breakup, it may not be the time to play this track). The mood is lifted on (the original) side two but the quality is equally stunning. The jazzy "Let me feel your pulse" and the full on "Answer the door" lead into the epic closer "Pierre's fight" (a desperate piano ballad fuelled with angst and desolation). This album should have been housed in many more record collections than it it was, unfortunatley it wasn't really Furniture's fault that the album went largely un-noticed, the record label had encountered major financial difficulties by the end of 1986 and only several thousand copies of the album were ever pressed up and like far too many mid Eighties bands, Furniture were quickly passed by.

Some 24 years later (the excellent Cherry Red label) has finally released this masterpiece on CD, the crystal clarity of the vocals, instruments and production are a joy to hear (my chewed up cassette copy, carefully selotaped at one end has long since lost any of it's audio quality). There are bonus tracks too, not that this album requires any padding out in any way but we are treated to the two 12" mixes of the two stiff singles, their respective B-sides (all of which have never been released on any other format other than vinyl) but best of all we are treated to two demo tracks - "That man you loved" (it's just yet more quality Furniture, a little rawer but a quality track) and "Never said" (it's amazing, think Dexy's doing one of their slower soul ballads, Jim Irvin alway had a tinge of Kevin Rowland in his voice for me and that's no bad thing. This track is way too good for a demo, way too good). All topped off with a detailed booklet full of photos and lyrics to every track, even the demos and an absolute steal at mid-price.

Let's hope Cherry Red will re-issue the first two albums on CD and the band's final 1989 album "Food, sex and paranoia", yet another long lost classic.