New Music Initiative 072: Ezra Furman
Apr. 7th, 2018 07:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23I am hoping to throw a few new artists in the mix this year. The system that still works best for me is curated music like playlists, or specifically for me, Indie Radio.
This struck me and I had to check him out. This record is a lot better than I expected it to be.
Furman is still fairly young (31), but he's already got about eight albums of material in either by himself or with a backing band.
Furman calls hs new record Transangelic Exodus, a "queer outlaw saga" album. That's the type of statement that might scare a lot of people off, but Furman pulls it off. It's a record that is once a collected story but great individually as songs.
Furman immediately brings to mind those artists that are one-man bedroom projects of genius (Car Seat Headrest, Beirut), but there are strong hints of the Great Three American Songwriters (Dylan, Springsteen, Reed), All weave in and out as his muses.
Allmusic compares him to the eccentric geniuses of the last few decades like Daniel Johnston and Half Japanese. They are not wrong (especially, his love for occasional noise), but I think the comparisons sell him short.
Indeed, the one name that comes up time and time again in Furman reviews is Jonathan Richman. Furman doesn't sound like Richman, but it is probably a good description. There's the strong Velvets influence, the love for the road, a certain eccentricity and neuroticism, and that nerdy voice that outsiders like Richman and Gordon Gano have. But he's not quite Richman. Maybe he's Jojo if Jojo grew up on Tom Waits and Rufus Wainwright records.
Anyway, this is one of those records that not everyone will like, but I am really, really enjoying it.
This struck me and I had to check him out. This record is a lot better than I expected it to be.
Furman is still fairly young (31), but he's already got about eight albums of material in either by himself or with a backing band.
Furman calls hs new record Transangelic Exodus, a "queer outlaw saga" album. That's the type of statement that might scare a lot of people off, but Furman pulls it off. It's a record that is once a collected story but great individually as songs.
Furman immediately brings to mind those artists that are one-man bedroom projects of genius (Car Seat Headrest, Beirut), but there are strong hints of the Great Three American Songwriters (Dylan, Springsteen, Reed), All weave in and out as his muses.
Allmusic compares him to the eccentric geniuses of the last few decades like Daniel Johnston and Half Japanese. They are not wrong (especially, his love for occasional noise), but I think the comparisons sell him short.
Indeed, the one name that comes up time and time again in Furman reviews is Jonathan Richman. Furman doesn't sound like Richman, but it is probably a good description. There's the strong Velvets influence, the love for the road, a certain eccentricity and neuroticism, and that nerdy voice that outsiders like Richman and Gordon Gano have. But he's not quite Richman. Maybe he's Jojo if Jojo grew up on Tom Waits and Rufus Wainwright records.
Anyway, this is one of those records that not everyone will like, but I am really, really enjoying it.
