The Fiery Furnaces
I’m Going Away”
(Thrill Jockey)


The title track opens this record with a stripped-down blues-stomp that clips along for two-and-a-half minutes of gradually evolving sounds—guitar and piano swapping back and forth with good effect. The follow-up, “Drive to Dallas” slows things down, and the blues gets the rhythm-and- prefix for a heartbreak lament until the halfway point, when it busts briefly into a frenzy before dropping back to the sadsack r-n-b, then gradually speeding back up to sprinting pace of the course of the final section.

The whole album plays around with blues and r and b idioms, and does so really successfully, thanks to spare and thoughtful instrumentation, lovely vocal work and absolutely dynamite songwriting. Even the shortest songs—five of them are under three-and-a-half minutes—marry several different musical ideas together, which makes them seem longer (in a good way) than they actually are.

“I’m Going Away” sounds curiously timeless; even after one listen—even after about five seconds of the opening track—this album sounds like an old friend. This quality comes from the combination of the sound and lyrics: little stories of heartbreak, and longing, Ray Bouvier and getting fucked up are told with a precision of language wrapped in a sound that both supports and gives space to the lyrical content. The whole album never seems to let a sense of fun and whimsy drop too far from view, either. Jason Loewenstein produced the record, and he’s done an excellent job of capturing the sound in a way that sounds crisp and casual.

I’d read quite a bit about The Fiery Furnaces over the past couple years without ever actually hearing any of their music; this album is definitely more than enough to send me diving headfirst into their back catalogue to see what other gems I’ve been missing. In the meantime, whether you’ve heard them before or not, this album is without question worth every bit of your time and attention.