My recommendations 2006:Richard Butler by Richard Butler

Richard Butler: Richard Butler
Koch 4/18/2006

Available on Emusic

I've been a fan of The Psychedelic Furs for over a decade. I've seen them live twice. Nonetheless, I've always felt that the quality of their studio recordings has been choppy. They've had a lot of great songs, but not one record that stands out to me as being great from start to finish. Richard Butler's eponymous debut solo album, on the other hand, doesn't have that problem. While there aren't any tracks that quite measure up to "The Ghost in You," the record is exceptional as a whole. His voice, as usual, is the major appeal to this record. The melodies are almost all memorable. The bonus, however, is the mosaic production. It's like one of those large pictures that, upon closer examination, turns out to be made entirely of tiny photographs. The album is full of microscopic bleeps and flourishes that complement the guitars and Butler's voice gorgeously. Finally, Butler has moved beyond merely writing great songs into crafting a cohesive and superb album.