BRNLP223
Release Date: 7 October 2013
"Please take the five stars not as a statement that this is the best record of 2013, but as a delighted endorsement of a genre classic. With her fifth record – three with Harpoons, and two solo; and how I'm looking forward to hearing them – Ezra Furman has made an album of classicist rock'n'roll that never feels like an exercise, but a living, breathing piece of self-expression. The foundations are obvious, but the simple touches that adorn them are what elevates Day of the Dog. Been So Strange, for example, is the Velvet Underground's chugging R&B reincarnated, but with the delicious addition of a horn section. It leaves you wondering why Lou Reed never thought to do the same, so well does it work. Slacker/Adria is nervy, jittery powerpop until two minutes in, when the bottom drops out of the song and it turns into a doomy riff over which Furman appears to be telling us her nightmares: "I see white crosses burning across a dark landscape." She's seen her critics coming, too: the liner notes contain an index so you can check off the references. Clever, funny, sharp and tuneful – a great rock'n'roll record." - Michael Hann, The Guardian
"Where has Ezra Furman been hiding? Already on the fifth album (albeit the first with new band The Boyfriends backing him) this Chicago-based singer-songwriter offers a bratty, ragged take on New York Dolls, Spector-era Ramones and E Street Band carnival rock, revealing a gift for crafting freeway-cruisin’ tunes served with an extra helping of roadkill. Like Mac DeMarco, probably Ezra's closest peer, Furman draws from well-worn ’50s rock’n’roll tropes and coats them in fuzz, employing a rasping saxophone while dreaming of “kicking up dust in a Chevy Express with a hood full of rust” in album highlight ‘Tell ’Em All To Go To Hell’. An unexpected gem." - NME