I'm Going Away with The Fiery Furnaces

Is this album like their other stuff? I've never listened to this band before but thought I'd give them a shot. Maybe I picked the wrong album to start with.

I still haven't heard this! Got put off by all the reviews. I can tell you now you picked the wrong one though. Blueberry Boat is absolutely the one you should start with.

i think all you need is BBoat, the EP, and Bitter Tea,

and Widow City, and I agree with you

first album is crazy overrated

*awaits butthurt*

I got into Fiery Furnaces via Widow City which I think is outstanding - like it more than Blueberry Boat, which I heard later. I'm Going Away is not good. Widow City and Blueberry Boat are both more guitar-oriented, have a harder edge, and are more unpredictable. If this were the 90s I'd say they were "mathy," though not as cold as that term might suggest. The one thing all the albums have in common is that the FFs are always a little grating and awkward... but when they do it right, it's super terrific.

WC and BB are the only out-and-out BRILLIANT albums IMO and yeah Scott's right; you CANNOT overlook Widow City. The songwriting and narrative on both is amazing. Bitter Tea, if edited, would have been at the same level. There's a lot of *great* music there but it's far, far, far too much for one sitting. You really ought to hear it though because the (numerous) highlights are sublime. Just uh...take it slowly - it's much more exhausting than the ostensibly more impenetrable (but actually really fun and coherent) Blueberry Boat.

I never got into BB that much. I love WC though.

i think all their records are way too long. i have Bitter Tea on vinyl--2lp--and it's great that way, in chunks.

I think they're intentionally too long - just another extension of their M.O.

first album is crazy overrated

*awaits butthurt*

― Mark Ronson: "Led Zeppelin were responsible for hip-hop" (acoleuthic), Friday, June 18, 2010 10:56 AM (2 days ago)

u r crazy dumb

*awaits hi-5*

i feel like there's been a real narrowing-down of their ambitions since BB and the grandmother album. is this bad, who agrees, etc

Grandmother album is most ambitious, I guess. I haven't listened to that in a long time, but I liked it pretty well at one time. I should pull it out again. I still have never heard I'm Going Away - was scared off by comments in this thread and underwhelmed by the 30-second snippets I heard.

"drive to dallas" is gorgeous

― what a disaster for 1p3 (k3vin k.), Saturday, June 20, 2009 1:34 PM (7 years ago)