Search - Fiery Furnaces :: Bitter Tea

The Fiery Furnaces are the best thing since Andre Breton

Brooks B. Lampe | Purcellville, VA | 04/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Where else can you go to get honky-tonk piano layered over tripped-out sound effects zig-zagging across the endlessly surprising lyrics of the Friedbergers? How do you even start to describe this music?



FF writes their own rules. There is a surreal-logic to their music. Their music is a dialectic between the organization and disorganization, repetition and disruption, the familiar and the unfamiliar. If you listen, you'll start to figure out when to expect a new rhythm/melody to interrupt the song. A FF song is really a discontinuous combobulation of about five songs woven together, a mix and match of different sets of completely different textures.



When listening to FF, you are in the circus or in "Amelia" or with your aunt in the kitchen baking cookies (or in this case, brewing tea). What's amazing is their ability to evoke colors and moods through their symphonic noise-clashing (synesthesia). It's really a wide range of experiences, which is probably why they thought they had the ability to recreate a whole life through their grandmother's biographic reminiscences on their previous album. Patterns include: tempo change, the trio of vocals on computer noise on acoustics, many times pounding out the same melody, and quasi-non-sense lyrics.



You'll have to decide for yourself what FF is trying to do with their lyrics. In "Black-Heart Boy" for instance:



"Darling black-hearted boy,

All the color's gone out of my ribbon loom

As I've only got the worst to assume.

Take your sheet metal sheers;

Cut a slit up the side of my dark blue dress;

For a last time lie your love confess."



This is Gertrude Stein put to music. Combine this with their dream-like, disorienting plethora of sounds, and you've got the irresistible, un-reproducible music of FF.



In Bitter Tea, they do what they do well, but with even more balls (bad metaphor). A lot of fans were put off by Rehearsing My Choir, a tribute to their grandmother-the complaint being that the album offered no pop potential, and certainly, none of the tracks package well for your Ipod. But if that's why you're listening to FF, then you're listening for the wrong reasons.



At any rate, I feel like Bitter Tea is a counter-balancing effort. In this album, they daringly blare out innovatively distorted sound effects, generously laid over everything. Part of the genius of their formula is that their sound never really gets "off the ground," at their peak points they sound like they are in their garage, cranking up as many instruments as possible, but are running out of hands. They probably never have more than a half-dozen instruments or sound-effects going simultaneously. What I really like about Bitter Tea is their willingness to experiment with these even quirkier and more dissonant interjections. At the same time, they are "apologizing" for the Joycean ocean of Rehearsing My Choir project. This CD, by contrast, gives listeners what they want as consumers: a nice continuity from one track to the next. But that's about all you can expect. They are out to play off all your other expectations.



"

So good....and then SCREEEEEEECH!!!!

Lambert | Corpus Christi, TX USA | 04/20/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Fiery Furnaces is a frustrating experience for me. Most of their songs contain beautiful, beautiful music. For that reason alone I recommend you listen to this album. But be sure to listen before you buy, though, becaue, like me, you might be put off by the following common FF experience: a gorgeous, fun, wacky sequence is interupted by HARSH electronic noise that lasts for longer than you thought it possibly could without the artists thinking it might be a bad idea.



FF, I would love you more if you could cut out some of the blatant noise that ruins my enjoyment of many of your songs.



That said, FF is an extremely talented and unique product, and anyone who wants a taste of today's pop/rock/electronica avant-garde should check these people out pronto.



"

Best yet

Peter Berkley | San Francisco, CA | 04/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"i really liked them before. i love them now. this album showcases breadth, consistency, intelligence, fun, wisdom, freedom and vision."