I'm Going Away

To find the jump-off for the Fiery Furnaces’ I’m Going Away, it is useful to return to the band’s 2003 debut Gallowsbird’s Bark. An injection of pre-rock and roll era sounds into the so-called garage rock revival, it was a raw music revue—a blues/folk/gospel/cabaret catchall that made room for plaintive numbers like “Rub-Alcohol Blues”, the up-tempo stomp of “Asthma Attack”, swaying s ing-along “Up in the North”, and jagged, raw-boned pieces like “Don’t Dance Her Down” and “Crystal Clear”. Among reactions to the album was a too-convenient pigeonholing of the band, normally with reference to other superficially similar acts like the White Stripes, whose members had posed as brother and sister early in their career. But the Fiery Furnaces’ Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger—actual siblings—represented a very different interpretation of related influences. Whereas Jack and Meg White played the role of lo-fi blues punk roustabouts, the Friedberger characters were from the beginning more literate, well-traveled types prone to a distinctive brand of experimentation. These bands didn’t need to battle, because their courses were equally valid, fresh revitalizations of the building blocks of rock.

A couple weeks ago — on a fine day, dry and bright — I went for a long drive with a friend. She was getting bored with the tropicália album she had put on, and the duty fell to me to choose the next soundtrack for the afternoon. I pulled out the new Fiery Furnaces record and asked if she was familiar with them. She wasn’t. Having already spent a fair amount of time with the album, I was pleased enough with it, b ut surprised at how conventional, how tame it was, especially in comparison to their more aggressively avant-garde work. The album is easily their most approachable since Bitter Tea, if not as far back as Gallowsbird’s Bark.