I've had the pleasure of listening to The Fiery Furnace's sophomore album, Blueberry Boat several times in the past two weeks. It's nearly killed off music altogether for me. I'm not sure how Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart fans did it in the seventies. Idea's so fervent that they're coming out of every quoin of every movement in every epic-and that's just one of the thirteen songs on the Furnaces huge, end-of-it-all follow up to last years Gallowsbird's Bark debut.
By "end-of-it-all" I basically mean that it's all over. There wont be a crazier, more rewarding listening experience this year. If there is, I'm dead-I just don't think I have the energy, in fact, I'm still not sure that my ears (or patience) will make it through Blueberry. Sole members (as well as brother and sister) Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger have moved away from their impatient folk approach to a more lush, impulsive, anything goes style that recalls the headaches last heard while trying to make yourself love Trout Mask Replica.
The blistering guitar work is still there, as are the Midwestern coffee shop vocals and sweet melodies; wait till you hear what they added. In the sixties, if you made a jump like this, you were automatically rumored to be headed towards drug rehab. The Furnaces plethora of idea's are the real thing; while they are challenging and at times confusing, they always pay off in time, every one of them.
The meat of Blueberry is built on five, eight-plus minute tracks that utilize several movements whom often bask in their own genre-jumping glory. Matthew's guitar goes from cerebral backing exercise to all out, front and center, extended solos. Eleanor's barrage of piano work, keyboard effects, and sweetheart indie-pop vocals mark the arrival of a creative monster; leading her way through a seemingly impossible album intent on being catchy, peerless, and formidable.
This is the sound of grad school. It's nauseating. It's confusing. It's annoying and difficult. Blueberry Boat is an example of a band with the confidence to try to do something that has never been done-and that's a rare find. To most, Blueberry will be too much, to no one will it not be enough. This is the product of focused excess. This is the sound of Midwestern progressive rock, via New York City. This will not be where music changes for the better, and that's too bad. That was going too far, but really, Blueberry is THAT shocking of a listen. This is me, being overly enthusiastic-it's almost over.
For listeners looking to challenge both their endurance and their tolerance, this is it. Blueberry is downright hateable and admirable all at once. The ones who do click with Blueberry will very likely have a new `desert island' album on their hands, that's the power of music this imaginative and dense with direction. Few people will love this album, many will hate it-no one could have ever imagined it, not even Beefheart.

Listening to Blueberry Boat is the equivalent musical experience as watching your ADD-afflicted brother switch station after station on the television, dialing in another program just as you're getting used to whatever he had on there to begin with. Fiery Furnaces do the same thing with all of the hooks they've lined up: just when you recognize what sounds something like The Who, or the myraid other influnces they've lined up, it all changes somehow. Some people will like this approach to music making, and some people just don't have the attention span to appreciate that. Genius music for the ADD generation.

to call this band "prolific" would be the understatment of the year. to call them "quirky" would be the understatement of the century. the Fiery Furnaces are the brother and siter duo of Matthew and Eleanor Friedburger...yes, they come from New York; and that's about where all the hipster comparisons end. the Fiery Furnaces take all the raggedy blues, honkey tonk, new wave, folk and rootsy rock 'n' roll that they've digested since childhood, and throw it back out in a unique sound that is both unsettling and charming. this is really peculiar pop music that probably alienates the average indie rock fan; but yet feels natural in it's execution.

Blueberry Boat seems to be the album that divides the Fiery Furnace fan base right down the middle. many people hailed this as the album of 2004; others simply did not get it. i stand somewhere inbetween. this is such a hard album to wrap your head around...it is commendable in it's scope and execution; but it seems to suffer from it's fascination with itself. for one thing...it's way too long! some quality control might have helped me and other listeners in being able to digest this album a little bit better. some of the songs teeter too close to the edge of nonsense and share a kind of kinship with bands like The Fall, whose mission, it seems, is to alienate it's fanbase as much as possible. but...for every epic tale on this cd, there's some great little nuggets of very nice peculiar pop. "My Dog Was Lost But Now He's Found" is a great example of the "hardy-har" kind of joke that this band can pull off without losing face. plus Eleanor's vocals carry such a whiskey ravaged, smokey appeal that one can't help but be pulled along down some of these ridiculous twists and turns.

The Fiery Furnaces know how to write a catchy song. but they also know how to throw a million curveballs at every chance they get. and even though The Fiery Furnaces throw those curveballs with class and charm, it still gets exhausting in the end. sometimes i just want their songs to be able to breathe and hold back Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger from smothering their simple beauty with a thousand other random ideas. nonetheless, Blueberry Boat should be embraced, or at least accepted, for it's daring and openly ludicrous theatrical vision of unique pop.