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[Alucard]

Alrighty, I've been curious about the following bands/albums and would love to hear your thoughts if you've heard them. All of them are from Pitchfork's "best new music" section but some of the albums on those lists have often let me down soooo, I'm asking you, the GA faithful, to give me your opinions on the following:

The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat (They make it sound totally fucking awesome)

Panda Bear - Young Prayer (Love the cover art and it sounds like it could be a really nice album)

Brian Wilson - Smile (I've liked my pop music lately. This sounds great)

Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (Have been curious about this band for months now)

Uhhh, yeah. If you want to suggest anything else, that would be cool too. I'm currently on a big Arcade Fire kick, so if you can think of other bands I might like, then go for it.

 

[Star Power]

Sufjan is great. Haven't heard Smile, but the general consensus is that it's brilliant. Haven't heard the other one. Fiery Furnaces' album is a mixed bag. Yes, there are some great ideas, but it's too schizo for it's own good. Seriously, they move through like 50 genres in one song. It's like.. fragments of songs just sloppily pasted together. Check out "Quay Cur".

 

[bridegur]

Sufjan is great and Smile is incredible. I've enjoyed everything I've heard off of Blueberry Boat, but you might want to try the Furnaces' first album before it.

 

[enjoy bell woods]

I think the Fiery Furnaces album is bad. Check out their first album.

I think the Sufjan Stevens album is mediocre. Check out his Michigan album. And since it seems you like instrumental stuff, check his Enjoy Your Rabbit album out. It's all instrumental and quite experimental.

Don't get Panda Bear if you don't like The Animal Collective. That's a 50/50 on your part, as they're pretty manic.

As for my personal recommendation -- and no one ever listens to me -- you should check Super Furry Animals' Phantom Power out if you haven't already. I think it's brilliant and the best album of 2003. If you're interested in checking out their music or anything, just PM me.

 

[6.8]

I think the Fiery Furnaces album is good. Very different though. Think of all their songs as medleys and you get the idea. Took me a good 10 listens to start appreciating it. I bought it and should be getting it today.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Fiery Furnaces' album is a mixed bag. Yes, there are some great ideas, but it's too schizo for it's own good. Seriously, they move through like 50 genres in one song. It's like.. fragments of songs just sloppily pasted together. Check out "Quay Cur".

That's what makes them great though. You've just gotta go with it. They manage to make everything fit together nicely even when they're shifting through genre's mid song. They're pretty much my favorite band of the moment. You can get some samples here Alucard:

http://www.thefieryfurnaces.com/music.htm

Matt said that they want to release 4 records in a year recently. He's got one idea (that he seems very serious about) where Eleanor and their grandmother do duets with one another. He said the premise would be Eleanor would sing the lines as her younger self then their grandmother will do the 2nd half of the song as grown up Eleanor and the consequences she chose in the earlier part. It sounds pretty interesting if they can pull it off right.

 

[Cool]

SMiLE MAKES ME SMiLE!

 

[Outdoor Miner]

Fiery Furnaces is a great record. 9.6 worthy? Nah, maybe 8.9-territory. It may be a difficult listen 1st time through if that's not usually your bag of music, but it is brilliant.

It's got songs about PIRATES for fucks sake, instant sell!

 

[Archaix]

I really dislike Sufjan Stevens "Seven Swans".

I've said this before here, but half of the songs are very good. The other half sound like a guy sitting in a circle during sunday school class at church singing songs about how much jesus loves you. The change is almost halfway through the album, too. The first half is mostly good, and then the second half is "Ned Flanders goes folk-pop".