Blitzen Trapper, an alt-folk sextet from Portland, Oregon, raised the eyebrows of critic after critic with their 2007 release Wild Mountain Nation<\/i>, a dizzying, 13-track exploration that flaunted consistency and rewarded scatterbrainedness.<\/p>\n
While decidedly less frenetic than its critically acclaimed predecessor, Furr <\/i>\u00a0still maintains an atypical air, reminding me of Of Montreal\u2019s subdued alter-ego with a twist of alternative country.\u00a0 Much of the album consists primarily of upbeat, poppy guitar riffs and brisk harmonizing vocals, with intermittent enhancements to the instrumentation — organ-like keyboards and electronic accents here, mandolin and steel guitar there. <\/p>\n
Despite a couple of mediocre, weak spots (such as \u201cGod & Suicide\u201d), it\u2019s a generally successful formula, particularly in the first half of the album.\u00a0 \u201cSleepytime In The Western World,\u201d as the title suggests, is a dreamy, borderline ridiculous charade of an opener.\u00a0 While you\u2019re confronted immediately with the band\u2019s oddities, you also can tell right away from the unusually catchy chord progressions and melodies that you\u2019re in for an interesting listen.\u00a0 Up front, \u201cGold For Bread\u201d and \u201cSaturday Nite\u201d are especially appealing with their upbeat, shuffling rhythms, and the latter spotlighting a charming mandolin solo.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the title track \u201cFurr\u201d is an absolute masterpiece; it\u2019s a whimsical folk tune about a wandering soul that, enamored by the wild, assimilates with a pack of wolves.\u00a0 Only after meeting and falling in love with a pearl-skinned girl six years later (\u201cYou should have seen that girl go shaky at the knees\u201d), who herself holds a fondness for the feral, does he return to reality.\u00a0 A thumping bass drum and periodic snippets of birds and other wildlife back poetic lyrics dripping with vivid imagery.\u00a0 Interestingly, the last line of the chorus ignores the rhyme scheme (\u201cIf you\u2019re gonna get made \/ Don\u2019t be afraid of what you\u2019ve learned\u201d).<\/p>\n
But like any great album, Furr<\/i> ventures outside of the comfort zone it establishes in the first handful of songs, lest it become one-dimensional and yawn-inducing.\u00a0 The mellow minor key and melancholy lyrics of \u201cBlack River Killer\u201d come as a bit of a surprise (albeit a welcome one after some of the farcical material that preceded it) as it follows a serial killer\u2019s unwillingness to amend his murderous ways, despite his religiously motivated efforts. It\u2019s also another example of the album\u2019s fascinating lyrics, which demonstrate the supposed cleansing of the character\u2019s spirit, followed immediately by a return to form as a serial killer:\u00a0 \u201cI washed myself clean as a newborn babe \/ And then I picked up a rock for to sharpen my blade.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, country influences permeate a few tracks quite strongly.\u00a0 Lead vocalist Eric Earley croons just like Neil Young or Jayhawks great Gary Louris in \u201cNot Your Lover,\u201d and steel guitar and twangy vocals dominate \u201cStolen Shoes & A Rifle.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cLove U,\u201d by contrast, is a wild attempt at the proverbial curveball that fails to come close to matching the quality of the rest of the album.\u00a0 A limping beat, blaring distortion, and futile attempts at Stephen Tyler-esque screaming leaving you wondering if what you heard was just a bad joke.\u00a0 (And speaking of bad jokes, the track\u2019s opening line: \u201cI love you baby … Like my shoe got sole.\u201d)<\/p>\n
With Furr<\/i>, Blitzen Trapper strikes a perfect balance in creating music that appeals to a broader crowd while maintaining its quirkiness that led to their pre-2008 rise.\u00a0 A diverse collection of songs that sample the best of a variety of genres, it\u2019s an album — and a band — that deserves your attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":30576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8678],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-42244","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-blitzen-trapper","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42244"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}