Handsome Furs – Face Control (2009)

Handsome Furs was a duo consisting of Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade and Alexei Perry, now ex-wife of the former. There are clear similarities between Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs, but where Wolf Parade is a more traditional indie rock band, Handsome Furs relies on electronic sounds and can be more described as electropunk. Their debut album was named Plague Park after a park in Helsinki, Finland, under which there is a mass grave of people who died of plague. Face Control is more influenced by the couple's travels in rest of Eastern Europe. The title Face Control refers to the nightclub policies in Russia where only attractive people are allowed in. Boeckner was fascinated about how post-communist Eastern Europe adopted some blatant forms of hyper-capitalism. I guess to compensate for some of the luxuries they missed for the first halves of their lives.



I remember well when I bought this album. It was right after its release from Stupido, back then the coolest record shop in Helsinki. They had a deal with selected Sub Pop vinyls costing just 10 euros. I remember buying quite a few of those albums, including this one. This was the time when my musical taste started to slowly grow outside of guitar-driven indie rock and the electronic sounds in Handsome Furs' music sounded exciting and new. Their music represented a new era of music to me.

I also saw them live after this album at Kuudes Linja, a small club in Helsinki. I remember it being a wild gig. I find that I listen to this kind of music less and less these days. It's probably because at home I like to listen to something a bit calmer and I don't really party as much anymore. I guess this kind of music would also go well with running.

The album starts with a dark and intensive song Legal Tender. I like how the song grows. There's a fast tempo throughout the song, which makes this a great live song to dance to. Evangeline's synth sounds remind me of Depeche Mode in the 80s, but when the guitars and vocals come in, you can hear that this is much more a garage approach. Talking Hotel Arbat Blues is a more upbeat song that has similarities to more traditional rock and rock n' roll music, while the sounds are still quite crazy with synthesisers and loudly buzzing electric guitars. (Passport Control) is the most electronic song so far. I like the strange echoey rhythm that seems quite loose despite the hard sounds. All We Want, Baby, Is Everything is the most obvious hit song from the album. The rolling riffs and pounding beats get you to the dance floor, but it's the guitar sounds in the chorus that make you remember the song. I'm Confused has really sharp sounding electric guitars that zoom in and out giving the otherwise a bit simple song nice spice. (White City) has really strong electronic vibe. Electric guitars mainly just tick away without much melody in the background, so this song is much more carried by the synths. Nyet Spasiba is another hit song. There's a great growing pattern to the song. Officer of Hearts sounds a bit like the background for a hip hop song, or potentially TV On the Radio song. Thy Will Be Done has almost a club beat carried with raunchy guitar sounds and backbeat pianos. The album ends with quite a noisy and experimental song Radio Kaliningrad. It does straighten out after the start though.

The indie bands around this time were making really cool cinematic music videos, which is why I wasn't that surprised to see that Handsome Furs has some cool videos as well. The video for I'm Confused is mostly just a live performance, but there are some really cool dark shots of a city in the beginning and the whole artistic element in the song is very classy. There's a strange horror film kind of sidetrack in the video as well. This also gives you some kind of glimpse into what the band is like live.

As I said, I haven't listened to this band much lately, but I can still totally see what drew me into their music in the first place. If only I had more chances of DJing again, I'm sure I would use some of these songs to get people dancing.

Listen to the album on Spotify.