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#11 Furr by Blitzen Trapper (Sup Pop)
I just noticed that I totally forgot one album in assembling my Top 25 list - the self-titled record by boat-shoe-wearing wuss-rockers Vampire Weekend. Apparently, it came out in January and I have to admit that I think it's a pretty good record. So I'm going to shoehorn some Vampire Weekend content into today's entry, even though it wouldn't have made it as high as my #11. I'm going to list some ways that Furr by Blitzen Trapper is a better record than Vampire Weekend. I know - these two albums have little to do with each other, but I'm tired of writing these little reviews without having an arbitrary framework to prop them up.
Reason Number One: Furr made a better first impression. I remember exactly where I was when I first heard the title track from Furr. It was National Record Store Day, and I'd gone to my favorite local CD store, Gray Whale Music, to take advantage of some great sales. I don't remember what I purchased, but I remember that I got a free Sub Pop sampler with my purchase. Later that evening, my wife and I were driving home from my sister-in-law's house with the sampler in the player. And a song started with the line, "When I was only seventeen, I heard the angels whispering. So I drove into the woods, and wandered aimlessly about until I heard my mother shouting through the fog. It turned out to be the howling of a dog." That was all it took. I think I heard about Vampire Weekend first on Pitchfork. No contest.
Reason Number Two: Furr has more than a couple musical ideas. Vampire Weekend does a good job of combining chamber-pop songwriting with Afro-pop embellishments, but that's pretty much all you'll find on their album. Furr is not as all-over-the-place as Blitzen Trapper's last record, Wild Mountain Nation, but they haven't lost their interest in trying new things. The spiritualist lullaby "Furr" and murder ballad "Black River Killer" show a lyrical precision I didn't find in their earlier stuff. "Not Your Lover" is a tender piano-based love song, while "Love U" is a three-minute dirge of screaming and distortion. "Sleepytime in the Western World" and "Saturday Nite" bring the party vibe. "God and Suicide" and "Stolen Shoes and a Rifle" are excellent country-pop songs, and "Echo/Always On/Easy Con" grafts a spacey piano piece onto a Clinic-like melodica shuffle. Nothing they do completely diverges from their California-style, 70s-influenced country-rock, but they make the most of a fairly expansive palette.
Reason Number Three: No boat shoes. You can't imagine the singer of "Stolen Shoes and a Rifle" wearing boat shoes, and that's a good thing. A down-tempo number that starts with acoustic guitar and pedal steel, the harmonies add a lot to the chorus - "Oh, the stones won't be lonely here this year - it's gone." And then the drums come in, adding needed energy to the second verse. The song is a good distillation of the melody, mysticism, and musicality that makes Blitzen Trapper better than Vampire Weekend.
"Stolen Shoes and a Rifle" by Blitzen Trapper
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