Thrilling one minute, utterly infuriating the next (often on the same album and sometimes even within the same song), polarising indie-rock eccentrics the Fiery Furnaces have recently received the Toppermost treatment courtesy of first-time writer but long-time music enthusiast Nick Portnell.
As ever, there's a temptation to quibble - my selection would include two of the Friedbergers' more conventionally structured, accessible tracks, 'Evergreen' and 'My Egyptian Grammar', just to show that (to paraphrase Stewart Lee) they can write pop songs, but they just choose not to.
Some might also grumble about the inclusion of only one track from Blueberry Boat - but it's definitely the right one: the spectacular rollercoaster ride that is 'Chris Michaels', one of several songs on that record astutely described as "mini rock operas for those of us who previously regarded all rock operas to be shit".
There's also no argument from me about the decision to pick the opening trio of tracks from 2007's Widow City - 'The Philadelphia Grand Jury', 'Duplexes Of The Dead' and 'Automatic Husband' - because they all work so well together. Blueberry Boat is often cited as their magnum opus, and as an obscenely ambitious flurry of ideas I guess it is, but Widow City is arguably the better album, or at least it certainly doesn't test your patience anywhere near as regularly.
In the course of the piece, Nick nails Eleanor Friedberger's lyrics ("dense, complex and consistently baffling" - yet somehow also genius) and mentions their extraordinary live shows, which, far from being a linear sequence of songs, were "epic medleys" in which certain fragments would crop up, sink from view and then resurface later. The involvement of Sebadoh rhythm section Jason Loewenstein and Bob D'Amico helped. It'd be great to live that Widow City tour gig in Birmingham again...
No comments:
Post a Comment