The Fiery Furnaces: Widow City

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Emma Pearse wrote in New York: "Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger grew up as musically curious, loafer-wearing siblings in Oak Park, Illinois. In 2000, Eleanor moved to Greenpoint, where she started singing at house parties. When Matthew moved here six months later, they decided to collaborate. Eleanor sang, and Matthew wrote sprawling narrative songs and manned a myriad of instruments, including guitar and electronic percussion (tack piano and Optigan). Such were the humble beginnings of the Fiery Furnaces, who last week released their sixth album, Widow City. It’s their most accessible and coherent to date. Psychedelic sounds are broken by sweet acoustic melodies; Eleanor’s strident vocals, offset by distant cartoonish voices, tell absurdist stories about Egyptian scholars, spiritual gurus, and unhappy wives imagined from the pages of seventies lifestyle magazines. … 'Being brother and sister, do you get tired of being psychoanalyzed as such?' M: 'It’s our own fault. … I suggested we have fake names and not say that we were brother and sister. Eleanor won that argument.' E: 'I just thought it was silly.'"