Beautiful Chaos: Greatest Hits Live
Give Richard Butler and his re-formed Psychedelic Furs credit for knowing what's expected of them. This energetic, note-perfect, live greatest-hits collection (recorded in the cozy confines of Hollywood's House of Blues on the band's 2001 reunion tour) trades on the same tastefully retro,Velvet Underground-meets-Roxy Musicsensibility that the Furs displayed in their first 1980 to '91 incarnation--no trip-hop beats, samples, or techno loops for these guys. And if this is a band out of time, it's one whose hazy sense of the dramatic remains surprisingly robust. Though their later, more pop-oriented American radio staples "Pretty in Pink" and "President Gas" still pulse with '80s rock energy--as does the single new studio track, "Alive (For Once in My Lifetime)," included here--the band still seems to have a special place in its heart for the dark and dreamy songs that initially defined them, as represented by "India," the hypnotic "Sister Europe," and the chaotic splendor of "Dumb Waiters."--Jerry McCulley