Album Review: Sound Kapital by Handsome Furs

A lot is being made about the fact that Dan Boeckner put down his guitar for this album as the husband wife duo turned toward synth pop.  I'm not sure I'm listening to the same album or the same group as everyone else.  If you go back to the opening track of Face Control, their last album, it's full of keyboards and drum machines.  Yes there is layered guitar work, but it acts on that song and on many of the songs more as a device to add texture than to stand out as a single unit.  On Sound Kapital much of that work has been handed over to synthesizers but the harsh edged and textured sound is still there.  So to me the fact that he put down the guitar has not turned this band into some 80's synth pop band.

The biggest problem I think this band has is their inability to write solid pop hooks.  They definitely have their own distinctive sound, but there is nothing there to really suck you in and so you're left with a moody, unsolidified nine track album that can do no better than be background music while you drive through the city on a wet and rainy night.

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 1 out of 5 stars for Just OK.