Pain, suffering and losing control: it sounds bleak but Ezra Furman's new album has plenty of playful giddiness

Irish Independent

23-05-2025

Ten albums into a wildly eclectic career and Goodbye Small Head is an eclectic song collection. From the off, it pays scant regard to genre, but what's impressive is how comfortable Furman is across a range of styles and influences.
The Chicago-born, Massachusetts-raised artist suffered a period of ill-health — a mystery illness in 2023 — and that time inspired her to explore pain, suffering and losing control. Such a description sounds bleak, but the songs are anything but. There's a playful giddiness to proceedings that pulls the listener in, and even though the sharp lyrics may speak of troubles, the jauntiness of the music engages. It helps, too, that the tracks flit from indie to art rock, with room for everything from gospel to bossa nova too.
It takes a particular talent to hopscotch from one one genre to another like that and still deliver a cohesive album and it's to Furman's credit that she does that. Sudden Storm is an arresting look at a breakdown: 'The lord keeps calling and my body's not responding.'
It's notable that despite the weighty subject matter, a commercial sensibility informs several of the songs. Jump Out is typical of the radio-friendly fare, while the funky Veil Song bewitches.
In California, meanwhile, Tune-Yards offer their own brand of eclecticism. The musical project of husband-and-wife team Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner, the pair were initially lumped in with the 'freak folk' movement, a loose collective of lo-fi troubadours.
Such a moniker always seemed to do the band a disservice. For one, there was much more going on, sonically, than most of their peers but even more than that, Garbus, is in possession of a vocal with real depth and range. There's a soulfulness to her singing that really comes into its own on new album Better Dreaming.
While the pop sensibilities belie some dark subject matter a celebration of family life and the pleasures of the everyday make their mark time and again.
The wonderfully engaging Limelight is inspired by Garbus and Brenner dancing along with their daughter to George Clinton and the three-year-old's vocals are included. What sounds corny on paper, is beautifully rendered in reality.
Heartbreak, the album's most enduring track, puts Garbus's vocal front and centre. It's an affecting and lyrically smart song that easily gets under the skin.
Both Ezra Furman and Tune-Yards demand work from the listener. In today's instant gratification age, some will recoil from that idea, but if given a proper airing, their latest albums will leave quite a mark.