The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City

The Fiery Furnaces
Widow City (Thrill Jockey, 2007)
Grade: B

Download: The Fiery Furnaces - "Duplexes Of The Dead"
Download: The Fiery Furnaces - "My Egyptian Grammar"

If each one of The Fiery Furnaces recordings evoke a different time period, both through narrative (Rehearsing My Choir, Blueberry Boat) or actual music (Gallowsbird Peak then Widow City is their most riff-oriented, Led Zepplin-influenced 70s rock album. Like the best Fiery Furnaces albums, City has abrupt changes in meter, cryptic song narratives and enough melody to prevent the listener from becoming impatient. Unlike their last two efforts, the attention is now more on the songwriting and less on how avant-garde the musical and narrative detours can be (though there are plenty of those, this being The Fiery Furnaces and everything).

Maybe that's the result of the siblings divvying up the tasks so that Eleanor Friedberger only did the singing and Matthew Friedberger played all the instruments. Or maybe its being on a new label. Whatever the reason, this renewed focus shows itself on warm, guitar-heavy tracks such as album opener "The Philadelphia Grand Jury" and "My Egyptian Grammar" (which borrows heavily from the Furnaces' own "Evergreen"). Though there are clumsy moments on Widow City, the album's greater emphasis on melodiousness is what makes the record more listenable than its two predecessors.

The Fiery Furances play tonight at the Turf Club for a 21+ show. Doors open at 8:00 p.m.

(Jonathan Graef)

Pre-Order Fiery Furnaces' Widow City

Download:Fiery Furnaces - "Worry Worry" (from Gallowsbird Bark)
Download: Fiery Furnaces - "Evergreen" (from EP)
Download: Fiery Furnaces - "Slavin' Away" (from Rehearsing My Choir)
Download: Fiery Furnaces - "Chief Inspector Blancheflower" (from Blueberry Boat)
Download: Fiery Furnaces - "Nevers" (from Bitter Tea)
Download: Fiery Furnaces - "Japanese Sleepers" (from Widow City)

Widow City, the sixth album from the Fiery Furnaces, does not come out until Oct. 9th (on Thrill Jockey). However, if you want to be the first kid on your block to own Widow City - and, frankly, who doesn't? - you can pre-order the album here.

If you order the double LP, then you can receive the album with a gatefold tip-on jacket and a free MP3 download of Widow City.

At the top of this post, you'll find MP3's from all six of the Fiery Furnaces' albums...even Rehearsing My Choir.

The siblings Friedburger will be playing the Turf Club in St. Paul on Oct. 12th.

MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

New Fiery Furnaces Track - "Ex-Guru"

Download: The Fiery Furnaces - "Ex-Guru" (Via Stereogum)

Courtesy of Stereogum, and taken from the Chicago based, brother-sister led, band's upcoming Widow City. It's their first effort for Thrill Jockey, the band's new label. The song is called "Ex-Guru".

The song is definitely more along the lines of their LP material, which is a good thing, in my mind. The track starts out in the sort of electropop-blues like "Single Again," but with more of a airy trip-hop feel. It fact, for a while, "Ex-Guru" is both one of the undiluted rock and techno tracks that Fiery Furnaces have written. That is, of course, until the band abruptly decides to become Led Zepplin in its Eastern, orchestral, phase. But that is short-lived as well, as the Furnaces briefly dabble in Beatles-esque orchestral-pop before returning to the song's refrain.

I dig the song a lot, even if I sense that "Ex-Guru" may seque into something that's even better on the album.

Read more about Widow City here. The album comes out Oct. 9th on Thrill Jockey.

(Jonathan Graef)