Blitzen Trapper
Furr
Sub Pop
By Mike Randall
To some, there are songs out there just waiting to be claimed, as if the sounds and melodies already exist silently in an unknown stratosphere. To declare ownership, it’s an almost get-there-first-and-win mentality, and Blitzen Trapper clearly abides by such an ethos. While most bands pull their low-hanging fruit from the same tree, Blitzen Trapper swings from vine to vine picking a little from everything, and the result on their fourth full-length Furr, is a hodge-podge of folk, classic rock, soul and country that regardless of style or influence can simply be described as nothing more than a collection of great songs.
Recorded in an old telegraph building in the band’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, Furr manages to sound vintage and timeless without being nostalgic. The album-opening “Sleepytime in the Western World” offers up a roundabout dose of warm soulful 70s rock with ragged guitars and hovering organ reminiscent of Dylan’s Desire period. Right from the get-go, with lines like “Your eyelids are made of lead, you can’t keep them open,” primary songwriter Eric Earley’s vocals demonstrate a highly visual method of straightforward delivery. There’s more of that kind of lo-fi, messy rock on tracks like “Gold For Bread” and “War On Machines,” the latter of which combines the crunch of Foghat with a hint of Stones swagger. The sextet even finds room for some killer power-pop on the scorching “Fire + Fast Bullets,” which follows the early Wilco formula of taking familiar FM-radio classic rock and running it through the relevance machine.
As interesting as Blitzen Trapper is when they rock, they’re even more compelling when they strip down and discover the roots-ness that is clearly inherent within them. “Black River Killer” is the unquestionable standout – a track that could be an analogous audio book for a Cormac McCarthy novel. It’s outlaw folk that follows a murderer traversing the west coast on a murderous spree, and features the Cash-like line, “Make no mistake I know just what it takes/to pull a man’s soul back from the heaven’s gates.” They explore their sense of wilderness on the gorgeous country folk of “Stolen Shoes & A Rifle,” and the band manages to channel the most rustic folk of The Grateful Dead through the album-ending gem, “Lady On The Water,” but their sense of nature truly comes alive during the painfully catchy, “Furr,” In what might wind up being this year’s “New Slang,” “Furr” is a charming tale of a boy who’s raised by wolves, welcomed into their world and subsequently takes on their instincts and qualities.
If spot-on electric and acoustic songcraft weren’t enough, the band discovered an ancient beaten-up piano in their studio to bring about the most notable evolution from 2007’s Wild Mountain Nation. It’s a creaky, rickety old thing that Earley clearly banged on enough to make for some of Furr’s most memorable moments. Tipping their hat to 70s jambands, “Saturday Nite,” is a funky, sweaty hair-in-the-eyes groove about getting down, and the band just does that. Earley pulls out his inner After the Gold Rush on “Not Your Lover,” a tale about needing reassurance from his lover because his dreams take him to places he doesn’t want to go. “If you watch me while I’m sleeping in my bed/I’m a million miles away inside some other stranger’s head,” he sings. “Echo/Always On/EZ Con” is just as sparse until its run through the process and from left field brilliantly comes out the other end as a Gorillaz tune.
Eric Earley has openly said how he doesn’t want to do the same thing twice, and he clearly has the desire for exploration and the willingness to experiment to make one believe it might actually be the truth. He’ll strum or pluck whatever instrument he can get a sound out of, record on whatever material is adhesive to music and immerse himself in his craft to the point he’ll make himself homeless to let the silence of the night allow his songs to take shape. Odds are a time will come when there is some duplication, but if there are repeats of just about any of the tracks on Furr, it would be fine with me.
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