Widow City

Today's Music That Jason Wouldn't Recommend is Widow City, by The Fiery Furnaces. This is something I picked up at the library, largely on the recommendation of someone who felt it was their favorite album from last year, a credible source for musical taste. It appears, though, that this person's taste is somewhat different from mine. I tried to listen to this album on two separate occasions and found myself almost completely disinterested at best.

This album seems to follow a pop song arrangement without any of the structure. It seems to be a number of instruments in competition, and a woman with a decent voice half-singing and half-yelling over the whole thing. The result is a jumbled mess that tries to appeal to the listener based on its cuteness and charm. It has the effect of a small child that attempts to do something semi-complicated, like cook or apply makeup, and only succeeds in creating a small catastrophe. Whereas some people will look at this messy child and think it is adorable, I mostly want to get a hose and rinse the entire thing away. I think this album tries far too hard to be quirky in a cutesy sort of way and ends up just being obnoxious. I guess it isn't actively terrible but I have a hard time seeing myself being interested in the follow-up album.

In other news:
floods!