| Ezra Furman |
| Perpetual Motion People (Deluxe Edition) |
Ezra Furman — Perpetual Motion People (Deluxe Edition) (July 10, 2015)
★ Indie folk and pop songwriter whose music is raw, deep, and achingly sentimental. The Chicago musician is following the tradition of sexually subversive rockers, often performing in dresses and makeup. Here, he explains how his ambiguous approach to genre and gender helps shape his performance.
Born: 5 September 1986, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Location: Evanston, IL
Album release: July 10, 2015
Record Label: Bella Union
Duration: 61:25
Tracks:
01. Restless Year 2:25
02. Lousy Connection 4:11
03. Hark! to the Music 1:25
04. Haunted Head 4:49
05. Hour of Deepest Need 4:27
06. Wobbly 3:00
07. Ordinary Life 2:20
08. Tip of a Match 2:35
09. Body Was Made 3:31
10. Watch You Go By 4:09
11. Pot Holes 3:18
12. Can I Sleep in Your Brain 3:57
13. One Day I Will Sin No More 2:31
Deluxe Edition (Bonus CD — Other People's Songs):
01. Devil's Haircut
02. The Good Book
03. Crown of Love
04. Androgynous
05. I Can Change
Producer: Tim Sandusky, Ezra Furman
REVIEW
By Mark Beaumont, June 22, 2015; Score: 8/10
★★ The Chicago troubadour flits from skiffle to ska and beyond on his accomplished third album
★★ The Pied Piper of restless outcasts everywhere, Chicago’s Ezra Furman — the sexual, religious and musical floating voter pictured in drag on the cover of ‘Perpetual Motion People’ — has made this third solo album specifically for fellow experience dabblers. Doused in saucy saxophones that make it sound like the sort of ramshackle ‘50s retro revue that Mac DeMarco might make if he fronted Dexys Midnight Runners, it hops, skips and jumps between genres with abandon. One minute he’s lovelorn Neil Young (‘Hour Of Deepest Need’) or roots rock Neutral Milk Hotel (‘Tip Of A Match’), the next he’s skiffle Showaddywaddy (‘Pot Holes’) or drunk Benny Hill (‘Wobbly’). “I was sick of this ordinary life… you’ve gotta keep it new to keep it true”, he explains on acoustic glam anthem ‘Ordinary Life’. It’s a philosophy that makes ‘Perpetual Motion People’, from beat pop opener to gospel closer, a constantly surprising and relentlessly melodic pleasure. ★★ http://www.nme.com/reviews/various-artists/16139
★ Perpetual Motion People was recorded with Furman’s current band The Boyfriends — comprising Jorgen Jorgensen (bass), Ben Joseph (keyboards, guitar), Sam Durkes (drums) and saxophonist Tim Sandusky — at studio Ballistico in Furman’s home city of Chicago (though he’s currently based in San Francisco). The album kicks off with ‘Restless Year’, about which Consequence Of Sound described as, “a ball of energy, bouncing around genre borders with glee. There’s the rebellion of ’90s indie rock, a string of sunshine–y ’80s pop, and the snarl of ’70s punk.”
★ “The opening lines of my records tend to be summary statements,” says Furman. “Every year has been restless, physically and even more internally.” Hence the title Perpetual Motion People, “That's who it was made by and that's who it's for. People who feel they can never settle. I’m restless in most aspects. I don't tend to live in one place for long. I am always changing the way I present my gender. My religious life is intensely up and down in terms of observance and personal convictions. I’ve always viewed the idea of truth itself as something wobbly, always slipping out of our grasp. That's what the songs are about: a head that is haunted, a society I cannot join, a lover who is perpetually in the act of leaving. A central idea is the fugitive or runaway, in a hideout built in the midst of an unfriendly or alienated world.”
★ “The other aspect is a feeling of expansiveness, the largeness of emotion, from joy to pain. Some people think life is small or confined, but to me it’s just big, and I’d say each song has something to say, to declare themselves large. It’s also to do with trying to make something that a lot of people would listen to after Day Of The Dog got some kind of increased attention.”
★ In that, he’s done his job, switching from the sinewy jubilance of ‘Hark! To The Music’ to the wistful heart–ache of ‘Ordinary Life’, from the power–pop snarl of ‘Tip Of The Match’ to the wracked country blues of “One Day I Will Sin No More”. The waterfront covered marks Furman out as a true original, tapping avenues of music that most others have left alone, or wouldn’t have the guts to emulate. “There’s rarely been a scene that I’ve wanted to be part of,” he admits. “I’m just not hearing other stuff out there that I wish existed, so that’s my goal, to do it myself.”
Picture: Blurred lines: Ezra Furman. Photograph: Phil Sharp
Also:
Ezra Furman
Friday 3 July 2015 13.00 BST
★ http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/03/ezra-furman-gender-fluidity
Tobias Ruhland, Donnerstag, 2. Juli 2015
★ http://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/kultur/kulturwelt/ezra-furman-perpetual-motion-people100.html
Website: http://ezrafurman.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ezrafurman
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ezrafurmanmusic
Discography:
Ezra Furman and the Harpoons:
★ Banging Down the Doors (2007)
★ Inside the Human Body (2008)
★ Mysterious Power (2011)
Solo albums:
★ The Year of No Returning (2012)
★ Day of the Dog (2013)
★ Perpetual Motion People (2015)
Singles:
★ My Zero/Caroline Jones (2013)
★ Restless Year (2015)
★ Lousy Connection (2015)
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
| Ezra Furman |
| Perpetual Motion People (Deluxe Edition) |
★ Indie folk and pop songwriter whose music is raw, deep, and achingly sentimental. The Chicago musician is following the tradition of sexually subversive rockers, often performing in dresses and makeup. Here, he explains how his ambiguous approach to genre and gender helps shape his performance.
Location: Evanston, IL
Album release: July 10, 2015
Record Label: Bella Union
Duration: 61:25
Tracks:
01. Restless Year 2:25
02. Lousy Connection 4:11
03. Hark! to the Music 1:25
04. Haunted Head 4:49
05. Hour of Deepest Need 4:27
06. Wobbly 3:00
07. Ordinary Life 2:20
08. Tip of a Match 2:35
09. Body Was Made 3:31
10. Watch You Go By 4:09
11. Pot Holes 3:18
12. Can I Sleep in Your Brain 3:57
13. One Day I Will Sin No More 2:31
Deluxe Edition (Bonus CD — Other People's Songs):
01. Devil's Haircut
02. The Good Book
03. Crown of Love
04. Androgynous
05. I Can Change
Producer: Tim Sandusky, Ezra Furman
REVIEW
By Mark Beaumont, June 22, 2015; Score: 8/10
★★ The Chicago troubadour flits from skiffle to ska and beyond on his accomplished third album
★★ The Pied Piper of restless outcasts everywhere, Chicago’s Ezra Furman — the sexual, religious and musical floating voter pictured in drag on the cover of ‘Perpetual Motion People’ — has made this third solo album specifically for fellow experience dabblers. Doused in saucy saxophones that make it sound like the sort of ramshackle ‘50s retro revue that Mac DeMarco might make if he fronted Dexys Midnight Runners, it hops, skips and jumps between genres with abandon. One minute he’s lovelorn Neil Young (‘Hour Of Deepest Need’) or roots rock Neutral Milk Hotel (‘Tip Of A Match’), the next he’s skiffle Showaddywaddy (‘Pot Holes’) or drunk Benny Hill (‘Wobbly’). “I was sick of this ordinary life… you’ve gotta keep it new to keep it true”, he explains on acoustic glam anthem ‘Ordinary Life’. It’s a philosophy that makes ‘Perpetual Motion People’, from beat pop opener to gospel closer, a constantly surprising and relentlessly melodic pleasure. ★★ http://www.nme.com/reviews/various-artists/16139
★ Perpetual Motion People was recorded with Furman’s current band The Boyfriends — comprising Jorgen Jorgensen (bass), Ben Joseph (keyboards, guitar), Sam Durkes (drums) and saxophonist Tim Sandusky — at studio Ballistico in Furman’s home city of Chicago (though he’s currently based in San Francisco). The album kicks off with ‘Restless Year’, about which Consequence Of Sound described as, “a ball of energy, bouncing around genre borders with glee. There’s the rebellion of ’90s indie rock, a string of sunshine–y ’80s pop, and the snarl of ’70s punk.”
★ “The opening lines of my records tend to be summary statements,” says Furman. “Every year has been restless, physically and even more internally.” Hence the title Perpetual Motion People, “That's who it was made by and that's who it's for. People who feel they can never settle. I’m restless in most aspects. I don't tend to live in one place for long. I am always changing the way I present my gender. My religious life is intensely up and down in terms of observance and personal convictions. I’ve always viewed the idea of truth itself as something wobbly, always slipping out of our grasp. That's what the songs are about: a head that is haunted, a society I cannot join, a lover who is perpetually in the act of leaving. A central idea is the fugitive or runaway, in a hideout built in the midst of an unfriendly or alienated world.”
★ “The other aspect is a feeling of expansiveness, the largeness of emotion, from joy to pain. Some people think life is small or confined, but to me it’s just big, and I’d say each song has something to say, to declare themselves large. It’s also to do with trying to make something that a lot of people would listen to after Day Of The Dog got some kind of increased attention.”
★ In that, he’s done his job, switching from the sinewy jubilance of ‘Hark! To The Music’ to the wistful heart–ache of ‘Ordinary Life’, from the power–pop snarl of ‘Tip Of The Match’ to the wracked country blues of “One Day I Will Sin No More”. The waterfront covered marks Furman out as a true original, tapping avenues of music that most others have left alone, or wouldn’t have the guts to emulate. “There’s rarely been a scene that I’ve wanted to be part of,” he admits. “I’m just not hearing other stuff out there that I wish existed, so that’s my goal, to do it myself.”
Also:
Ezra Furman
Friday 3 July 2015 13.00 BST
★ http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/03/ezra-furman-gender-fluidity
Tobias Ruhland, Donnerstag, 2. Juli 2015
★ http://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/kultur/kulturwelt/ezra-furman-perpetual-motion-people100.html
Website: http://ezrafurman.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ezrafurman
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ezrafurmanmusic
Discography:
Ezra Furman and the Harpoons:
★ Banging Down the Doors (2007)
★ Inside the Human Body (2008)
★ Mysterious Power (2011)
Solo albums:
★ The Year of No Returning (2012)
★ Day of the Dog (2013)
★ Perpetual Motion People (2015)
Singles:
★ My Zero/Caroline Jones (2013)
★ Restless Year (2015)
★ Lousy Connection (2015)