The Fiery Furnaces Fail to Spark Their Usual Creativity
I’m Going Away’s piano-infused tunes serve as listenable, but ultimately forgettable tracks
The Fiery Furnaces
I'm Going Away
Released on Jul 21, 2009
The Fiery Furnaces are nothing if not creative. With each album, this prolific brother-sister duo has thoughtfully reinvented their sound without sounding derivative or sacrificing their production quality. On their eighth studio album, I’m Going Away, listeners find The Fiery Furnaces playing with more of a pop/rock feel, with tints of lounge music thrown in every so often. Oh, and they’ve utilized loads of piano. However, considering their past experiments—which include forays into conceptual albums (2004’s Blueberry Boat) and synthpop (2006’s Bitter Tea), this sound comes across as slightly boring.
Perhaps in an attempt to spice this new sound up, Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger have done the ol’ bait-and-switch when it comes to band roles. Normally, Eleanor takes over vocals, but on I’m Going Away, Matthew gets plenty of time on the microphone. He’s got a surprisingly smooth voice, which almost verges on sultry. His voice works well with some of the more laid back tracks, especially “Drive to Dallas.” This is a strong song on the album, thanks to its upbeat, guitar-dominated redemption at the end.
Oddly enough, even though this vocal shift is interesting at first, I definitely miss Eleanor’s domination. She’s got such a fantastic voice, and I’ve become accustomed to hearing her dulcet tones float above the tracks. With Matthew leading the pack, the songs become alternately relaxed and frantic. The franticness can be heard especially on “Charmaine Champagne”—his quick ramblings are sharp, and are well-suited to the jagged instrumentation of the track.
In case I haven’t iterated this clearly just yet, I’m perturbed by just how lukewarm I feel toward this album. None of the songs are particularly remarkable—it’s a very listenable album, and would make great background noise at your next barbeque, but there are no real standout tracks. Some of them have better piano parts than others, like “Even in the Rain,” but one piano can’t put one track ahead of the pack in any real way. Alternately, there are no horrific, please-skip-over-this-type tracks. They’ve done what I didn’t think any inventive band could do: produce an entirely underwhelming album.
Unfortunately, I feel that a lot of this boredom comes from the fact that I first fell in love with The Fiery Furnaces on Bitter Tea. While I certainly admire their ability to inhabit many different genres, I just think they failed to capture any kind of originality or excitement by dabbling into the pop/rock archetype.
High Point
I love a good piano, and I don’t think it’s used enough by bands anymore. So, their inclusion of it on nearly any track is a plus.
Low Point
The “it’s not bad, but it’s not great” feeling that it evoked in me. Given their past creativity, it just doesn’t sound like their living up to their potential.
Posted by Alyssa Vincent on Jul 21, 2009 @ 6:30 am
