Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 08/08/2006
Over the course of
the Fiery Furnaces' albums,
Matthew Friedberger has shaped a style that's distinctive enough to be called
Friedberger-esque. His solo debut,
Winter Women/Holy Ghost Language School, presents two discs' worth of the most accessible, and most experimental, versions of that sound in a yin-yang duality, much like the way
the Furnaces' previous albums,
Rehearsing My Choir and
Bitter Tea, were supposed to be released as a complementary set. While both parts of
Winter Women/Holy Ghost Language School have lots of berserk pianos and squelchy synths, song titles that would make
Robert Pollard jealous, and lyrics sprinkled with Scrabble-worthy words,
Winter Women has a string of songs that just might be his best forays into (almost) straightforward
pop.
"The Pennsylvania Rock Oil, Company Resignation Letter," "Ruth vs. Rachel," and the glorious
"Up the River" are sunny but cryptic, with summery harmonicas, synth-strings, and keyboards that sound a little like an animatronic take on '70s
soft rock and
AM pop.
"Her Chinese Typewriter" is another standout, showing once again how
Friedberger can take a seemingly random phrase like "Virtue and carbon copy ditto-paper eyeshadow blue" and turn it into a hook, thanks to the irresistible melody supporting it. Most of
Winter Women follows suit, with melodies (especially on
"Hialeah" and
"Theme from Never Going Home Again") that are prettier and more prominent than on his
Furnaces work. Of course, there are also songs that would fit perfectly on a
Fiery Furnaces album: it's easy to imagine
Eleanor Friedberger singing
"Under the Hood at the Paradise Garage," while
"Big Bill Crib and His Ladies of the Desert" is a globe-trotting adventure that feels like a lost chapter from
Blueberry Boat. As the album nears its end, increasingly experimental songs like
"Motorman" -- which has hissy, whispered background vocals that sound like they're in Parseltongue -- signal the more challenging territory of
Holy Ghost Language School. The title itself is quintessentially
Friedberger-esque, as is its story, which chronicles the adventures of an American missionary teaching English somewhere in Asia (the first track on the album suggests it might be in China; later,
"Ship Scrap Beach Business" mentions Tokyo's Roppongi district). The themes of travel, culture clashes, and Eastern motifs and melodies here are similar to
Blueberry Boat and
Bitter Tea, but the actual music is denser and more open-ended -- not quite as difficult to parse as
Rehearsing My Choir, although
Holy Ghost Language School has some of the radio-play feel of that album, especially on tracks like
"The Cross and the Switchblade" and
"Do You Like Blondes?," which are largely
spoken word with expressive synth squiggles and pianos in the background. As a whole,
Winter Women/Holy Ghost Language School is a lot to process at once, but untangling the mysteries of
Friedberger's music feels like more fun than it has in a while.
~Heather Phares, All Music Guide
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