Exhausting Trip

Remember
The Fiery Furnaces
Longtime Listener, 2008
3 stars

A Fiery Furnaces album can be a lot to take in at the best of times. The Friedberger siblings have forged a reputation for the unexpected, their songs skipping between genres, time signatures and instruments in schizophrenic fashion. Remember, a two-disc collection of live recordings, is accompanied by a warning “please do not attempt to listen to all at once”, and this should be strictly adhered to. The songs on Remember have been ‘reinterpreted’ (often beyond recognition) and mixed together into a series of exhausting mega-mixes that will challenge even the most die-hard of fans’ patience. One disc’s worth of this would have been enough – two of them is just way too much of a good thing. And if two hours of Fiery Furnaces isn’t enough, fear not – you can jump on the net and download special ‘bonus songs’! Sheesh. I’m spent.

Artwork: A
Not sure why, but I really like this. It's simple, vector-based cut-paper looking stuff, similar to the Bitter Tea cover. Maybe it's the colours. I think they probably figured there was enough happening on the discs themselves - and there is - so they didn't need to overcook the artwork too.

Published in mX, Thursday September 11, 2008.