It’s Saturday and a beautiful sunny day in the city I love. I’m going to go for lunch and then have a walk around town.
Disc 1430 is…. Widow City
Artist: The Fiery Furnaces
Year of Release: 2007
What’s up with the Cover? Lead singer Eleanor Friedberger eyes us warily as she fondles her necklace. This cover and the Florence Welch shot from Disc1428 could go in some themed gallery show called “Long of Hair and Looking Right at You.”
I wonder what it is about Eleanor’s necklace that has her so concerned? The back of the album features brother and fellow Furnacer Matthew Friedberger clutching a portable radio. Maybe he’s heard a report coming over the line that police are closing in on the thieves that knocked over the jewelry store on 48th last night and Eleanor’s thinking “maybe we should have pawned all the evidence.”
In her defence, the necklace is a really nice one.
How I Came To Know It: I was keen on Eleanor Friedberger’s solo work and found out she’d previously been in a band. The local record store had a bunch of albums and I had no clue which one to get, so I bought this one based on the cover and vague whim.
How It Stacks Up: I have two Fiery Furnaces albums, but “Widow City” is my favourite.
Ratings: 4 stars
“Widow City” is an album designed to appeal to music nerds. I usually hate albums designed to music nerds (just play some song and don’t get fancy!). I wanted to hate this album for all the usual reasons (pretentious, unfocused, full of weird sounds, elements of jazz) but I couldn’t do it. It is just too damned good. This record forced me to reconcile with my own inner music nerd.
The album begins with “The Philadelphia Grand Jury” a seven-plus minute song that sprawls all over the place. It contains a whole series of different disjointed movements, jumping from one melody to another like a drunk on stilts. It is so complicated it comes with an overture, like a mini-musical on Broadway. And yet...it somehow manages to be an enjoyable listen.
It also sets the scene for what you can expect out of the record. The Fiery Furnaces are going to spend the next 60 minutes (yes, 60) of your time, doing whatever the hell occurs to them. And they are going to make you like it.
The next tune “Duplexes of the Dead” is a more straightforward tune, at a restrained 2:39. It even has appealing guitar licks and pop hooks, but it still manages to find time for a weird Mellotron section in the middle of the song. Yes, this works as well.
The band knows how to rock out when they want to. The crunchy guitar at the beginning of “Navy Nurse” is as gritty and groovy as anything you’ll hear on a White Stripes record. But the Fiery Furnaces aren’t content with such displays of brilliance. They bounce the song into a bunch of different movements. At one point Friedberger repeats the phrase “If there’s anything I’ve had enough of, it’s today” as though to underscore the song’s complete unwillingness to settle on one thing. I think there are at least four different movements in “Navy Nurse” each of which could be a cool and innovative song on its own. Instead, it is a blended – but never bloated – six and half minute masterpiece.
Eleanor Friedberger has a natural charisma, drawing you in with perfect phrasing and timing. Half the time she’s delivering lyrics in a spoken word style, and the other half she’s demonstrating her beautiful singing voice. On “My Egyptian Grammar” you can hear the seeds of her later solo career, with a high and ebullient head voice that fills your heart with a restful joy.
This is the point where I’d usually say I longed to have this more straightforward approach across the whole record, but I didn’t. I fell for “Widow City” in all its weirdness. I loved having a couple of more straightforward tunes, but I also loved the crazy, wacky experimentation that the Fiery Furnaces load throughout.
Because for all that nutty stuff that goes on, the album has great poetry, and compelling music with brilliant melodies (often several competing melodies). It wakes your mind up like a good jazz song, but unlike jazz doesn’t go on to waste your time with a bunch of math. Or maybe it does. I was having such a good time I didn’t notice.
If you read my reviews to look for more folk tunes telling straightforward tales of love and loss and delivered lovingly in 4/4 time, this album is not for you. If you instead are looking for something new and different, then here is your reward. Go get this weird and wonderful record.
Best tracks: Duplexes of the Dead, Clear Signal from Cairo, My Egyptian Grammar, The Old Hag is Sleeping, Navy Nurse, Restorative Beer, Cabaret of the Seven Devils
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