Blueberry Boat is the second album by American indie rock band The Fiery Furnaces. It was released on July 13, 2004, just over ten months following their debut album, Gallowsbird's Bark. Blueberry Boat polarized music critics due to its long, complex songs and esoteric lyrics.

Music and lyrics

More than twenty different instruments were used in the creation of this album, including the sitar, which was substituted for guitar on some songs. Keyboards, guitars, and drums are the main instruments used. As with all Fiery Furnaces releases, Eleanor Friedberger provides most of the vocals, with her brother Matt adding to a few songs. Matt is considered the main instrumentalist for the band, while both Friedbergers share lyrical duties. The album is more structurally complex than the band's debut, Gallowsbird's Bark, and most of the songs have distinct movements that sound like multiple songs combined.

| rev2 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev2score = A−

| rev3 = The Guardian

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| rev4 = Los Angeles Times

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| rev5 = Mojo

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| rev6 = NME

| rev6score = 1/10

| rev7 = Pitchfork

| rev7score = 9.6/10

| rev8 = Q

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| rev9 = Rolling Stone

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| rev10 = Spin

| rev10score = C

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Blueberry Boat garnered polarized but generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 70, which indicates "generally positive reviews", based on 34 reviews. In a rave review, Chris Dahlen of Pitchfork described Blueberry Boat as "a record for the overgrown part of our brain that craves engrossing complexity". indicating "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought." The NME panned the album as "toe-curlingly unlistenable."

Track listing

Personnel

;The Fiery Furnaces

  • Eleanor Friedberger – performance
  • Matthew Friedberger – performance, production
  • The Fiery Furnaces – packaging

;Additional personnel

  • Samara Lubelski – violin, engineering, mixing
  • David Muller – drums (3, 4, 7)
  • Emily Scholnick – artwork
  • Nicolas Vernhes – engineering, mixing, computer editing, drums (2, 4, 13)

References

  • Review and Summary of Album's Concept The High Hat
  • Unfinished but Detailed Analysis of Album Concept Clap Clap Blog (October 17, 2005) entry