This one is a bit crackly, but hopefully it won’t distract too much from your enjoyment.
Sister Europe dates back to February 1980. It was the second 45 to be released by The Psychedelic Furs, and it came out just a few weeks in advance of the eponymous debut album. As it turned out, the 45 was an edited take on the version that would appear on the album, coming in almost a full minute-and-a-half shorter.
It’s a strange, eerie number – a contemporary review in the UK music paper Record Mirror highlights that it was a hard one to think of as haviing any sort of crossover commerial appeal:-
“Unpromising start is saved by some “Man Who Sold The World” vocals. In fact, the vocals are the only interesting bit of this, which sets a heavy atmosphere that I find really listenable.”
Pretty In Pink, it most certainly is not.
mp3: The Psychedelic Furs – Sister Europe
The story goes that singer Richard Butler was having difficulties getting it just right, which led to producer Steve Lillywhite telling him to go to the pub and have a couple of beers, after which Butler should come back to the sing it it’s three in the morning, and he was talking on the telephone to someone. It certainly seems to have done the trick.
I didn’t buy this at the time – I’d get to know the song when a friend put the debut album on one side of a C90 cassette for me. In due course, I’d end buying the album a few years later. Parts of the song remind very much of Secondhand Daylight-era Magazine.
I found the single a few years back in a second-hand shop and from recollection paid £1 for it. It sounds like the original owner had little regard for keeping his vinyl in good nick.
Here’s the strangely named b-side:-
mp3: The Psychedelic Furs – ****
An Instrumental that’s every bit as strange as the title, the fact there’s very little cracking/popping/hissing on it makes me think the original owner probably played it once and thought ‘never again’.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
While at a small State College in western/central Vermont during the early 1980s, I was introduced to a variety of UK acts via our low-wattage campus radio station, WIUV.
The P-Furs debut Lp or singles were nowhere to be found. but their second Lp, “Talk Talk”, was promoted/available and I fell for it/them quite heavily. Later I discovered this debut Lp and feel even harder. Thanks for posting their music and all of your other musical efforts here at this site. Muddy Mike…
I loved the Furs’ first record and was lucky to see them tour the second one at a little club in suburban NY, on the 4th of July 1981. They never really moved on from that early sound, which was novel at the beginning and boring a couple of years later. Saw them last summer on a nostalgic co-bill with Squeeze. It was shocking how good Squeeze were and how awful the Furs were–even though the touring band was loaded with Mars Williams, Zach Alford and Amanda Kramer. We left after about 4 songs. But the first couple of LPs still sound awesome.
do love this and imitation of christ . Friend of Rachel worth
I’ve always gotten the Bowie reference – or is that reverence… Say what you want about the progression of The Psychedelic Furs music/sound, but their debut sits high on my list of albums that help define the undefinable sound of Post Punk.