Album of the Week/Primer: Fiery Furnaces Part 2: Blueberry Boat

There comes a point in any great band's life where they make that huge artistic leap and manage to create a work that is both the best thing they've ever done and something that seemingly points in infinite directions for the future. Sometimes this happens before a band releases anything so that their debut album is their huge leap. Other times it happens an album or more into the band's career. Then there's freaks like Radiohead who've made artistic leaps at least twice.

With Blueberry Boat, the Fiery Furnaces made this leap. While Gallowsbird's Bark and the singles that would make up the eventual EP release were great in their own way, they don't hold a candle to the consistency, freshness, and utter genius of this album.

Blueberry Boat was, for me, the sort of album you hear and remember why you love music, and the album format specifically, so much. None of these songs could work on their own, but if listened to as a whole, they form a brilliant suite of songs that melt into each other or rapidly jump between themes back and forth like hopscotch.

The easiest way I can think of to explain the greatness of the album is to use a formula: take the revolutionary song suite 'A Quick One While He's Away' by the Who, add to it Gallowbird's Bark's last three tracks (which segue together like a trio suite), and multiply by inspiration. The music is largely similar to the instrumentation found on the Furnaces' first album, with guitars, keyboards, pianos, drums, various percussive instruments, and oddities like sitars (or so I'm told, I'd have never figured it out on my own). However, things are taken to a ridiculously fun extreme on this album--this is really the point where the band's keyboard obsession made itself known, but in a good way. Unlike later releases which could be too keyboard heavy, Blueberry Boat gets the balance right and remembers to rock out every so often.

The album is ostensibly a concept album about somebody sailing a ship with a cargo of blueberries--actually, I'm not sure what the story is supposed to be, but you don't need to even care to appreciate the album. I've made this metaphor before, but listening to Fiery Furnace albums is like taking shots of liquor. You just have to jump in and hang on for the ride, trusting the band's instincts and having a good time (if any is to be had...we'll get to Rehearsing My Choir some other time). In fact, that concept of "fun" is what initially struck me about the album the first time I heard it--the way the songs flow into each other or juxtapose elements, all the while with great melodies and strong songwriting, makes for one of the most joyously fun indie rock albums I've ever heard.

I'm going to feel like a broken record by the time I get to Widow City, but the problems you may or may not have with Blueberry Boat are universal to all Fiery Furnace releases. Yes, it's long: just over 75 minutes. Yes, it's complex: the first song, 'Quay Cur', is over 10 minutes in length and is an overwhelming way to start the album. Yes, it's pretentious: the lyrics are frequently wordy and bookish. However, as a fan, I don't see these things as bad. It's more that certain albums are good enough to make you forget or outright appreciate these elements. Blueberry Boat never overstays its welcome for me; I love every song and find it hard to stop listening to it once I've started. The complexity also isn't bad. Sometimes you need to give an album a few spins to learn its logic and sense of itself to anticipate changes and song sections that initially seemed chaotic and random, but will eventually seem perfectly placed. As for the pretentiousness, well, I happen to like smart lyrics that mention, say, obscure elements of history or science, so I've got no problem there.

While I am stressing the suite-like, long, and complicated nature of the songs for good reason, the latter half of the album features a few sweet, short, and unpretentious pop songs. 'Birdie Brain' is on par with 'Tropical Ice-land' from the first album as one of the finest songs they've yet written, and every time it gets to the part where the male Friedberger sibling takes over vocals for the "I've been told the branch of the stream..." bit, I get chills. Similarly, 'Turning Round' is a gorgeous late album impressionistic piece like 'Cry Baby Cry' off the White Album, and something I almost always try to work into mixtapes because I love it that much. Lastly, 'Spaniolated' is a shimmery mid-tempo ballad-like tune with a melancholy tinge that quotes the childhood couplet "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain."

I would go into the longer songs, but frankly it would ruin the fun of listening to the album. Suffice it to say that, while I certainly love the other Fiery Furnace albums (again, other than Rehearsing My Choir) they just don't do it as well or as consistently as Blueberry Boat. It is exceedingly rare that a band's most complex and long winded album is their best, but such is the magic of Blueberry Boat. Go buy this album now.