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Archive: eleanor-friedberger

The Fiery Furnaces — Remember

2 November 2008 12:15

Categories: Entertainment, Music, Reviews

Remember cover You wouldn’t expect The Fiery Furnaces to do anything in the conventional way. When their debut album, Gallowsbird’s Bark, was released in 2003, they were seen almost as being part of the same scene as The White Stripes. There was the bluesy-rock element to the thing, then the fact that both bands were a brother–sister partnership (though in the case of The White Stripes, it was actually a desperate publicity-seeking lie).

But come the release of their second album, Blueberry Boat, it was clearer that The Fiery Furnaces weren’t going to play it by the book. The stripped-back bluesy rock took a back seat and was supplanted by a kind of wonky prog, with antique synths, rattling pianos and a ceasless desire to keep the listener alert. Their following album, Rehearsing My Choir, was a concept album about their grandmother, who also provided lead vocals. Enough said.

Staggeringly prolific, the band now has five albums and an EP under its belt (plus a double solo album from Matthew Friedberger) after just a few short years. This year, for the first time since their debut, they have opted not to release a studio album.

Instead, they have released a double live album, Remember. But quite what you should expect from a live album from The Fiery Furnaces? Their live shows (although, regrettably, I’ve not been lucky enough to see them live yet) are famous for the radical reinventions of their songs, setting the words of one song to the melody of another, chopping their songs into little bits and creating one long medley, and so on. This promises the audience something a bit more than the sort of experience you might get by putting the album on a loud stereo and standing among a bunch of sweaty men who are intent on spilling beer all over you. You’ve got to admire a live act for putting a bit of effort into mixing things up a bit.

The only thing predictable about a Fiery Furnaces live album is that they would do something weird. Weird move number one was to eschew a standard tracklisting, instead listing six ‘suites’ and inviting you to guess the tracklisting for yourself and check a website later to see if you were right. I guess that at least replicates the live experience, where you are not sure what the setlist will have in store for you.

But that wasn’t all. When you start listening to the album, it is quickly clear that there is something not quite right. The first track proper, ‘Blueberry Boat’, contains a number of jarring switches in sound quality. It transpires that the “live album” that you hear on the CD has been spliced together from at least four different recordings, even to the point where songs are interrupted in their prime to switch rendition. Quality ranges from song to song and even within songs, from soundboard quality to bootleg without warning. Well, the liner notes do warn, “Please do not attempt to listen to all at once.”

Even though it takes a bit of time to get used to, it is not as annoying as you might think. What the purpose of this experiment was is not clear to me. But the decision to include a number of different recordings does at least mean that the album documents a full overview of the Fiery Furnaces live experience, with tracks spanning the band’s whole career.

As you might expect, not all of the live versions of the tracks sound as good as the studio-recorded album versions. But some of them are. Besides, what is really great about Remember is that it is not just another live album, where you could just add some canned crowd noise onto the studio album you already own. This is almost like hearing 52 brand new songs. Strangely familiar, yet different enough to provide a completely new experience.

Typically, despite the ostensibly painstakingly-created edits, the album keeps some of the band’s live guff-ups in tact. In fact, very near the start of the album we hear singer Eleanor Friedberger forgetting the lyrics and practically holding a committee meeting with her brother as they try to remember what comes next. It fits in with The Fiery Furnaces aesthetic — equal parts grand and shambolic.

Wonky prog, remember? Each of their albums sounds like an attempt to make Kid A with the cheapest, oldest equipment going. It’s all part of the band’s charm, and it’s good for that kind of attitude to continue even in the manner in which Remember has been edited.

So full marks to The Fiery Furnaces. Even though the strange editing has alientated some, I think the album is an excellent document of the band’s capabilities as a live act. It has provided me with a taste of some of their excellent live versions (I especially love ‘Single Again’ and ‘The Garfield El’). I am now eager to see them live whenever they next come near my neck of the woods.

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The Fiery Furnaces — Bitter Tea

13 April 2006 02:08

Categories: Entertainment, Music, Reviews

The Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea Every time I buy a new record by The Fiery Furnaces, I’m never quite sure what to expect. They have quite a madcap sound and tracks constantly change in direction, which is sure to keep you on your toes. Despite this, though, their sound remains remarkably consistent from album to album (give or take the odd grandmother here and there). You certainly know it if you’re listening to The Fiery Furnaces.

A lot of people have said to me that they don’t understand why I like them, but it makes perfect sense to me. The Fiery Furnaces are one of my favourite bands, but I’ll admit that it’s perhaps an acquired taste. There probably aren’t many albums more polarising than ‘Rehearsing My Choir’. I say polarising, although I really mean that I bloody loved it and everybody else hated it.

I have to confess, though, that parts of ‘Rehearsing My Choir’ were a struggle to get into, particularly given Olga Sanatos’ rather off-putting voice. That is one advantage of The Fiery Furnaces’ new album, ‘Bitter Tea’. It is immediate. By the third listen I had rated every single track 5/5 on iTunes. It normally takes weeks for any album to do that for me. Of course, ratings may go down as well as up, but I really don’t see that happening. I simply can’t stop listening to this album. [Cliche alert] I would even go as far as to say that some tracks are instant classics.

So what’s in it? Well I said above that The Fiery Furnaces’ sound is very recognisable. But it does seem to gain a little extra depth as each album goes, and the particular characteristic of ‘Bitter Tea’ is lots of stuff (especially vocals) going backwards. At points you may as well be listening to it backwards.

A particularly dizzying track is ‘Nevers’ (where, incidentally, their familiar wordplay is probably most evident on this album), which almost starts off like an audio equivalent of a strobe light. You can just about follow it if you read the lyrics along with it, but where’s the fun in that? Other early favourites of mine include ‘Oh Sweet Woods’, with its gentle dance beat backing an immense wonky piano riff. There is also ‘Benton Harbor Blues’ — quite a sad song set to a driving and delightfully psychedelic Magic Roundabout-style tune.

The Fiery Furnaces in action! I have to assure you that each and every track on this album is a winner. I just don’t understand how The Fiery Furnaces do it. There are only two of them (one of whom seems to carry the vast majority of songwriting responsibilities), yet they are churning these albums out at the rate of more than one per year. We’re only a quarter of the way through the year, and Matthew Friedberger apparently has a solo album lined up for later this year. You would think that quality control would be out of the window, but it definitely isn’t.

If I would have one complaint about ‘Bitter Tea’ it would be that it doesn’t quite feel rounded as an album. Although there is fantastic flow through the album, any of these tracks could have been the opener. ‘In My Little Thatched Hut’ is a fantastic track, but it doesn’t feel like the introduction to a fantastic album.

‘Whistle Rhapsody’ may be a brilliant closing track, except it’s not. Before the album is allowed to end we are treated to reprises of ‘Nevers’ and ‘Benton Harbor Blues’. I’m not really sure why — I’ve not been able to find out. Both of these reprises could be seen as stripped-back versions of the tracks that appear in the middle (really towards the end) of the album.

The reprise of ‘Nevers’ is certainly simpler, without the dizzying vocals of the original. The reprise of ‘Benton Harbor Blues’, meanwhile, is more flowing and doesn’t stall like the original. They might be a clue as to what they would sound like if they tried to be more radio-friendly. Then again, they might not. Who knows? The result of including these reprises is to make the album fizzle away with little fanfare. Even the closing fade happens quickly!

However, I should complain about the inclusion of magnificent songs, even if they are for a second time. Any negatives are very minor points. The bottom line here is that I love this album. It might not be quite as good as ‘Blueberry Boat‘, but that’s quite a high bar. As things stand, I will be amazed if a better album comes out this year.

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