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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Philadelphia Grand Jury |
| 2. Duplexes Of The Dead |
| 3. Automatic Husband |
| 4. Ex-Guru |
| 5. Clear Signal From Cairo |
| 6. My Egyptian Grammar |
| 7. Old Hag Is Sleeping |
| 8. Japanese Slippers |
| 9. Navy Nurse |
| 10. Uncle Charlie |
| 11. Right By Conquest |
| 12. Restorative Beer |
| 13. Wicker Whatnots |
| 14. Cabaret Of The Seven Devils |
| 15. Pricked In The Heart |
| 16. Widow City |
Product Description
Review
Yet that is also the reason why they are not global superstars. Ever since the arrival of their delightfully unique debut Gallowbird's Bark, their songs have become increasingly complex and so stuffed with key and time changes, strange solos and indulgent musicianship that listening to them is the aural equivalent of trying to put both a cherry trifle and a ploughman's lunch in your mouth at the same time. Widow City suffers heavily from this problem, not least because of the decision to open it with a seven-minute epic, "The Philadelphia Grand Jury". By the time it finishes, there's the distinct feeling that you've listened to at least 12 songs.
What follows it fares little better. "Automatic Husband" wanders schizophrenically from grandiose to lo-fi, "Navy Nurse" sounds like a full rock opera condensed into six minutes, and "Uncle Charlie" - which opens with a John Bonham-esque drum solo - changes speed every 10 seconds, speaks of whiskey pie and dead jellyfish across nine performance poetry verses and shudders to a stop after a mere two minutes. It might just be the most self-indulgent song ever written.
Not that The Fiery Furnaces seem to care. There's always been a case to argue that their music is for them and no-one else, and the sheer tangled bloody-mindedness of the majority of Widow City only underlines a presumption that Matthew and Eleanor are hell-bent on creating music so exclusive that only they would ever want to listen to it. Only "Ex-Guru", a song that by Friedberger standards is practically stripped to the bone, coming as it does with a verse-chorus-verse structure and a single hook, suggests that they may yet be able to save themselves from disappearing up inside their own pretensions.
There's nothing wrong with experimentation and innovation in music is to be applauded, but surely one of the main things that any artist wants to produce in their work is a sense of inclusivity. Widow City has none and that's a shame. There's no doubt that the Friedbergers are talented musicians, but after six albums, you can't help but feel that there's one big in-joke going on and they're the only ones finding it funny. --Chris Long
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
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Customer Reviews
And their sixth full-length album "Widow City" weaves together music-hall, electronic pop, and a twisted, colourful brand of rock'n'roll. It's more angular and jagged than anything they've done before, like a hard-rock band that took acid in a children's museum.
It opens with sharp drums and a tight, sputtery riff. For one horrible moment it sounds like they've abandoned their signature sound for more "typical" rock music...
.... then the melody fills with piano, flute, keyboard and sharp thickets of synth, and you know they haven't lost their touch, or their electro-music-hall trappings. It's a wonderfully dark pop song, especially when Eleanor Friedberger turns cynical about a court's decision ("We already know/there ain't no suspense/That the Philadelphia Grand Jury strings me up").
The songs that follow are just as dense, intense and strange: gurgling electropop, thundering rock clouds, fuzzy fast pop melodies, drum explosions, quirky experimentals, bouncy schizophrenic pop melodies, driving powerpop with circus edges, and roiling combinations of electro-rock and psychedelic music-hall -- basically, any and all combinations of their past work.
In fact, if "Widow City" has an overriding flaw, it's that it's almost TOO densely packed. Since the melodies are catchier, the Friedberger siblings apparently compensated by smashing loads of quirky instrumentation around typical rock rhythms. It's a lot to digest all at once -- try listening to it one or two songs at a time, to get the full effect.
Yeah, there are angular guitars, drums and basslines, especially in songs like "Clear Signal From Cairo" and "Navy Nurse." They're the backbone of many of the songs. But they're wrapped in cascading mellotron, scrapes of synth, samples, monkey noises, keyboard, tootling flutes, rippling piano, shimmering chimes, et cetera. Ye gods, is there anything they can't mold into a fun pop melody?
Against the backdrop of her brother's musical madness, Eleanor's smooth vocals sound pretty normal. Sometimes the songs are just rambles, and sometimes they're full of vivid imagery ("No more revenge cobbler or whiskey pie/My cheeks will be the color of dead jellyfish") and clever wordplay ("By all means, my liege/lay siege, lay siege").
The Fiery Furnaces twist all their musical styles into a insane patchwork, also called "Widow City." It's way too much to take in at once, but what fun to be overwhelmed with their music...
If you are at all an indie/prog-rock/techno/other fan, at least experiment with a new sound!! You'll either "get" this album or you won't.
If you've never heard them before, the Friedberger siblings mix lo-fi indie with dub, techno, freeform jazz and, in some particularly weird cases, soul. Their sound is unique, their lyrics are cryptic and a truly excellent Fiery Furnaces CD will not last less than an hour guaranteed, often with the best songs being easily 10 minutes long.
On 'Widow City', you get more of the same, only with more polished production, which actually does the music a favour. Opening track 'Philadelphia Grand Jury' shifts between Slits-style post-punk, prog-rock, Bowie circa Ziggy Stardust and Modest Mouse-style lo-fi with incredible ease. Elsewhere, the eccentric Siouxsie Sioux meets Gary Numan mix 'Automatic Husband', 'Clear signal from Cairo', which borders on sounding like Yes, and the LCD Soundsystem meets Lou Reed romp 'Japanese Sleepers' only confirm that the duo has no intention of toning down the rather odd nature of their music just yet.
If you want to hear something truly refreshing, buy this. And while you're at it, buy 'Blueberry Boat' and 'Bitter Tea'. I don't particularly like bands on Rough Trade records, but they sourced a true gem with the Fiery Furnaces, and I guarantee you that any one of these three albums would rarely leave your CD player were you to invest. Class.
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