Lorna Irvine reviews a new album by a 'scathing, smart, funny and cute' artist.
Like a pop star, but better, 28-year-old Chicago artist Ezra Furman's third album tackles a panoply of styles—and the result is a head rush of kaleidoscopic ideas and textures which roll breathlessly from one into the next.
'Lousy Connection', all parping sax and Beach Boys doo-wop may sound like a sunny tune but is steeped in wry cynicism—attacking American politics from the outsider's perspective. There aren't many songs which rhyme "congress", "address" and "Indian headdress".
Furman, who identifies as gender-fluid, brings multiple meanings and layers to every song. 'Wobbly' and 'Can I Sleep in Your Brain' deal in everyday paranoia, and 'Body Was Made' seeks sexual equality.
It's as though a shape-shifting planet is resting on Furman's slender shoulders and he's trying to make some sense of it all.
‘Restless Year’s video reinstates this feeling, stop-motion giddiness. African music, Violent Femmes, Lou Reed and Motown seem like disparate sounds, the random button on an iPod, but Furman's gift is to patchwork it all together sonically.
And it all sticks...he sounds like no one else.
Scathing, smart, funny and cute, Furman is the antithesis to pop and its bland, identikit showroom dummies.
Perpetual Motion People is out on July 6th on Bella Union.
Ezra Furman - Restless Year [Official Music Video]: http://youtu.be/NDOenFQazrA
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