Fiery Furnaces, The - Remember (Album)
I love live music. I especially love leaving a gig and knowing that what I just witnessed was something truly special. I also love being able to have something to remember the show by; a sort of document of that era of the band or what they were doing live at that time in their career. So, with this in mind it would seem the Fiery Furnaces' first live CD, (a double, no less); Remember is an aptly named and rather concise document of their live shows. There’s 51 tracks on offer, spanning their entire back catalogue, and taking recordings from as far back as 2005. The songs are deconstructed, reconstructed, improvised and in more than a few instances completely reinvented, but whilst for the real fans this is a dream-come-true document to relive the live experience (which to be honest; does sound like quite the experience) those who are casual fans may simply get lost in the complete lack of direction and lack of structure in which these songs have been manipulated.
Completely different from their studio recordings, the Fiery Furnaces live, interlace portions from many of their songs into the one, melding them together with improvisations and simply out of place sounds to create one almighty cocktail of what could loosely be called music. This, curiously may be why the band chose not to list the tracks on the back of the cd case, knowing there is very little chance for a casual listener to keep up with what is going on; it’s just easier to let it all roll by and enjoy Remember for what it is; a well crafted, improvised mess.
It’s not bad though, not bad at all. It’s just that it’s incredibly difficult to keep up with. It sounds like they are having a great time playing live, and certainly a band I would like to see live, but that’s just it, without being able to see what’s going on, the music it’s self is at a complete loss. This release would have benefited much more if there was some kind of visual presence to compliment where all these sounds are coming form; a dvd with snippets of them playing, or even some live shots in the booklet, just so the listener can gauge where they are at or what’s going on would be, at the very least, helpful and certainly beneficial, especially to those with little understanding of the band – especially in a live sense.
51 tracks that are so chopped and changed is simply too many to cope with, but also a nice completeist addition for any Fiery Furnaces fan’s collection, but given; I think this album is intended to push, intrigue and play with the listener in a fun yet challenging way. “Please do not attempt to listen to all at once.” Is stated on the back of the album case, and to be honest there is no chance this listener could possibly come close to doing so. It’s a hard release to sit down and enjoy for long periods of time. There are so many changes and interludes that you find yourself at a complete loss to know where you are and how many songs you have listened to, before a reprise to a song you were originally enjoying suddenly comes up and you realise that it was all just the same song laced with other’s parts of other songs and improvisational bits to boot – sounds confusing? Well, yes it is. As musically talented and interesting as it is, it just gets too much. Don’t Dance her Down is given a reworking and sounds great - for the first verse/chorus, but before you know it, it’s interrupted with Single Again, some jamming, grinding, other improv sounds, before coming straight back into a sped up version of the next verse/chorus of Don’t Dance her Down then that’s it; we’re then swept into the Reprise version of Single Again again. I could go on with examples of other tracks, but that treatment tends to be resounding throughout. I’m not convinced it’s bad, I’m just not convinced it’s all that good either, hence I think the band are onto something when they suggest “not listening to it all at once”.
To try and pull out stand out tracks is impossible as everything here may as well be part of one 2 hour long song, as there are so many changes that I don’t think one song is played in it’s entirety without being interrupted by three other samples of other songs and jams before returning. It’s simply too harsh on the ear – unless you are a die hard fan, and enjoy the manic abrupt changes of songs.
As mentioned on the front cover; “An insane journey over 51 tracks and 2 mindblowing hours of music” – and yes it is – but that should be taken as each to their own. Personally; I’m happy to place this next to my other Fiery Furnaces albums with pride – I’m just not sure how often I’m going to listen to it…
