A 10-song, 40-minute EP? Talk about cocky! After releasing their 80-minute beast of an album, Blueberry Boat, to my (and a handful of other cultists') absolute euphoria in 2004, what would be a perfectly suitable song amount and running time for a full-length LP for virtually any other band in the musical spectrum is a mere EP to the sweeping, grandiose force of nature that is the Fiery Furnaces. How smug!
Easily their most accessible offering to date, EP is charmingly fresh with infectious energy and undeniable catchiness, two attributes notably lacking on Blueberry Boat (but made up for by epic song structure and imaginative innovation). It is actually an odds and sods collection of sorts, despite its misleading title. B-sides, remakes, and all sorts of other sonic flotsam and jetsam that turn non-diehards right off populate this "EP," but there's something to be said for a band whose sub-album cuts conglomerate to produce a record in a league with Chutes Too Narrow.
The seamless triumvirate of opening tracks start EP off on a curious note. Cold synths, sharp guitar, and dark, repetitive lyrics would make "Single Again" an uninhabitable locale were it not for the generally dancey groove and Eleanor's appealingly unassuming speak-singing. "Here Comes the Summer" lightens the mood a bit (which I s'pose isn't all that hard to do after a song dealing with spousal abuse) with an irresistibly catchy melody and extremely goofy, wah-inflected guitars echoing the verses. If you have the capacity to absorb the song in its entirety without feeling a little better or humming to yourself, congratulations: you have a heart of fucking stone.
"Evergreen," a rollicking piano ballad, is one of the record's highlights as well as a superb middle finger to those who claim that the Fiery Furnaces are incapable of writing concise, tuneful songs. "Sing for Me" is a-oh, fuck it. This isn't a record that's meant to be analyzed to death. Full of quirky, sunny, not-quite-prog pop, EP is simply yet another testament to the compositional brilliance of the Fiery Furnaces. If Blueberry Boat was a bit too rich for your blood but intrigued you nevertheless, I could not recommend the catchy, accessible, and worlds-more-concise EP more. Easily one of my faves of '05 so far, and c'mon, you trust me, don't you?
