Face Control
album by Handsome Furs
Face Control is Handsome Furs' second full-length album, which was released through Sub Pop Records. The album was recorded and mixed by Wolf Parade's Arlen Thompson at Mount Zoomer, and it was mastered by Harris Newman at Hotel2Tango.
The album's title takes its name from the face control policy seen in upscale Russian nightclubs where people are admitted based on physical attractiveness.
Background and Release
The album was heavily influenced by the Handsome Furs' travels through Eastern Europe. Dan Boeckner has referred to the album as a "travel diary". In choosing the album's title, Boeckner said:
The thing that really attracted me to using that as an album title was that it was a perfect example of how post-Communist Russia had so embraced this crazed form of hyper-capitalism — the kind that has no regard whatsoever for human-beings — to an extent that would horrify even the most right-wing North American Republican capitalist.
Face Control was originally set to be released on February 3, 2009. However, the album's release dated was delayed until March 10, 2009, due to a legal issue. According to the official Wolf Parade fansite, the Handsome Furs referenced a New Order song on the track "All We Want, Baby, Is Everything". In order to use the reference, the band needed to legally clear it with New Order, which took some time to do and caused the release to be pushed back.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Face Control” as album by Handsome Furs. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as album by Handsome Furs. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5428322. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Face Control” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.