The Fiery Furnaces

The Fiery Furnaces' second record is a full-on prog rock album dressed up in indie rock rags. It's also totally brilliant. Antiquated synths squelch, tempos switch, and a story about pirates and berries unfolds. The words fly fast until they turn into mere sounds; on "Chris Michaels," the result is completely amazing.

New York brother-sister act tosses off raggedy-ass indie-rock collages and other random
blurts to its credit and to its detriment, the Fiery Furnaces' second album may prove to be
one of the more polarizing records of the year -- a stitched-together, underedited collage
of half-finished tunes, random guitar blurts and keyboard flotsam that will be loved by its
admirers and royally annoy everyone else. Between Eleanor Friedberger's high-... More >