Bitter Tea
by The Fiery Furnaces
Metascore
69

Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 30
  3. Negative: 2 out of 30
  1. Prefix Magazine
    60
    The album's true stumbling block lies in the Friedbergers' inability to follow many of their ideas to any sort of logical conclusion.
  2. Mojo
    60
    The disc as a whole is never quite as gripping as its conceptual predecessors. [Jun 2006, p.112]
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  3. Blender
    60
    The album's an impossible mess, but so lively that it's worth sifting through the shrapnel for the tasty bits. [May 2006, p.106]
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  5. Drowned In Sound
    60
    There's something impenetrable about it, an obtuse level of abstraction and a slightly joyless delivery that really leaves this listener with no point of entry at times.
  6. Filter
    56
    For every minute-long section of pinwheeling brilliance, there is some expository musical element that keeps us from getting at the core of what makes the group work so well. [#20, p.99]
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  7. Dot Music
    50
    As the title suggests, this album is - deliberately, you feel - a thwarted pleasure, any sweetness and warmth being spiked with discordance and bitterness.
  8. Urb
    40
    Even listeners who retreat to the "experimental" defense will only mixtape the five decent tracks and torch the rest. [May 2006, p.84]
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  9. Q Magazine
    40
    Alas, from [the first two tracks]... the pair slip first into mediocrity and then the standbys of those who have run out of inspiration: backwards recording and pointless noodling. [Jun 2006, p.115]
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  10. Austin Chronicle
    40
    Anyone turned off by last year's octogenarian opera Rehearsing My Choir, recorded at the same time as Bitter Tea, will find little solace here.

Awards & Rankings

96
#96 Most Discussed Album of 2006

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 52 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 44 out of 52
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 52
  3. Negative: 4 out of 52
  1. PaulJ
    Sep 7, 2006
    10
    Chewy and innovative musicianship combines with intelligent, thoughtful lyricism, to take your hand in theirs for a trip (in all good senses) Chewy and innovative musicianship combines with intelligent, thoughtful lyricism, to take your hand in theirs for a trip (in all good senses) into a private parallel world which provides much-needed disengagment therapy from the careworn workaday world. A musical highspot for 2006… Full Review »
  2. DrGoob
    Jun 9, 2006
    10
    Holy shit, The Fiery Furnaces did it again. It's absurd, pretentious and outrageously self-indulgent, and yet it's brilliant. They Holy shit, The Fiery Furnaces did it again. It's absurd, pretentious and outrageously self-indulgent, and yet it's brilliant. They make every album released since their last one look tame and conventional. Again. They are the 21st century successors to legends like Beefheart and Zappa.… Full Review »
  3. JohnD
    May 20, 2006
    8
    Let's face it: every Fiery Furnaces album sounds terrible the first time you listen to it. After the first couple of times, it grows on Let's face it: every Fiery Furnaces album sounds terrible the first time you listen to it. After the first couple of times, it grows on you. (Except for 'Rehearsing', which everybody except Spin Magazine hated, but then again, they gave 'Registration' a B+ in its formal review and then proceeded to name it ALBUM OF THE YEAR, which is just stupid.) Don't put this on when you can't give 91% of your cencentration to the music.… Full Review »
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