Ezra Furman is a person of action and metamorphosis, someone whose comfort zone can only be described as “on the go” and “ever-changing.” This personal restlessness is one of the main focuses of the San Francisco-based singer-songwriter’s debut on Bella Union, the aptly titled Perpetual Motion People. The 13-track effort was recorded with Furman’s current band The Boyfriends – comprising Jorgen Jorgensen (bass), Ben Joseph (keyboards, guitar), Sam Durkes (drums) and saxophonist Tim Sandusky – at studio Ballistico in Furman’s home city of Chicago (though he’s currently based in San Francisco).
“The opening lines of my records tend to be summary statements,” says Furman. “Every year has been restless, physically and even more internally.”
320 kbps | 148 MB UL | HF | MC ** FLAC
Hence the title Perpetual Motion People, “That’s who it was made by and that’s who it’s for. People who feel they can never settle. I’m restless in most aspects. I don’t tend to live in one place for long. I am always changing the way I present my gender. My religious life is intensely up and down in terms of observance and personal convictions. I’ve always viewed the idea of truth itself as something wobbly, always slipping out of our grasp. That’s what the songs are about: a head that is haunted, a society I cannot join, a lover who is perpetually in the act of leaving. A central idea is the fugitive or runaway, in a hideout built in the midst of an unfriendly or alienated world.”
“The other aspect is a feeling of expansiveness, the largeness of emotion, from joy to pain. Some people think life is small or confined, but to me it’s just big, and I’d say each song has something to say, to declare themselves large. It’s also to do with trying to make something that a lot of people would listen to after Day Of The Dog got some kind of increased attention.”
In that, he’s done his job, switching from the sinewy jubilance of ‘Hark! To The Music’ to the wistful heart-ache of ‘Ordinary Life’, from the power-pop snarl of ‘Tip Of The Match’ to the wracked country blues of “One Day I Will Sin No More”. The waterfront covered marks Furman out as a true original, tapping avenues of music that most others have left alone, or wouldn’t have the guts to emulate. “There’s rarely been a scene that I’ve wanted to be part of,” he admits. “I’m just not hearing other stuff out there that I wish existed, so that’s my goal, to do it myself.
Ultimately, Furman declares, life in perpetual motion is, “a good way to be. If you are never on a sure footing you don’t get bored and the world is always new. It causes a lot of pain as well, but it seems worth it, and it is probably the only way I know how to be.”
CD1
01. Restless Year (2:25)
02. Lousy Connection (4:11)
03. Hark! to the Music (1:25)
04. Haunted Head (4:49)
05. Hour of Deepest Need (4:27)
06. Wobbly (3:00)
07. Ordinary Life (2:20)
08. Tip of a Match (2:35)
09. Body Was Made (3:31)
10. Watch You Go By (4:09)
11. Pot Holes (3:18)
12. Can I Sleep in Your Brain (3:57)
13. One Day I Will Sin No More (2:31)
CD2
01 – Devil’s Haircut (Beck cover) (3:13)
02 – The Good Book (Melanie cover) (2:34)
03 – Crown of Love (The Arcade Fire cover) (4:55)
04 – Androgynous (The Replacements cover) (3:10)
05 – I Can Change (LCD Soundsystem cover) (4:55)