Fiery Furnaces
Blueberry Boat
[Rough Trade]

by K. Vicious

This rock business is a tired old beast of burden, isn't it? Or perhaps it just takes a hungry young band like the Fiery Furnaces to come along sometime to capture the heat of resurrection. "Blueberry Boat" is the zenith of the Friedberger sibling's flyblown fever, an enchanting rump of garage pop music that transplants everything lead singer Eleanor and older brother Matt could grasp at into one disarmingly brilliant whole. The bullets of intrigue on their 2003 debut "Gallowbird's Bark" sound heavily garrisoned in contrast to the mangled words and elaborate prog schemes that are flung around Blueberry Boat. For starters, the new songs are longer and brimming with ideas. Opening the album with the 10-minute 'Quay Cur', part Pete Townshend synthesizer epic and part Sir Edward Pepsi surrealistic workout session, is one of those ideas and a good one at that. The Friedberger duo has the make of a pair of literate folkies preaching rock and roll mania, and their grizzly delivery adds to the juiced-up rush of this 76-minute madcap medley. From My Dog Was Lost But Now He's Found's juvenile gushing to Eleanor's petticoat complaints against transport system on 'Birdie Brain', the Fiery Furnaces' childlike enthusiasm bleeds all over.

So let it bleed. Pulling off a high-wire act like "Blueberry Boat" demands more than just roguish talent - it takes a great deal of dare. When it's the album's most straightforward rock track 'Straight Street' and Eleanor heaves out "Leverkusen, Juventus, Leeds versus Valencia, I'm overhearing all their nonsense in extensia" at breakneck speed over strangled surf guitars and barrelhouse piano, you know you are in for a real headache, the good kind. I know readers don't like it each time I trudge out the odd Dylan influence to review records, but how else to make sense of the twin infinitives in Matt's off-radar verses. Sung mostly by Eleanor on this album, the lyrics convey deliberate nonsense but are also part of an elongated mess of Blueberry Boat's novelistic sprawl - and damned if you don't care much for Matt's ambitious wordplay. As obtuse as the record sometimes can be, the Fiery Furnaces are not about to throw away their indie rock cachet. Chris Michaels is disheveled psych pop with the added dimension of Matt's havoc storytelling, and 1917 a sliver of undertow folk until Eleanor leaps in to break the song into pop anthem territory. Fun, engaging and yet genuinely ambitious, Blueberry Boat surpasses all expectation of the Fiery Furnaces with ease. After all it's business as usual for the Friedbergers: break a leg, make 'em laugh.

Ronin
Limited Edition/Unmastered Preview EP
[self-released]

by airhole

If Singapore ever needs a bona fide 80s rock band, Ronin will absolutely fit the bill. Sounding like an 80s rock favourite, Guns N Roses, this is definitely what you hear from this unmastered EP.

This 5 song EP is a pretty good effort from Ronin, the first three songs had much feel and energy. The first song, 'Revolution', is a very typical 80s rock song, packed with heavy distorted rock rhythm and great riffing frenzy from the two guitarists. The vocals are really good for a rock outfit; snarly vocals with an edge that does lift the song somewhat.The 3rd track, 'Crazy Son' is a rock ballad about how the protaganist wants to be in a rock band. It tends towards hedonism but not quite yet. It starts with nice caressing arpeggios, and then it gently leads to the heavier side of rock ballads. The song builds up to a full blown rock song with a pretty cool solo to boot. What I liked about Ronin is their huge efforts. One can tell that the band is competent, specially on the guitars. The songs truly sound like it was written in the 80s.

The vocals are terrifyingly snarly with the rock edge all rock singers from that era would have.

On the downside, some of their songs did have a lack of feel, but then again, many 80s rock bands had that same problem. In this case, it is probably due to the lack of a rock steady groove and too much focus on the technicalities in the studio.Truly a fine rock effort. Hopefully, the fully mastered EP will have more kick and drive, more refinement in the mixing yet the same rawness in the unmastered EP.

Iron And Wine
Our Endless Numbered Days
[Sub Pop]

by K. Vicious

Iron And Wine's debut album, The Creek Drank The Cradle (2002), consisted almost entirely of songs intimately strummed on an acoustic guitar by Sam Beam, which has led the band to be lumped together with a group of other musicians going down a supposed new folk route. But such categorizations will hardly be useful for anyone in coming to terms with the lyrical beauty of Beam's new record, Our Endless Numbered Days.

The new songs are mostly from the same batch that made up the debut; only this time, the arrangements are fleshed out with a full band proper. And playing with a full band does provide the right setting for Beam to flaunt his wracked poetry, as the quality of Our Endless Numbered Days shows. Love and religion form the emotional core of Beam's music, and the album is nicely balanced between his finely tuned ballads of romantic devotion (Naked As We Came, Each Coming Night) and other songs like On Your Wings and Sodom, South Georgia which contains deep allusions to religious faith. The effect of how Beam's words and music are carefully put together with hymnal grace is quite indescribable - and there are even a few surprises in store, like in how the rollicking Free Until They Cut Me Down evokes Nebraska-era Bruce Springsteen. Our Endless Numbered Days is a modest triumph of songwriting candor.