Album: Blueberry Boat
Artist: The Fiery Furnaces
Born: Oak Park, Illinois
Released: July 2004
Genre: Indie Rock
My first reaction to this record wasn't entirely positive. It seemed so full of ideas, often good ones, and different musical sounds and styles, that it was hard to comprehend and appreciate them. At over an hour long, Blueberry Boat's energetic restlessness was a bit disorientating on initial listens, but its charms quickly grew on me. There are elements of prog rock (in the album as concept and in the mini-operas like opening song Quay Cur), garage rock, psychedelia, folk and even the blues. Brother-sister duo Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger are the brains behind the operation, Matthew the talented musician who plays around 20 instruments on the record and Eleanor the main singer. There's a playfulness and complexity to the songs that's reminiscent of the early records by The Who, A Quick One and The Who Sell Out especially, and Matthew is an avowed fan of the group (check out the track Chris Michaels for the most obvious homage on this record). During the 10mins of first track Quay Cur, the tempo of the song shifts constantly, from a warped hip hop opening full of an increasingly weird array of futuristic sound effects to the quieter moments, when Eleanor sings of a child who's lost her locket. Then starts the main body of the song as the child embarks on a maritime adventure, accompanied by a frenzy of guitars, but then the storm clears and a more acoustic section begins. It's exhausting and I understand why the record was so polarising. But when this experimental approach works, the results are outstanding, Straight Street being one example on this LP. Like BSP and Franz Ferdinand, Fiery Furnaces were expanding pop's reference points, with Straight Street a song about a mobile phone travelling salesman. Its sound and quirky subject matter really reminds me of Leaky Tunnel, a song about walking under the Thames at Greenwich, from the group's first LP, Gallowsbird's Bark.
Boats and blueberries are mentioned often on the record, most obviously on the title track, which tells the story of a feckless captain of a blueberry boat under attack from pirates. Matthew's keyboard playing is supported by a cast of instruments, including a circus organ and a slide guitar, while Eleanor's style of half-singing / half-speaking adds to the drama, especially when she announces (in character) to the pirates that "you ain't never getting the cargo of my blueberry boat". This is the thing I love most about the record, the way it uses the pop idiom to tell children's stories for adults. One of my favourite tracks is Birdie Brain, with its playful use of language and its perspective of an incorrigible Luddite, who despises the modern world (the song reminds me of Village Green-era Kinks). Other highlights are Chief Inspector Blancheflower, the story of a boy with an active imagination who's having a tough time at school (the emotional coda is especially impressive), and My Dog Was Lost But Now He's Found. Matthew's clever musical backing enhances the feeling of frenzy at running around town to find the dog. All 13 tracks flow nicely, from more straightforward tunes to rock operas, but there's no escaping the fact that some might find it too pretentious, its stream of consciousness lyrics and witty travelogues maybe too much like information overload. I really like the album's ambition though and think it works musically, while I continue to enjoy Eleanor's solo work, such as singles My Mistakes (2011) and When I Knew (2013).
My first reaction to this record wasn't entirely positive. It seemed so full of ideas, often good ones, and different musical sounds and styles, that it was hard to comprehend and appreciate them. At over an hour long, Blueberry Boat's energetic restlessness was a bit disorientating on initial listens, but its charms quickly grew on me. There are elements of prog rock (in the album as concept and in the mini-operas like opening song Quay Cur), garage rock, psychedelia, folk and even the blues. Brother-sister duo Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger are the brains behind the operation, Matthew the talented musician who plays around 20 instruments on the record and Eleanor the main singer. There's a playfulness and complexity to the songs that's reminiscent of the early records by The Who, A Quick One and The Who Sell Out especially, and Matthew is an avowed fan of the group (check out the track Chris Michaels for the most obvious homage on this record). During the 10mins of first track Quay Cur, the tempo of the song shifts constantly, from a warped hip hop opening full of an increasingly weird array of futuristic sound effects to the quieter moments, when Eleanor sings of a child who's lost her locket. Then starts the main body of the song as the child embarks on a maritime adventure, accompanied by a frenzy of guitars, but then the storm clears and a more acoustic section begins. It's exhausting and I understand why the record was so polarising. But when this experimental approach works, the results are outstanding, Straight Street being one example on this LP. Like BSP and Franz Ferdinand, Fiery Furnaces were expanding pop's reference points, with Straight Street a song about a mobile phone travelling salesman. Its sound and quirky subject matter really reminds me of Leaky Tunnel, a song about walking under the Thames at Greenwich, from the group's first LP, Gallowsbird's Bark.
Boats and blueberries are mentioned often on the record, most obviously on the title track, which tells the story of a feckless captain of a blueberry boat under attack from pirates. Matthew's keyboard playing is supported by a cast of instruments, including a circus organ and a slide guitar, while Eleanor's style of half-singing / half-speaking adds to the drama, especially when she announces (in character) to the pirates that "you ain't never getting the cargo of my blueberry boat". This is the thing I love most about the record, the way it uses the pop idiom to tell children's stories for adults. One of my favourite tracks is Birdie Brain, with its playful use of language and its perspective of an incorrigible Luddite, who despises the modern world (the song reminds me of Village Green-era Kinks). Other highlights are Chief Inspector Blancheflower, the story of a boy with an active imagination who's having a tough time at school (the emotional coda is especially impressive), and My Dog Was Lost But Now He's Found. Matthew's clever musical backing enhances the feeling of frenzy at running around town to find the dog. All 13 tracks flow nicely, from more straightforward tunes to rock operas, but there's no escaping the fact that some might find it too pretentious, its stream of consciousness lyrics and witty travelogues maybe too much like information overload. I really like the album's ambition though and think it works musically, while I continue to enjoy Eleanor's solo work, such as singles My Mistakes (2011) and When I Knew (2013).
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