Thank goodness for Columbia House. The “12 cassettes for a penny” deals helped me build a healthy music collection back when I was a teen with minimal spending cash. That’s how I landed All of this and Nothing, the Psychedelic Furs compilation album that serves as a fairly comprehensive selection of their best cuts.
The Furs’ last studio album, World Outside was good enough to make the top 100, but it’s hard to beat a collection that has “The Ghost in You,” “Love My Way,” and “Pretty in Pink.”
All of this and Nothing is wall to wall 80s alt/rock/pop that (if you’re an 80s kid) you’ll recognize instantly. Richard Butler’s raspy croak shouldn’t work, but it does. The warbling saxophone shouldn’t work, but it does. The wall of bass and guitars should work, and it does.
Had I only enjoyed “Pretty in Pink,” it would have been worth snagging via Columbia House. But I also re-upped to buy the collection on CD after I’d worn the cassette to shreds, and took the time to rip the CD to MP3 for frequent playback.
But every single track is a treasure. All of this and Nothing has been one of my favorite albums for flights, long walks, and long road trips. You should be able to find it on any and all of the major streaming services, if you don’t have it already. I suggest you cozy up with it and let it work its way into your favorites too.
(Apologies for brevity, writing this post while at Flock and don’t have quite so many cycles to write the lengthy post I’d usually wish to.)