Matthew Friedberger records with a prolificacy that suggests he fears someone will revoke his music making privileges. The latest proof of this, (Widow City, the Fiery Furnaces' 6th album in 5 years counting the misnamed EP), has leaked to the internet at large more than three months before its official Thrill Jockey release. It's a strange album (shock!) that seems to cling closely to the band's Bitter Tea sound while sanding a bit from both ends. There are less maddening annoyances but also fewer flatly beautiful rays of light.
"Ex-Guru" is one of the album's shorter tracks, and one of the easiest to absorb via instant exposure. Though the album at large can be aggressively percussive, this track employs a peppy party rhythm not too far off from Beck. Sister Eleanor F. starts the track in typically obtuse wordy fashion, making allusions to details from earlier songs. Twenty seconds in, without losing its strident beat, the song slips into one of her easily pleasing half melodies. "She means nothing to me now, I tell myself that every day," she lightly intones. But there's some angst there, some nervous energy she doesn't know what to do with ("painting all the platforms puse" is floated as a ridiculous option). The tension breaks after she wonders aloud if her abandoned mentor, "kicks up a thundercloud when she thinks of my betrayal." On cue the music gets heavier and wilder, with Eleanor's imagination conjuring stomping percussion and mysterious synths. But this passes quickly, the steady beat now matched to a much lighter, more carefree flute and piano. When she asserts that she's over the situation again, it sounds like the weight really has been lifted.
This whole narrative plays itself out in well under three minutes, with no time for distractions that aren't logical within the song. I'd encourage M. Friedberger to employ that sort of self imposed limitation much more often.