The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat

One thing you can definitely say for Blueberry Boat, it's hella dense; it's taken me weeks to begin to feel that I've started to absorb it, and I'm slightly hesitant to pass even a provisional judgment on it, 'cause it seems that the record has so much more to it than I've really plumbed. As it stands, I think that the album's going to be a bit of a sleeper in my collection - I'm not really diggin' its kitchen sink pop medleys just now, but I'm hearing enough to feel that it could be seriously bitchin' at some point in the future, when I'm more receptive to its particular charms. It's an album that really has to be taken on its own terms, and benefits, at least initially, from being left on in the background while the listener is more or less absorbed with doing something else - that way, the queer melodies, stop-start tempos and unpredictable changes in direction would have a chance to become familiar - and I've been doing a bit of that. It's definitely growing on me, but there hasn't yet been an 'ah' moment and I don't really have a sense of it as a whole...