Gallowsbird's Bark
Fiery Furnaces

Cool throw-back vibe, reminiscent of 70s low-fi. Some songs lack much of a melody and the messy instrumentation waffles between slightly aggravating and endearing, but a few standout tracks on here make this well worth playing, such as 5, 9, 13, 14, 15. If you're anything like me, this album will definitely grow on you and become a favorite!

1. Piano, guitar and female vox. Kind of messy instrumentation. Driving, bouncy beat.
2. Sort of dirty, bluesy number. Upbeat. Cool track.
3. Repetitive spacey beep noise. Steady drums. Piano building up behind it. Cool low-fi guitar break in the middle. Rocks a little at the end.
4. Piano and affected keyboard. Sing-songy melody. Nice song.
5. *First track with male vox, female vox later. Just piano. Sounds like an old Vaudeville number. Cute song. Guitar and drums round it out towards the end. Works into a nice groove. Spoon-esque.
6. Upbeat guitar-driven track. Old rock nroll sort of feel.
7. Mostly fueled by bass and drums, with piano and affected keyboard punctuating it. Slow, dreamy piano break in the middle. Freaky guitar in the end. Pretty cool track.
8. Drums and bass fuel most of it. Cool guitar riff chorus. Bouncy piano, later. Upbeat tack.
9. **Wah Wah guitar over bass. Clinky piano chords in the background. Pretty hot little groove. Cool song.
10. *Mid-tempo piano driven track. Parts of this song seem reminiscent of T-Rex.
11. Echoed vocals over electronic noise. Voice gets normal and sings over mechanical sounding beat.
12. Mid-tempo. Backwards guitar breaks. Sort of a repetitive groove.
13. *Sort of a sweet melody over soft guitar. Pretty song
14. ***Really pretty guitar with bird noises. Nice vocal melody. Another pretty song.
15. **Pretty piano. Some Joni Mitchell inflection in places. Effected guitar in the background. Haha, wow! Three pretty songs in a row.
16. Bluesy guitar, some scratchy noise and drums punctuating the song.

The Fiery Furnaces (Eleanor and Matt Friedberger) create a wonderfully fresh sound with guitars acoustic and tweaked, blurpy Rhodes keyboards, and vocals competent, attractive, and bemused applied to weird, evocative, and surreal lyrics. And the tunes are totally hummable and memorable. A superb debut! Play any track or all, preferably all. And see the band when they come to town! I cannot praise this enough.

1. Great guitar riff with piano cascading down
2. Swinging, syncopated guitar; vaguely about virtue … tomorrow, not today
3. Creepy oscillating synthesizer buzz, sharp guitar fight for supremacy while Eleanor sing/recites disoriented lyrics … all of this in the titular leaky tunnel
4. Queasy synth overcome by big huge melody and funny, too-specific lyrics delivered in an angelic voice
5. Simple music hall piano melody, very Beatle-esque; both Eleanor and Matt sing; about two minutes in, the song turns into a sort of chugging riff
6. Bigtime swinging tempo; guitar trills, determined piano chords, surreal lyrics
7. The buzzing hive of synthesized bees has returned … from previous tracks and from an Add N To X record … to accent this otherwise basic rock riff
8. Stomping rocker dominated by the most simple bassline imaginable until a pleasantly noisy guitar kicks in; then the bassline is relieved by a one-note piano line until it’s all put together … god, it’s great!
9. Rust-covered, dirty, and warbly piano and guitar drive; but what’s with that lyric “You got a wing in your snaggle tooth?”; adorably off-kilter
10. I love how the almost apologetic little piano stabs contrast with Eleanor’s even-more-so-than-usual up front vocals; toward the end, the piano undertakes some more confident improvisation but even as it’s fading out
11. Does “cowbell = Rocks!” hold for indie rock? Just asking. The rapidly strummed guitar presses this tune forward; simple lyrics, cool tune, mmmm
12. Bass introduces the melody; the strangled guitar periodically throws some curves; I need not even mention how the vocals and lyrics are so right
13. The slightest touch of organ fills in this otherwise spartan guitar-n-voice ballad; as the lyrics say, “it’s sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet”
14. Slower, lyrically slightly odd acoustic ballad; catchy as they come
15. The slow balladeering continues but with a piano replacing the guitar
16. Aggressive acoustic blues; this is perhaps the strangest tune here because Eleanor’s phrasing is so not blues and the lyrics, while nodding toward the traveling man cliché of blues lyrics are really much more abstract; this tune reminds me of Hoosegow (which you must also check out)