Blitzen Trapper, Furr

In the search for a photo of Blitzen Trapper, the first stop was obviously their artist page on Sub Pop. The tagline next to the Sub Pop logo read, “We’re not the best, but we’re pretty good.” Coincidentally, this is exactly how I feel about Furr, the band’s first release for the acclaimed label.

Since forming in 2000, Blitzen Trapper has garnered plenty of attention with their loaded psychedelic-rock-country sound, a sound that carries over to Furr. The album embodies an unusual sort of aggressive harmlessness, lined with songs as equally in-your-face as they are delicate. The first forty seconds of opener “Sleepytime in the Western World” starts out with a charming, singable melody that doesn’t last long enough, quickly disintegrating and becoming impossible to follow as the chord changes get weirder and weirder. But somehow Blitzen Trapper makes it seem sensible, blasting a wall of jangle that comes across as neither muddled nor overwhelming.

The rest of Furr‘s songs adhere to that same song structure, with hit-or-miss results. Too often the stunning instrumentation gets buried under hurried lyrics, which seem to pour out a bit excessively. The songs are likeable but also come off as lacking restraint. By only the fifth track, “Fire + Fast Bullets,” the songs seem a little too familiar. On the other hand, when the music is minimized, Eric Earley’s surprisingly rich voice really shines, adding an element of tenderness and grit that the busier songs don’t capture as well. A prime example is the folky, Dylan-esque title track, which may be the most memorable on the album; Earley also sounds quite striking on the soulful but poppy “God and Suicide.”

Though on the whole there are some lovely moments on Furr, it falls slightly short of becoming a repeater. As a talented sextet, it’s probably easy for Blitzen Trapper to get sucked into adding layers and layers onto already-pretty music, but perhaps stepping back and scaling down might allow more of it to be heard.