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The Fiery Furnaces Bitter Tea
Fat Possum
This is a frustrating record.
The most recent album from the prolific Friedberger siblings, Bitter Tea showcases moments of shinning pop music genius. Freed from the strict narrative constraints of last year’s grandmotherly opus, Rehearsing My Choir, the Furnaces hit full-stride on some of the albums’ more straightforward tracks. “Waiting To Know You” is a melancholy ’50s ballad with a majestic flourish at the end; “Whistle Rhapsody?” is Bowie at his best; “Benton Harbor Blues” (aside from the disorienting intro and mid-song melt-down) is a simple and charming summertime tune. These three songs alone make Bitter Tea a worthwhile listen.
Track listing:
01 In My Little Thatched Hut
02 I'm In No Mood
03 Black-Hearted Boy
04 Bitter Tea
05 Teach Me Sweetheart
06 Waiting To Know You
07 The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry
08 Oh Sweet Woods
09 Borneo
10 Police Sweater Blood Vow
11 Nevers!
12 Benton Harbor Blues
13 Whistle Rhapsody?
But, as they shown time and time again, the fiery fiery Friedbergers aren’t interested in straightforward indie pop. Despite his obvious songwriting chops, Matthew Friedberger’s interest lies in tearing pop songs apart, dissecting them, subverting them, leaving them sputtering and whirling, running them forwards and backwards as they lunge drunkenly from one section into another, or letting them fall completely to pieces before gluing them back together in some new and bizarre way. And it is this relentless experimentation that makes up the majority of Bitter Tea’s marathon 72 minutes.
As they demonstrate in their wonderfully insane and entirely successful title-track (the hyper-active Tokyo-arcade freak-out / mournful Chinese ballad provides many of the album’s most memorable moments), the Furnaces are still capable of walking the tight-rope between their pop sensibilities and their destructive instincts. Too often on Bitter Tea, however, they slip into experimental free fall: while all the backwards singing, moaning synths, and off-kilter changes are frequently very exciting, they are just as often very annoying or, worse yet, very boring.
Any band this intent on taking risks is bound to miss the mark on a few occasions. Let’s just hope that with the next Friedberger effort – Matthew’s soon to be released double-album – he proves he’s still as good as Bitter Tea could have been.
