Widow City

The Fiery Furnaces Widow City (2007)

I was so happy to hear a real drummer in the opening of the new Fiery Furnaces album. When I heard they had a new album coming out I was hoping to hear more of their rock sound like on Gallowbird’s Bark. The first song “Philadelphia Grand Jury” has some typical Fiery Furnaces piano playing, but also a section with some heavy guitar distortion. The ending section is a long instrumental segment that is a duo between the drums and guitar that sounds Deerhoof inspired to me (I wonder). The song “Duplexes of the Dead” has a cool psychedelic, slow rock feel, then it transitions into “Automatic Husband,” which starts out with a snyth beat and some pseudo-rapping from Eleanor (a more typical Fiery Furnaces sound) . But then, the chorus involves a heavy and dark guitar driven rock out, something I haven’t hear this band play before. From the first few tracks one can see how this band loves flawless, almost schizophrenic, transitions between songs. And also another thing this group seems to like now is heavy, progressive rock guitar playing. One of the best examples of this is in “Clear Signal From Cairo.” This also one of the best tracks on the album because of some its complex rhythmic patterns. The band even shows their punk rock character on tracks like “Uncle Charlie.” “Right By Conquest” is by far one of the most inventive songs in the album. Eleanor sings beautifully, and her voice blends wonderfully with the distorted bass that is playing along. In “Wicker Whatnots” the band plays some of the freest sounding music they’ve ever put out. By the end of this album you realize that all around this is a brilliant rock band. I highly recommend this record.