Furr
Furr, released in 2008, is the fourth album by Blitzen Trapper. The album was listed at #13 on Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2008,[1] and the title track made #4 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Singles of 2008.[2] Music videos were made for the album's two singles, "Furr" and "Black River Killer".
| Furr | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 23, 2008 | |||
| Genre | Alternative country | |||
| Length | 39:05 | |||
| Label | Sub Pop | |||
| Blitzen Trapper chronology | ||||
| ||||
Robin Pecknold of the band Fleet Foxes responded to the track, "Lady On the Water" enthusiastically: "it's a beautiful and woozy folk song. Eric Earley is a supergenius and it's so wonderful to hear folk music that's not just 'folk' because of the quaint acoustic instruments as is sometimes the case these days. I think a proper folk song needs to be instructive and entertaining, in the sense that the melody has its own captivating logic, I think a good folk song is like a machine, all elements perfectly calibrated, and this song is the Large Hadron Collider, smashing things together to get to the bottom of the universe."[3]
Track listing
All songs written by Eric Earley
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Sleepytime in the Western World" | 3:30 |
| 2. | "Gold for Bread" | 2:47 |
| 3. | "Furr" | 4:08 |
| 4. | "God & Suicide" | 2:21 |
| 5. | "Fire & Fast Bullets" | 2:51 |
| 6. | "Saturday Nite" | 2:08 |
| 7. | "Black River Killer" | 3:28 |
| 8. | "Not Your Lover" | 2:51 |
| 9. | "Love U" | 3:02 |
| 10. | "War on Machines" | 3:20 |
| 11. | "Stolen Shoes & A Rifle" | 2:46 |
| 12. | "Echo/Always On/EZ Con" | 3:28 |
| 13. | "Lady on the Water" | 2:27 |
Critical reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 80/100[4] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [5] |
| Crawdaddy! | (Favorable) [6] |
| Paste Magazine | (83/100) [7] |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.5/10) [8] |
| Rolling Stone | [9] |
Critical response to the album was overwhelmingly favorable. Rolling Stone gave Furr four-out-of-five stars and called it "an engaging album full of rootsy beauty."[9] Billboard found it to be "a perfect fall soundtrack rife with woodsy imagery."[10] Entertainment Weekly, in an article recommending what to exchange unwanted Christmas gifts for, said the album was "part harmony-laden tambourine jangle, part British Invasion guitar charm, and fully worth braving brutal return lines at the mall."[11]
References
- No byline (December 25, 2008). ""The 50 Best Albums of 2008"". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 22, 2009. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2008-12-25 - No byline (December 25, 2008). ""The 100 Best Songs of 2008"". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 5, 2009. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2008-12-25 - Thane, Rich. "XMas Advent". The Line Of Best Fit. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
- "Furr by Blitzen Trapper". Metacritic.
- Monger, James Christopher. Furr at AllMusic
- Conklin, Mike (October 1, 2008). Furr Archived 2009-06-25 at the Wayback Machine, Crawdaddy!
- Freedland, Henry (January 7, 2009). Furr, Paste Magazine
- Raber, Rebecca (October 29, 2008). Furr Archived 2008-12-09 at the Wayback Machine, Pitchfork Media
- Hoard, Christian (October 2, 2008). "Furr". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 5, 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-31.
{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Rolling Stone. (1062):71 - Menze, Jill (October 4, 2008), "Furr". Billboard. 120 (40):49
- Greenblatt, Leah" (January 9, 2009), "Holiday Gift Swap". Entertainment Weekly., (1029):62-63