Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Bitter Tea by The Fiery Furnaces


Bitter Tea: Dense but ultimately rewarding


Listening to a Fiery Furnaces album is like wading through a river of thick flowing caramel at its widest point. It can be painful, it takes a long time, and you might drown in a river of caramel. But if you make it to the other side, you are rewarded because there's sweetness dripping all around you.

Bitter Tea is no exception. After listening to the 72-minute album, I still don't really know what to think. Instrumental interludes interupt songs like a telemarketer during dinner, stubbornly hawking new wares that sound unlike anything that's come before.

The lyrics, at this early stage, make as much sense as German to a dolphin. Maybe that's because there's lots of backward singing, which kind of sounds like German. I've noticed some pleasing songs to listen to, but I don't know which ones, and I don't have the CD case in front of me.

Still, the Furnaces bring the originality. Wonky sounds and arbitrary non-sequitors weave a quilt that suggests a mind meld between Dr. Suess and Scott Joplin.

This reviewing experience has taught me that I need to listen to albums many more times before I can form anything as concrete as an actual opinion. You've got to uncork Bitter Tea, give it some air. Each time you taste it you'll get something different.

At this point, I'm still just wading in the caramel.

1 comment:

jds said...

Poetry is this review. Nice one. Would you suggest this as an entry point for one wanting to sample their music (any songs in particular)? I find myself downloading songs rather than full albums. True, I should take the sour with the sweet (or else it just isn't as sweet, I know this), but I'm just plain lazy.