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100

Tiny Mix Tapes

The Fiery Furnaces have made one of the most ambitious and, quite likely, one of the best records of 2004.

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Pitchfork

The exuberant overload of Blueberry Boat will thrill and transport you with the ineluctable force of a great children's story, one whose execution matches its imagination.

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cokemachineglow

The Friedbergers have made a cogent statement that leaves most other contemporary acts in the dust.

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Entertainment Weekly

It's always urgent, heartfelt, fearlessly fiery, utterly sincere. [30 Jul 2004, p.70]

Delusions of Adequacy

Honestly, there is no precedent for this album.

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Under The Radar

This is pop music, filtered through the minds, hands and voices of two artists whose vision reaches beyond the bounds of the form. [#7]

Mojo

If you can stick with its synthetic marionette oompah band designs, become immersed in its whirlwind momentum and flint-eyed wit, the chances are you'll fall in love with the album's deep miined reservoirs of charm and sheer eagerness to impress. [Sep 2004, p.90]

Los Angeles Times

The album is a bit daunting and demanding. But it's also compelling and rewarding. [22 Aug 2004]

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Dot Music

It’s both an oddly comforting and exhilarating trip.

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All Music Guide

At times, Blueberry Boat sounds like it was made entirely out of the noodly bits that most other bands would junk for being too weird and difficult, but the Fiery Furnaces forge them into an album that's both more pop and more radical than Gallowsbird's Bark.

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ShakingThrough.net

While it may not be the orgiastic smorgasbord of pop delicacies The Fiery Furnaces aimed for, it's nonetheless one of the most ambitious pop albums released this year.

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Stylus Magazine

In the end, that's the best gift the Furnaces have to offer, the simple power of their own joyful racket and clatter, the pure holy hell they always seem to raise.

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New York Magazine

The band take their experimental ethos even further without sacrificing the emotional power of their debut.

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Q Magazine

Despite the rollercoaster ride, there are intense moments of pop wonder and cartoon hilarity. [Sep 2004, p.120]

Drowned In Sound

Listening to 'Blueberry Boat' is a little like careening around an enormous multicoloured funfair - joyous, unpredictable, kaleidoscopic, tacky, and at times scary and sinister, sometimes all in the space of one song. But even if it occasionally makes you sick, it’s a thrilling ride nonetheless.

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Neumu.net

Their inventive, experimental-leaning music dances through history, passing from blues to rock 'n' roll to pop to experimental to something uniquely theirs.

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PopMatters

Although the early part of Blueberry Boat is disjointed and difficult to absorb the album is still a triumph.

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The New York Times

It's deeply ambitious, but to listen to it you'd think making music like this was as easy for them as falling off a log. [18 Jul 2004]

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

In the end, this suite of suites sounds too inherently disorienting, however thrilling its fragments, and however entertaining it is to hear the Friedbergers' wordy, fantastical non sequiturs.

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No Ripcord

There’s just so much going on throughout that you can’t stop listening.

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Magnet

Only the rambunctious can appreciate the tinny, relentlessly inventive hybridization herein. [#64, p.92]

Billboard

"Blueberry Boat" will confuse first-timers with its cartoonish feel, but repeated listens start to reveal the subtle complexities that each song brings to the table, regardless of their seemingly short attention spans.

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Splendid

This is a big, sprawling, difficult but rewarding album, from a band whose reach exceeds its grasp, but only by a little.

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The Wire

Very rewarding, although Blueberry Boat is perhaps too heavy a tome, lyrically, to be quite the right starting place for those new to the group. [#249, p.55]

Austin Chronicle

Length is where the album fails.

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Junkmedia

The problem with Blueberry Boat is that, while it's a musical marvel, it's not an album that I'll keep listening to.

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Urb

For those who've wondered what The Who's rock operas would sound like if rerecorded by Captain Beefheart and Stevie Nicks, it's time to break the rules. [Oct 2004, p.103]

Spin

A joyless slog through mossy folk tedium. [Aug 2004, p.108]

Playlouder

Blueberry Boat is a frustrating, niggling, great idea of a record.

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Blender

Save all this stuff for when you're in front of the mirror, kids. [Aug 2004, p.131]

Rolling Stone

A stitched-together, underedited collage of half-finished tunes, random guitar blurts and keyboard flotsam that will be loved by its admirers and royally annoy everyone else. [14 Oct 2004, p.98]

The Guardian

A crashing disappointment.

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Dusted Magazine

It’s an ambitious album, but only in the sense that most of the songs are outrageously long and feature approximately eighteen gratuitous time signatures each.

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New Musical Express

Toe-curlingly unlistenable. [4 Sep 2004, p.73]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 67 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

David V gave it a9:
Not an easy album to listen to at first, but very rewarding and very good from start to finish. My personal favorites: Quay Cur, Blueberrry Boat, Chris Michaels, I Lost My Dog and Bird Brain.

John J gave it a10:
Fantastic! I think this was the album of the year for 2004.

Cameron W gave it a10:
This album gets better with every listen, and if you're able to invest the time I'd say anyone could love this album (I mean, if you're willing to and you like the general sound of it). Definitely my favourite of 2004!

Louis F gave it a9:
I must first say that this record just doesn't know when to stop, which can be a bad thing. Not that the TRACKS are too long, but that songs 9 to 12 should have been left for another occasion. The problem with these is that they don't belong in the Blueberry Boat. 1917 would make a great opener for another album, exposing the excessively weird side as well as the poignancy of the Furnaces ; but by track 10, I think we got that. I would take Spaniolated anytime as a B-side, but here it just feels underdeveloped and out of sequence. Birdie Brain/Turning Round would have made a fine closer, but no!, they are in fact a pre-closer, the real one being Wolf Notes, which is also appropriate. In fact, this album is one of the rare ones to let you choose your own closer. Other than that, the first ~50 minutes of this record are simply a blast. It rocks you, teases you, laughs at you sometimes but mostly grips you with its unrelenting dynamics, sometimes poignant, more often quirky compositions, and stomps you under its flow of ideas. Thing is, the point is made after Chief Inspector Blancheflower (my personal favorite). The latter portion just feels like a chore. Wrapping up with Wolf Notes right away would have been a good choice, leaving more for the next time. Otherwise, this album is a great trip.

Gary D gave it a1:
Perhaps the worst "critically-acclaimed" album ever. EVER!Pitchfork: you deserve a good beating for making me listen to this drivel!

Bernard A gave it an8:
After a year of hearing how great this is from every webzine from Pitchfork to Tiny Mix tapes I think that this an example of the music press going overboard in praising a merely good record. Yes it does sound different from most music released today but some of the songs have too much annoying keyboard blurts. I really liked the title track, Straight Street, My Dog Was Lost, Chris Michaels & Chief Inspector Blancheflower. Overall, a good effort but not so great that it would lead a reviewer from Pitchfork to write that anyone who doesn't like this has no taste.

Ian C gave it a10:
What might discourage listeners whose interest "Blueberry Boat" has sparked is that they think it's going to be impenetrable and only admired conceptually by its praisers, but this could not be further from the case. If you're not interested in 50+ of the best-crafted song sections of all-time, though, then stay far, far away from this record. As to it being impossibly challenging -- if a 14-year-old can get it, so can you.

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