Album Review

The bargain bin at your local record store (that is, of course, if such a thing still exists where you live) is likely littered with the CDs of former buzz bands who weren’t able to follow up on their opening hype. For everyone that breaks through like an Arcade Fire or a Modest Mouse, there are at least a dozen that couldn’t fulfill the expectations of their initial releases.

Luckily, for Portland, Oregon-based Blitzen Trapper, they have the one element critical to surviving the harsh climate of the recording industry as we know it today: great songwriting. For all that might be written about Blitzen Trapper’s eclectic and old-fashioned taste in music, what guarantees their bright future are the wonderfully unique tales spun by frontman Eric Earley.

Those tales are in abundance on Furr, the band’s new album and their first on a well-known label (Sub Pop) after three independent releases that gained them increasing notoriety past their regional base. Furr ricochets from genre to genre at a moment’s notice, but it never loses its voice or focus even while displaying impressive variety.

Most press on Blitzen Trapper tend to paint the group as a bucolic, backwoods throwback. And when the opening track, “Sleepytime In The Western World,” busts out Basement Tapes-style organ within its first few moments, it’s tempting to believe it. But stay tuned for “Gold For Bread,” where a deceptive acoustic intro leads to a frenzied electric rave-up with squawking synths as Earley spins some Dylanesque surrealism. Later on things get even more off-center with “Fire & Fast Bullets,” which is primal garage rock and features the singer going on about dragons, demons, and, yes, break-dancing wizards. It makes you think that Earley has listened to Beck as much as The Band.

The group isn’t afraid to try anything, even adding proggy synthesizers to the murder tale “Black River Killer.” Earley makes this song more affecting by assuming this remorseless killer’s identity instead of just narrating his exploits, doing so in rap-like spoken word. “God & Suicide,” guided by Brian Adrian Koch’s thumping drums, and “War On Machines,” which falls somewhere between The Black Crowes and Guns ‘N’ Roses, are more straight-forward musically, but have an outstanding energy that propels them beyond mere filler.

Earley does indulge a softer, folky side, and, when he does, the results are captivating. On the title track, he weaves a fable about running with the wolves as a teenager before the love of a good woman domesticated him. The metaphors show appreciation for the wilder paths in life while acknowledging the dangers of following them too far (”You better be sure if you’re making God a liar”). And on “Not Your Lover,” in which the singer eerily channels Neil Young over mournful piano chords, Earley warns his lover about his foreboding dreams, which presage a time when his nature will cause him to roam far from the home fires.

Furr is a wild ride, at times threatening to come unhinged (like on the wild medley “Echo/Always On/EZ Cam,” which starts off as pure balladry and ends up a bizarre cross of disco and Jethro Tull). But we’re willing to take that ride because of Eric Earley’s sure hand at the wheel. It looks like that bargain bin will have to wait a bit longer to claim its next victim, because Blitzen Trapper has loftier ambitions and more than enough talent to reach them.

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