This is the first review I have ever written, and it is of the- quite frankly awful- new album from Blitzen Trapper called 'Furr'. I had to write it during my second week of work experience with NME, which was quite nerve-racking as I had to make sure it wasn't rubbish!
Blitzen Trapper? Surely this bizarre name must call for bizarre music. Unfortunately, their idea of bizarre isn’t exactly groundbreaking. The Portland group’s fourth effort combines The Feeling’s drabness with typical country songs, throwing in the mismatch ‘Love U’ for confusion. Opener ‘Sleepy Time in the Western World’ bores you to sleep, only to be awoken 3 minutes later with exchanges of ‘Gold for Bread’. A couple of tracks later and you hit, or more successfully lightly collide with, ‘God + Suicide,’ which slowly merges into the disappointing ‘Fire + Fast Bullets’. This is possibly the most ironic song on the album, being that it is about as fiery as, well, anything not fiery. After plodding through several Feeling-esque ‘ballads’- used in the loosest possible way-, you hit the mismatch of ‘Love U.’ A confused mix of shouting and slow backing, you’re left wondering whether you’ve been sucked into a parallel universe, or a drunk man’s dream. Disappointingly, neither is true. ‘War on Machines’ continues the theme of confusion, sounding more like a feeble thumb fight than an actual war. ‘Stolen shoes + a rifle’ sounds like an attempt to get back into the charts from James Blunt, although admittedly, if James Blunt stole your shoes and threatened you with a rifle, you wouldn’t exactly be scared. Closer ‘Lady on the water’ makes no improvement on the previous tracks, but by this point you’re just happy that ‘Furr’ has ended. Our advice? Stick to The Feeling, there’ll be no unfortunate surprises there.
