There has been a lot of buzz about Blitzen Trapper at TLOBF towers. ‘Furr’ is one of those albums that people seem to keep coming back to. An album of two distinct moods, the boys from Portland deliver their latest effort for Sub Pop with great spirit and accomplishment. Equal parts good old boy country rock and introspective acoustic work, with some interesting keyboards and the odd melodica jam thrown in for good measure.

The album kicks off with two from the ‘Good ol’ Boy’ side of their repertoire, all fuzzy guitars and whirling organs. Lyrically typical of the style, the sun goes down, love will see the band through. Not for the first time on the record, a possible passion for early Elton John rears its head. It all sort of calls to mind the scene in ‘Almost Famous’ where the band start singing ‘Rocket Man’. ‘Gold for Bread’ continues with similar bombast, but added keyboard doodles but equal country rock posturing, before breaking down into a kraut rocking flute outro.

Title track ‘Furr’ is up next, and this sees the more acoustic side of the band come through. With a harmonica that Dylan or Young would be proud of, the strummed acoustic ditty shows Blitzen Trapper really shine, and would stand with some of Wilco’s finest moments. This is the kind of thing that makes folk back in the UK, the type who would buy this record, long to be out in the backwoods of Cali or Oregon with some buddies rather than tied to the desk in a nine to five job somewhere outside Croydon. It is in this vein that Blitzen Trapper really excel. ‘God and Suicide’ takes a Simon and Garfunkel drum beat and turns it into a mid tempo piano driven stomper, complete with synth burbles and pretty harmonies. ‘Lady on the Water’ and ‘Black River Killer’ both channel the spirit of a less angry Steve Earle with great success, and do just enough to make it their own. Sadly, the same cannot be said for ‘Not Your Lover’, with it’s slow, reverb heavy piano motif and harmonica so clearly drawing from the Neil Young well, that the nasal delivery of the song takes it beyond influence and into plagiarism. That isn’t to say it isn’t a good song-it is-but it feels more like a tribute than a song in it’s own right.

There’s straight up ‘travelin lonesome’ country here to, on the pedal steel laden ‘Stolen Shoes and a Rifle’. Lyrically there is something of the early 70’s to proceedings: the idea of ‘War on Machines’ is hardly new, and needn’t be, but the ideas crop up time and time again ‘Moonwalking cowboys’ here and ‘Dragons and Demons and Love in the skies’ there. Elsewhere on the glam-boogie of War on Machines we find the band ‘waiting for the Levee to Give’. Perhaps the most out of place track on the record is the keyboard led pop stomper ‘Saturday Night’, which gives Elton or the Scissor Sisters a run for there money, but adds a banjo to proceedings to make things more interesting. I still can’t decide if it is the albums high or low point.

There is much to enjoy here. For my money the acoustic material is there stronger suit, but then i’ve never been one for country boogie, and it is still a bit of fun.

I can’t help feeling, with their retro vision, that the band would feel my score was somehow appropriate: falling as it does somewhere between ’69 and ’74.
72%

Blitzen Trapper on MySpace