- Label: 'Bella Union Records'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
- Release Date: '6th July 2015'
Our Rating:
“There’s rarely been a scene that I’ve wanted to be part of” admits Ezra Furman.
Instead, as the album title and Restless Year, the opening track, document, he is misfit in a constant state of motion and agitation. "I'm just another savage in the wilderness", he declares.
Furman's third album was recorded with his current band The Boyfriends - comprising Jorgen Jorgensen (bass), Ben Joseph (keyboards, guitar), Sam Durkes (drums) and saxophonist Tim Sandusky – at Studio Ballistico in Furman’s home city of Chicago (though he’s currently based in San Francisco).
His mood swings are reflected in songs which skip from genre to genre with dips into doo-wop, punk, power pop, country blues and more. A central theme is that he is a kind of fugitive spirit seeking refuge in an unfriendly or alienated world.
Being messed up,alone and semi-broke are constant states but he's not one to whinge about any of these conditions. The thirteen songs are therefore hummable tales of desperation told with the petulant defiance of a seasoned survivor.
The manic energy leaves you with the sense that being inside Furman's haunted head would be an exhausting place to be. His low boredom threshold does however make for exciting rock and roll.
"I'm sick of this record already", he sings on Ordinary Life but unless your concentration span is even lower than his, you will find enough hooks here to make this an album with enduring appeal.
