Customer Reviews

Banging Down the Doors

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If you scour the blogs (and sadly, I do), a lot has been said about Ezra invoking Dylan or some amalgam of David Byrnes, Daniel Johnston, Violent Femmes and blahdy blah blah blah. And no doubt, he compares (and compares favorably, no less), but the moment you put aside his engaging voice and composition and start focusing on the lyrics, you'll cease to care. Why? Because this music is straight-up poetry, rip-opened raw and beautiful. And you can dance to it to boot! My favorites are "My Soul Has Escaped From My Body," "Hotel Room to Casablanca," and "Lydia Sherman." This has overtaken Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam as my favorite album of '07.
PS: My friend caught them at The Fire in Philadelphia, and word is out they put on a killer live show. Apparently Ezra is all awkward and endearing and their drummer is, and I quote, "Puerto Rico's best export since sugar cane."

The lyrics in these songs will change what you expect out of your music. Music should say something, and these songs all do. I can listen to "I Dreamed of Moses" and "Halloween Snow" for hours at a time and find new meaning every time through. Just incredible.

I saw these guys open up for Ida Maria in Columbus OH this summer and I havent been the same since. Its like see color for the first time after only seeing grays! Before that night I had never heard of them. I love 'Holloween Snow' and 'Sunglasses' of course!

Every few years or so, an artist is hailed as the next Bob Dylan and 99 times out of 100 it's a preposterous and completely unjust comparison. That said, the confessional commentary and whimsical stream of conscious narratives that Ezra Furman spews forth on Banging Down the Doors could have been taken straight out of a textbook of Dylanology 101. But the key factor that makes Furman stand out from many of the other Zimmerman wannabes and upcoming indie folk revivalists is a unique personality and a childlike innocence that shine through and make him easily relatable. It's similar to the "pal factor" that Jonathan Richman had fronting the Modern Lovers and that Gordon Gano had in the Violent Femmes. Furman connects to his audience intimately, like a friend who is casually baring his soul, and delivers literal references and abstract theories without a hint of pretension.