Music as true art begs to be delved deeper into. Controversially classic albums such as Daydream Nation, Zen Arcade, and Kid A warrant very little before much time and myriad repeat listens. On first hearing, albums such as the aforementioned often appear completely impenetrable, inaccessible, and, in some cases, entirely unlistenable; nothing exists to grab the listener instantaneously by the hair and shout "THIS IS BRILLIANT" in his or her face; there is nothing immediate to latch on to; nothing that most can easily wrap their minds around upon first exposure. With patience and an open mind, however, most serious music fans will eventually warm up to these albums, allowing them to toy with (or possibly destroy) conventions, open up worlds, and ultimately change how the listener thinks about music as an artful form of expression. The Fiery Furnaces' Blueberry Boat is indubitably an album of this caliber and will, in my mind, take a place right next to past and future classics.
Though The Fiery Furnaces' debut Gallowsbird's Bark garnered a spot on many a best of 2003 list (including Pitchfork and even Buddyhead), nothing on that album hinted at the sheer brilliance and phenomenal ambition of its successor. Blueberry Boat is a veritable towering behemoth of greatness: a monumental, 76-minute prog-pop epic that makes most "magnum opuses" look like Casualties albums. Twists and surprises are at every turn throughout the experience. Reviewing this album via breaking it down and discussing the songs piece by piece would take years; Blueberry Boat plays like an infinite well of great ideas that the band was anxious and excited to get recorded, any of which the band didn't have the heart to omit any. There is certainly a sense of spontaneity and impetuosity on the record, to the point where it sometimes starts to feel random and disorganized, but even at its most random, it is endearingly so and nonetheless thrilling.
Few albums in the history of music have been doomed to misunderstanding and instant dismissal to the degree that Blueberry Boat is. Some will undoubtedly call it "pretentious," but labeling this album as such is like claiming that a Dr. Seuss book or a drawing by a kindergartner is pretentious. Are stories about battling pirates who are attempting to plunder your ship stocked with fresh blueberries pretentious? This album is an expedition akin to the infinitely dynamic imagination of a child, not some mere pseudo-intellectual musing a la Belle and Sebastian.
Then there are those who will dub it "self-indulgent," but I, for one, personally believe that music as a whole could benefit from a bit more self-indulgence. Whatever happened to glory and grandeur in rock music? Escapism is always nice in my book. While there are certainly advantages to listening to simply, humbly made records that I can relate to and are on a very human level, often times I find myself just craving more. Not more of anything in particular, but just more. I can only take so many guitars, 3-5 minute song lengths, and universal tales of love and heartbreak (even if the band executes this conventional formula beautifully) before I want to hear something truly sweeping, majestic, and otherworldly. And if there is one album that is the perfect antidote for Death Cab For Cutie boredom and predictability, it is Blueberry Boat.
Why this isn't receiving the degree of hype that records like the Arcade Fire's Funeral have been getting is for one very simple reason: to really "get it," you have to listen to the record twice. A nearly 80-minute record. Twice. And if you abhor it after the first ten minutes (which a lot of people will), the motivation for you to finish the record and then listen to it again is probably going to be pretty much non-existent. The hype department does not operate well with an album that needs time to become truly appreciated (case in point: a 1991 issue of Spin claimed that Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque was the best album of the same year of Nevermind), but I believe that, years from now, critics will look back and cite Blueberry Boat not only as the best album of 2004, but as one of the best of all time.
