The Fiery Furnaces: Widow City

During my junior year at Miami U, I took an elective course on jazz music. My "professor" was a 2-years sober blues musician who may or may not have realized he had to grade us as some point in the semester. Any way, as abstract as the class was, it did actually make me listen to and think about music differently. Even after I had completed class, I continued to find myself listening for different influences in music and finding new appreciation for musicians who didn't box themselves into a specific genre. If nothing else, The Fiery Furnaces do not limit themselves to one brand of music... or 2 or 3 or 4... but like improvisation in jazz... it works somehow.

Widow City is The Fiery Furnaces' 6th album, but the first that I've bought. I only heard of this band a few weeks ago. After listening to a certain person sing the song Nevers several times, I decided to check this band out for myself, and I'm glad I did.

Before deciding on Widow City, I listened to a bunch of stuff from the Furnaces' compilation of music. Their first album, Gallowsbird's Bark, was released in 2003. Since then they have come out with 6 more including a live album of songs from their first 6 studio albums. I liked the songs I sampled from all of the Furnaces' albums; I arbitrarily chose Widow City based on two songs I really liked: "Navy Nurse" and "Duplexes of the Dead". I had also read that this most recent album was a little smoother than their previous works, so I thought it would be a safe place to start. I like Indy music, but I wasn't completely ready to dive into the backwards lyrics (literally played backwards) and ancient languages that made appearances in Bitter Tea and Blueberry Boat.

Some die-hard FF fans have actually complained that Widow City is too smooth; I don't have that complaint, however. For some one just discovering the furnaces, this album has a truly unique and surprising sound. It's hard and soft at the same time, angry and peaceful. This is much contributed to Eleanor Friedberger's voice, (which I sometimes find difficult to take in large doses) and also to the woodwind sounds which give the music an otherworldly feel. I later found out, not surprisingly, that the woodwind and string sounds came from a Chamberlain M1 keyboard. Besides it sounding cool, it would probably be difficult for a 2-person band to garner a 5-piece orchestra. Besides the occasional appearance of drummber Bob D'Amico, all instrumentals are done by Matthew Friedberger.

If you like Indy music and are open to new sounds I would recommend this album to you. It's one that I actually like more and more as I listen to it. In fact, I think I will add some more Fiery Furnaces music to my collection in the near future.

My rating on The Fiery Furnaces' Widow City: 3.5 stars (B+)