Bitter Tea
Fat Possum, 2006
rating: 4/5
reviewer: jspicer

I never expected the Fiery Furnaces to disappoint this much. Bitter Tea isn't a terrible album by any stretch of the imagination, but considering that this is the band who has taken listeners to cabaret extremes through the fairy tales of Blueberry Boat and the theatrical adaptation of Rehearsing My Choir, the Friedberger siblings have churned out an album that couldn't be less exciting. The first listen of a Fiery Furnaces album once brought me a rush of giddiness and giggles. The feelings of my youthful childhood would come streaming back, smacking me in the frontal lobe song after song. But the most I could muster with Bitter Tea was a crooked smile and repeated half-hearted listens. Of course, as with any Friedberger release, it's a great trait to persist and persevere.

While the whole album may not be an attention-grabber, there are plenty of juicy musical nuggets that would make any ADHD sufferer ecstatic. "Black-Hearted Boy" not only jumps genres and styles, it juggles influences from different decades: the Carole King piano of the '70s, the synth-spaz of the '80s, the sparse melodies of the '90s, and the spit-in-the-wind experimentation of the new millennium. The track may also be the first showcase of Eleanor's beautiful and unique voice. Even when reversed, her vocals sound divine. This may be the first time I was engaged by the vocals more than the schizophrenic movements. "Oh Sweet Woods" mimics the multiple musical facets "Black-Hearted Boy" employs: a little disco, a little "Billy Jean" dance beat, and a large side of alterna-pop distortion. The Furnaces have found a way to warp from decade to decade without ruining the dynamic of most songs. The mangled pop of "Teach Me Sweetheart" is simply infectious.

The strength of the Furnaces is their innate ability to turn a whirling dervish of sound into a tasty, digestible pop gem, and nowhere is this more evident than during Bitter Tea's twisted pinnacle, "Benton Harbor Blues." Part soul, part sonic reducer, this track completely blows away everything else on the album. Matt and Eleanor have never been this noisy and experimental, nor have they ever been this poppy and concise. Yin and yang has never been expressed musically quite like this before, and it's these expressions that allow the ennui and camp of album opener "In My Little Thatched Hut" and the Dance Dance Revolution-inspired title track escape much scrutiny.

At first, the bad moments will fight to grab your attention. But ignore every inkling to disregard Bitter Tea and keep trekking through the muck. On the other side is the oasis the Fiery Furnaces have been desperately trying to show you for the past three years. Really, the only downfall of Bitter Tea is that it reeks of a transitional album. However, the travel is just as enjoyable as the destination, and where the Fiery Furnaces end up next is anyone's guess.

1. In My Little Thatched Hut
2. I'm In No Mood
3. Black-Hearted Boy
4. Bitter Tea
5. Teach Me Sweetheart
6. Waiting To Know You
7. The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry
8. Oh Sweet Woods
9. Borneo
10. Police Sweater Blood Vow
11. Nevers
12. Benton Harbor Blues
13. Whistle Rhapsody?
14. Benton Harbor Blues Again

Rehearsing My Choir
Rough Trade, 2005
rating: 5/5
reviewer: jspicer


The Fiery Furnaces have taken the medium of music and turned it on its ear. The band is able to score the soundtrack to everyday life, thus breathing life into the music itself. Every single song evolves into a chapter or a short film with its very own plot, dialogue, climax, and illogical conclusion. Listening to a Fiery Furnaces album is akin to reading Richard Brautigan, Edgar Lee Masters, or Sherwood Anderson. However, these separate apexes combine to form one surprisingly cohesive tale.

It just so happens that the Fiery Furnaces have delivered another great American novel via guitars, drums, bells, and whistles. And though Olga Sarantos may not be a household name from sea to shining sea, her uncanny stream of consciousness has created the perfect blend of history, life lessons, and light comedy. It also happens that Ms. Sarantos is the 83-year old grandmother of Eleanor and Matt Friedberger, making her history their history—and what do Matt and Eleanor do better than anyone these days? They turn their lives and the lives around them into song and dance.

Rehearsing My Choir is a complicated yet easy-to-follow tale of Olga Sarantos and her life. At first, it's odd to listen to the album and not notice Olga's age-weary voice as it rambles from story to story in no particular order. One minute, Olga is focusing on present day happenings, and the next, the moral has taken us back to the '30s, '40s, and '50s. As easy as it would be to blame this scatterbrained assembly on her old age, it's at the behest of Eleanor that these leaps are made. As Olga narrates, Eleanor acts as the muse, recanting secondhand stories while adding quaint remembrances and constant prodding. Matt takes a back seat throughout Rehearsing My Choir, providing the varied and eclectic background music.

Matt may very well be the most important part of Olga and Eleanor's exchanges. While they trade off stanzas like battle rappers, Matt tinkers with the emotions by throwing in any and every sound he can conjure up. "The Garfield El" has some of the best piano work the Fiery Furnaces have ever employed—so much so that it's repeated again during "We Wrote Letters Everyday," as well as the album's finale, "Does it Remind You of When?" The piano is frantic and spastic before settling into a wistful riff. Matt doesn't abandon his blues-inspired guitar; in fact, it's stronger and angrier than ever. What makes it special and, more importantly, an attention-grabber, is its placement. When the story needs a pick-me-up or jagged emotion, the guitar is there to move things along. It's crunchy when it needs to be crunchy ("A Candymaker's Knife in my Handbag"), folky when it needs to be folky ("Slavin' Away"), and angry when it needs to be angry ("Does it Remind You of When?").

Any more questions about the sound? Refer to every Fiery Furnaces release, then throw that knowledge out the window because it won't help you here. It's impossible to explain everything without taking up 100 pages of babble. There are more layers to Rehearsing My Choir than contained throughout Earth. The Fiery Furnaces have again pushed the envelope. No wonder every indie fan is so divided on the band's talents and abilities. They explore every genre, every idea, and yet at the end you are left feeling as if they could have done more, though you know they've done more than you could ever imagine.

1. The Garfield El
2. The Wayward Granddaughter
3. A Candymaker's Knife in My Handbag
4. We Wrote Letters Everyday
5. Forty-Eight Twenty-Three Twenty-Second Street
6. Guns Under the Counter
7. Seven Silver Curses
8. Though Let's Be Fair
9. Slavin' Away
10. Rehearsing My Choir
11. Does it Remind You of When?

EP
Rough Trade 2005
rating: 5/5
reviewer: marti332


There is a little hot dog place in East Lansing, on M.A.C. between Grand River and Albert, by the name of the Dog Pit (I plug them only because they desperately need the business, lest my lunch spot of choice go the way of the dinosaur. *sniff*). In an effort to drum up business, they offer patrons who manage to eat 12 or more hot dogs in one sitting a spot on their wall of fame. Though I have never accepted this challenge (for obvious reasons), I cannot help but feel a strange admiration for anyone who has the drive to stare the perversely impossible in the face, lick their soon-to-be hog-juice coated lips and say, "Hand me the mustard."

My admiration of the Fiery Furnaces has many of the same qualities. After dropping the bombshell that was Blueberry Boat less than twelve months after the surprisingly good Gallowsbird's Bark, most fans of the Friedberger siblings might have expected the pair to ride the ensuing wave of critical adoration for a more protracted period of time. One might imagine them basking in the almost-too-intense love of their growing legion of fans and scouring antique shops for first printings of the sheet music for The Mikado. Yet so great is their love for us that they give us a collection of singles and b-sides to tide us over until they release their next proper albums (yes, albums plural) later this year. And so great are the Friedberger's talents that this ten song EP is likely to be better than the overwhelming majority of albums others will release in 2005.

Attempting to describe the sound of the Fiery Furnaces in words is nearly impossible; their utterly bizarre yet eerily familiar songs schizophrenically bounce from genre to genre, and defy any attempt at metaphor or comparison. Whereas Blueberry Boat was a challenging (though rewarding) listen, the EP highlights the playful qualities of the band. "Tropical Iceland" finds Eleanor having "had enough stray ponies and puffins," on top of a jaunty track that almost insists that the listener do the pogo (or at the very least, the swim). "Duffer St. George" lifts the chorus from "Jimmy Crack Corn." And "Sullivan's Social Club" carries a staccato synth into a sea of bluesy noise. Along the way, one hears elements of '90s Brit-pop, early and late Beatles, garage rock, and bubblegum pop.

It is getting to a point where it is very hard not to love the Fiery Furnaces: at this point, the only obvious point of contention is the fact that the lyrics skirt the line between childlike and horrendous. And even this is a forgivable sin, if only because everything else about the band is so spot-on.

Long story short, this album is like a chili-cheese dog covered in Tabasco sauce; both are oh-so good, and both will blow your ass out for days after consumption.

1. Single Again
2. Here Comes the Summer
3. Evergreen
4. Sing for Me
5. Tropical-Iceland
6. Duffer St. George
7. Smelling Cigarettes
8. Cousin Chris
9. Sweet Spots
10. Sullivan's Social Slub