The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City

The first song on Widow City, "Philadelphia Grand Jury" -- all seven minutes of it -- defines everything fascinating, and occasionally frustrating, about The Fiery Furnaces' music. Eleanor Friedberger sings about legal woes, red tape, and conspiracies as the music behind her switches from tinkling piano and harp to anthemic guitars and back again, then drifts off into its own noodly world. Likewise, Widow City is a quintessentially Fiery Furnaces album, recombining the Friedburgers' hyper-literate art rock and experimental almost-pop: "Japanese Slippers" plays a bit like one of Gallowsbird's Bark's saloon ditties filtered through Blueberry Boat's kaleidoscope. Read More