Happy 20th anniversary to Richard Butler's debut solo album, released on this day in 2006. It was produced by Jon Carin, who played all of the instruments on the album and worked with The Psychedelic Furs before, on Midnight To Midnight as the keyboardist.
During the 1980s Richard Butler had talked of wanting to do a solo album and after when The Psychedelic Furs took a hiatus in the 1990s, he started to write songs for a solo album but they eventually evolved into being songs for Richard's new band at the time, Love Spit Love. Then in the mid-2000s he finally started working on what would become Richard Butler.
The music on Richard Butler is more softer than The Psychedelic Furs and Love Spit Love, and the album is probably the most personal one Richard Butler ever made. Around that time Richard had to deal with the breakup of his first marriage, and in 2002 his father passed away. Jon Carin was also going through the exact same situations as Richard and they completely influenced the songs. Richard Butler wrote the lyrics while Jon composed the music, and Psychedelic Furs bassist (and Richard's brother) Tim Butler got two co-writing credits on the songs "Broken Aeroplanes" and "Last Monkey".
I hadn't listened to Richard Butler for a long time and when I did recently, I forgot how good it was. The music is filled with beauty and emotion, and I remember my brother saying he liked the solo album more than The Psychedelic Furs' music. My favorite song on Richard Butler is "Milk" because it is so beautiful and it always leaves me in tears. Other favorites are "Satellites" (my brother said the drums in that song are reminiscent of David Bowie's "Five Years"), "Broken Aeroplanes", "Breathe", and "Nothing's Wrong". There's a song on the album called "California" and it's the fourth song to feature the name Caroline, with the first and second being The Psychedelic Furs' "India" and "Pretty In Pink", and the third Love Spit Love's "Sweet Thing". I had thought of something and this is my own theory, but I like to think that the Caroline in "California" is the same Caroline from "Pretty In Pink". Maybe she changed her ways for good from the latter song, settled down and married the love of her life, and on a warm Summer day is serving him a drink "tall and icy."
I really wish Richard Butler is on Spotify and other streaming services but the reason why it's not available to stream is because Koch Records no longer exists. The album doesn't deserve to be unknown and it makes me hope The Psychedelic Furs' current label Cooking Vinyl will acquire the rights and rerelease it. The only ways to listen to Richard Butler are on CD (the CDs are already starting to get rare) and YouTube, and please do check the album out if you haven't already, it is amazing.
In conclusion, happy 20th anniversary to this great album!
"Summer's gone, it only stayed a minute
All the rainbows ran
All applaud the lions of September
When the nights get long"
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| Photo: Jimmy Bruch |
