The Fiery Furnaces: I'm Going Away

Label: Thrill Jockey

Old fans who complain of not being able to keep up with the best sibling-band around may have an easier time with I’m Going Away, the Fiery Furnaces’ eighth album. (Eight albums. Man.) Without abandoning the anarchic way they sometimes tumble into tangential reveries, the Friedbergers nonetheless turn in their most focused-sounding collection since their debut, Gallowsbird’s Bark. The Furnaces remain stylistically nimble though, offering a pair of brilliantly jittery tunes in “I’m Going Away” and “Charmaine Champagne,” and blending endtime fear-creep with 70s-piano-pop on “The End Is Near” and “Cut the Cake.” And that’s not even the first half of the album! Every utterance from this band remains contextually unique, a particle accelerator of styles and emotions that should be an explosive mess yet, once again, comes together in perfectly odd harmony. And they name a song for Adirondack “twig-furniture” maven Ray Bouvier. Wotta band. (Edgar)