3/22/04
The Best Blueberries In The US Of A
The Fiery Furnaces “Blueberry Boat” – If someone is going to put out an album in 2004 that I will love more than the Fiery Furnaces’ forthcoming Blueberry Boat, then it’s going to have to a pretty miraculous record.
Blueberry Boat is a very challenging album to say the least. Five of its thirteen songs are eight minutes or longer, and many of the smaller songs fit together as suites; so the album feels very overwhelming at first before you learn to navigate its twists and turns. Your time is most certainly rewarded, because once you adapt to its internal logic and narrative style, Blueberry Boat reveals itself to be just as tuneful and ingratiating as its more accessable predecessor, Gallowsbird’s Bark.
The Fiery Furnaces seem primarily interested in musical storytelling on this record. They mostly abandon verse-chorus-verse structure in favor of letting the music shift with their narrative, so the songs fall somewhere between prog and musical theatre in terms of style and composition. The title track is a fine example of the band at their most ambitious, as it tells the story of a first time captain’s doomed voyage to Hong Kong to deliver the “best blueberries in the US of A.” There are other more immediately loveable songs on the album, but “Blueberry Boat” is the best example of the record’s epic, cinematic scope and will give you a good idea of what to expect of it as a whole.
The Tiki Two “Caravan” – If you were into the Red Astaire song from a few weeks ago or the Avalanches’ Since I Left You album, this should probably do the trick. The Tiki Two transform Ella Fitzgerald’s “Caravan” into a groovy island paradise dance number, which should be perfect for your next luau. This song is a bit hard to come by – only 500 white label 45s were made, and it hasn’t yet been released in any other format.