Ezra Furman – Twelve Nudes //Bella Union// (Released 30th August)

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£19.99 – Limited Edition Yellow Coloured Vinyl LP & DLC 

“This is our punk record” says Ezra Furman, introducing his new album Twelve Nudes, yet another incendiary and inspiring classic from the singer/songwriter/guitarist/bandleader. “We made it in Oakland, quickly. We drank and smoked. Then we made the loud parts louder. I hurt my voice screaming. This was back in 2018, when things were bad in the world. The songs are naked with nothing to hide”.

Immediate proof is offered by ‘Calm Down’ (aka ‘I Should Not Be Alone’), the album’s insanely catchy opening track and lead single, bound up in a compact two minutes and 22 seconds. “‘Calm Down’ is so desperate, and not what I want to say about the world” says Furman. “I think we curate our reactions to current news because we’re overwhelmed by how bad it is, and I noticed I was suppressing how bad I truly felt. I wanted music that gave me permission to feel how it felt to live in a broken world, which punk rock does”.

But all his pent-up energy had to be channelled somewhere: hence Twelve Nudes, which Furman and band recorded in October and November 2019 before the album was mixed by the venerated producer John Congleton (Sharon van Etten, St Vincent, John Grant).  Furman says the album has two spiritual heroes – the late great punk rock rocker Jay Reatard, and Canadian poet, philosopher and essayist Anne Carson. “She’s one of my top three living writers” he says. “Anne had these visions, or meditations, to deal with the intense pain in her life, which she calls ‘nudes’, and similarly these songs are meditations on pain and recognising what’s there if you go digging around in your anger and fear and anxiety. So, my album is called Twelve Nudes”.

The positivity of negativity flows throughout the album, distinguished by sharp, lacerating observations, confessions and proclamations, with Furman the indefatigable cheerleader. “And if you’re really at the end of your rope / No you don’t take the night off / Too many demons to fight off” he wails in ‘Transition From Nowhere To Nowhere’.  The song’s slower pace and becalmed verses underlines Twelve Nudes’ musical remit – less stereotypical punk than raw, raucous rock’n’roll (as Furman points out, The Ramones’ punk classicism included songs influenced by Phil Spector ballads). Check also ‘I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend’ and ‘In America’, shaped respectively by Furman’s love of ‘50s doo-wop and Springsteen, while ‘Trauma’ is molten and leaden like Black Sabbath.

Tracklisting:

A1. Calm Down (aka I Should Not Be Alone)

A2. Evening Prayer aka Justice

A3. Transition From Nowhere to Nowhere

A4. Rated R Crusaders

A5. Trauma

A6. Thermometer

B1. I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend

B2. Blown

B3. My Teeth Hurt

B4. In America

B5. What Can You Do But Rock ‘n’ Roll