Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "Emily Jean Stock"
It's raining rocks on a still lake surface, and the usually white and warm dawn is cloudy through the shutters; the soft light on your tired tired face. You show the restraint of a cityscape with one tall building, your movements are deliberate, your limbs like signposts. You sing in the shower like a sick crow, gorgeous, and the whole forest outside takes the bus to work. [pre-order and download now]
Fiery Furnaces - "Slavin' Away"
Here begins my defense of Rehearsing My Choir, and we may as well start with the best song, because, who knows, I might die before I finish this. "Slavin' Away" comes late in the album, after youth and marriage are lost, and, the main dishes of life devoured or discarded, you begin to look at the table, and tap your fork and wonder what else there is to do. The consistency of change, and yet the constant recurring of themes in differing forms, is the best part of the album, and the most necessary distraction in this song. To actually document a life, it doesn't make a story. It's the shape of the pieces of wrapping paper you cut away from the actual present. It's sad, and left, and lone, and kind, but sometimes it has those refrains of unbelievable beauty (I could see her lookin' in the mirror at me...) that wash and cure and salve and shine, that make you think that life is poetry, but they are absolutely not the same thing.
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[art by irana]
Posted by Dan at January 23, 2007 4:00 AMAre you sure life isn't poetry? I know some people whose biography would look like a villanelle.
I like the CYHSY track a lot.
Posted by Tuwa at January 23, 2007 3:38 PMI sound sure, but I'm really not.
high five, Tuwa.
Posted by dan at January 23, 2007 4:11 PMDan-- Isn't it almost as if Reheasing My Choir seems destined to be dismissed, forgotten, then eventually unearthed and recognized for the true greatness it had all along? It's probably just me, but I could envision a day when it's regarded as The Fiery Furnaces' most important work--and to that end, I'm jumping aboard now.
On an off-topic note while I'm writing, thanks to Sean for telling the world about Matthew Feyld. I design books for a small press called Caketrain, and Matthew is graciously letting us use his artwork for the cover of a chapbook called "Dolls" that we're releasing this spring. Its been a pleasure to collaborate with him, and I would never have known of him if not for this blog.
Posted by Joseph at January 23, 2007 5:50 PM2 of my least favorite artists, on ONE post!
Posted by mrs. partypooper at January 23, 2007 9:54 PMgorgeous in every sense
Posted by karin at January 24, 2007 10:53 AMThere are some good moments in that Fiery song to be sure; on the whole, the album is arguably greater than Blueberry Boat. The lyrics are certainly well worth the ticket price. But my vote for favourite track on/off of that album has to be Fortyeight Twentythree Twentysecond Street, which has a delightful Latin section that puts, in my view, the rest of the album to shame. I've listened to the whole album a few times, sure; but I've listened to that track a few too many times. Just kidding; still not and will never be sick of it. Kudos, FF!
Posted by Joel Taylor at January 25, 2007 9:41 AMRock on for defending 'RMC'. It's fucking brilliant and the nay-sayers out there are just ignoramuses with short attention-spans!! Join the official forum and discuss it even more!!! Take care!!
Posted by spencer at November 1, 2007 2:50 PM
and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
