This album has been severely hyped. Everybody's raving about Blitzen Trapper in general and this album in particular. That effectively sets up the review: either I'm supposed to buy the hype and jump on the bandwagon or I should cop a superior attitude and shred it as something lame being pushed out to the masses. Given that choice, I'll take the middle path. My bottom line is that I like this disc but I don't think that I like it for the same reasons as the other reviewers.
The biggest love/hate aspect for this for me is that it's incredibly derivative. They have a set of influences that stand out almost in tribute. The Kinks are the most obvious, but there are plenty of Wilco, the Band, and Bowie kind of moments. Even the occasional bits of Oasis, T. Rex, and XTC. I'm not just talking about voices or snatches of familiar tunes; it really is a matter of harmonies, arrangements, writing style, and production values. This all works because this odd set of artists is kind of interesting to mix together. Despite the derivation, they've created something artistic and original. Now, with so many disparate influences, the album jumps around a lot stylistically. They're billed as an experimental folk-rock band but this album is roughly split between pop, folk, and some rock.
Furr has a seriously retro sound that goes way beyond the influences but it still has a foot in the modern age. They've intentionally made the whole album a little bit compressed and lo-fi, giving it some of that 70's kind of overall sound. Not so far off from what Beck has done in the past, for example. On most of the tracks, they've built up relatively dense, thick mixes without a lot of separation between the various parts, which you'll either love or hate. The downside is that it can be hard to pick out individual instruments but it also makes it stand up to repeated listenings a little better as you pick up on different details with each listen. They also mix up a lot of odd instrumentation for pop music, with banjos and melodica. On the whole, their arrangements are fairly solid.
The two songs that get the most raves are the title track, Furr, and Black River Killer. I'll split the difference here, too. I hate Furr. I don't mind the folky main section of the song that reminds me of the Band or the lyrical theme of drifting into animal nature and back. The problem is the production decision to throw in the sound effects and Wilco-like noise on the bridge. This makes no sense to me and it detracts from the feel of the song. In contrast, the noise stuff in Echo/Always On/EZ Con totally work for me because it fits the feel of what they're doing.
Black River Killer, which also gets props, is one of my favorite tracks. It's a heavy dark folk blues, with moody, pointless, amoral lyrics that clearly paint the title character. This time, the main influences are Tom Petty playing with the Band, but the reedy synth they add is a perfect touch. Creepy feel -- perfect. My other favorite track, War on Machines, digs into the Wilco style and sound, with a hint of 70's rock. I love the retro guitar sound. Jeff Tweedy wishes he wrote this song.
More notes about some of the influences, Sleepytime in the Western World, Fire and Fast Bullets, and the Echo section of Echo/Always On/EZ Con have that Ray Davies/Kinks feel. God and Suicide sounds a lot like Michael Penn (Freetime) with a hint of XTC or Matthew Sweet. Not Your Lover ressurects some Harvest-era Neil Young. Love U, a grindy trainwreck, has a Black Crowes vocal sound. They're not trying to deliberately copy those artists, it's just the nature of what they've absorbed. In any case, you should give this disc a listen and make up your own mind.
A good American brown ale, like Brooklyn Brown, would go perfectly with this disk. Then turn the lights down and shift to Sheaf Stout during Black River Killer.
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