The Fiery Furnaces make for one of the more fascinating stories in indie rock, emerging into our consciousness on the wave of the early 00's garage rock boom, settling into critical darling status with 2004's Blueberry Boat, blowing it with Rehearsing My Choir, and recovering with Bitter Tea and Widow City. At the same time, their music is equally...ok, realistically, the music is much, much more fascinating than the story behind it, a sound that is by turns complex and simple, catchy and obtuse, retro and futuristic.
For all the talk--and boasting from Matt Friedberger--about how prolific the band is, the Fiery Furnaces have only released 5 albums in the past 6 years (one more if you count the EP release, two more if you count Matt's solo double album). And it all began with 2003's Gallowsbird's Bark, a release that at the time made sense in the context of the White Stripes/Strokes/The Hives garage band era of the early years of this decade. Looking back now, though, the Fiery Furnaces were always weirder and more diverse than their contemporaries. Certainly I don't want to make the impression that Gallowsbird's Bark is as strange as what was to come, but it's also misleading to call it garage rock. Though it does have far more guitars and shorter songs than any other Fiery Furnaces release, it still has a hefty dose of trademark keyboards, songwriting twists, and wordy, book-ish lyrics.
The main thing that strikes me about the album now is how close it sounds to future Fiery Furnaces releases. The common consensus that this is their "rock" album or their "pop" album (or both) is mostly true, but it's still far from something as accessible and populist as the contemporary releases from the Strokes or Fiery Furnaces. I've been listening to the Fiery Furnace albums as a patchwork quilt for a week or so now, and Gallowsbird's Bark doesn't stand out as much as you might think. Witness a song like 'Two Fat Feet': sure, it's got the sludgy garage rock guitar riff, but it's also got a flirty, fancy piano/keyboard line and lyrics that include the word "snaggletooth." Then there's 'Inca Rag/Name Game', effectively two seamless songs in one, which--as every review probably will mention--points the way to the genius song suites of Blueberry Boat.
Speaking of which, the final three songs of the album are one of the finest things the band has ever done. A true link to Blueberry Boat, 'Tropical Ice-land', 'Rub-Alcohol Blues', and 'We Got Back The Plague' are a continuous trio of songs, each every bit as distinct as the others and yet fitting together perfectly. 'Tropical Ice-land' in particular deserves praise as both a fan favorite and one of their best songs, so much so that an alternate "single" version appears on the EP release. I prefer this version over that peppy, new wave rave up. It starts with a melancholy, complicated guitar line after a false start and then the glorious lyrics begin under a swath of gauzy acoustic guitars. The beautiful refrain will stick in your head for days--sing it with me: "tropical icey icey"--and the odd chirping sounds and stray percussive touches will remind you that, even at their pop-iest, there is always more going on than there seems in Fiery Furnaces land.
On its own, Gallowsbird's Bark is an incredible album. The only problem I have with it is that, while it's only around 46 minutes long, it's also 16 songs and so it always feels longer than it is. This is a problem common to all Fiery Furnaces releases, though in latter cases it will be because they actually are long albums. Anyway, on its own the album is great and still the best place to enter the Fiery Furnaces world. However, in terms of the band's discography, it's only above Rehearsing My Choir in my estimation. That's not to say it's a bad album or even a bad Fiery Furnaces album; I think I've made that clear enough. But, what's still to come--which I will get to in time--is exponentially more interesting and rewarding.
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