Singer-songwriter Ezra Furman has been creating rock and roll tunes since 2008, originally being a part of Ezra Furman and the Harpoons before moving on to sing solo.
Returning to familiar sounds of vintage girl groups and rock’n’roll, Ezra Furman writes trans pride and existential fear into an album that reveals the full strength of her vulnerabilities.
It’s rare nowadays to find sincere protest music worth listening to. Even those elite artists who do make legitimately radical statements in their songs — Downtown Boys, Moor Mother, Special Interest, et al. — mix their full-throated activism with experiments in form. But on her recent single “Book Of Our Names,” Ezra Furman takes a direct swing at capitalism in the style of the earnest folk rockers who shook the structures of power over half a century ago.
Track by Track is our recurring feature series that provides artists with a space to take us through every song on their newest release. Today, Ezra Furman takes us through the powerful All of Us Flames.
In terms of both the joyful force it exudes and the restrictive forces imposed upon it, femininity is inherently violent. Going back to the earliest examples of mythology, you can usually find some reference to an orderly, masculine representation of the sun, serving as a foil to the chaos of the moon that forcibly bends the tides and weather to its will under the cover of night.
Indie Basement’s quiet but very hot August continues, and this week includes: the swaggering debut album from Speedy Wunderground-signed The Lounge Society; new DFA signees JJULIUS; cinematic guitarist Rachika Nayar; Ezra Furman finds empathy at the edge of the apocalypse; Pantha du Prince gets one with nature; and ’90s electronica producer William Orbit returns with his first album in eight years featuring Beth Orton and more.
The full range and complicated range of human emotions has always been part of Furman’s creativity — especially anger, which was mined extensively in Furman’s last album, 2019’s punk blowout Twelve Nudes. Before that was 2018’s Transangelic Exodus, an album that constantly felt like its music had been set ablaze in honor of the agony and ecstasy of queerness, as well as to process the understanding that “sometimes you go through hell, but you never get to Heaven.”
Furman added: “I wanted to make songs for use by threatened communities, and particularly the ones I belong to: trans people and Jews.”
The singer-songwriter concludes a trilogy of albums that included 2018’s Transangelic Exodus and 2019’s Twelve Nudes. The new project, Furman says, is “a queer album for the stage of life when you start to understand that you are not a lone wolf, but depend on finding your family, your people, how you work as part of a larger whole.”
Ezra Furman knows that the joys and fears of trans women are doubled to either extreme compared to those of their cis counterparts, as violent transmisogyny continues to run rampant and women who share her experiences are forced to live in the shadows.
Ezra Furman has released a new album, All of Us Flames, today via ANTI-/Bella Union. Now that it’s out you can stream the whole thing here. Stream the album below, followed by her upcoming tour dates.
On All of Us Flames, her sixth solo album, Ezra Furman completes a three-album story arc about queer agency and fury.
EZRA FURMAN, ALL OF US FLAMES. The trans rocker’s latest finds her skillfully brooding her way through songs about the internal support of queer communities in times of crisis.
Hello! It’s Friday, again! There’s new music out there, again. I’ve got Tiny Blue Ghost a band nearby to me on a label I like and I’ve been really enjoying all the songs they’ve put out this year. There’s also this Stella Donnelly to check out based on reviews, also this Cryalot album I don’t think I’ve heard of but I love KKB.
Ezra Furman released a new album, All of Us Flames, today via ANTI-/Bella Union (stream it here). All of Us Flames includes “Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club,” one of its highlights that wasn’t put out as a pre-release single but is now eligible for Songs of the Week.
We all need to understand one thing; Ezra Furman is possibly an artist that’s the most unappreciated in our lifetime. The world needs to be covered in Furman releases because there’s nothing but quality work here. All Of Us Flames (ANTI-) is Ezra’s ninth full-length release, collaborative and solo, and possibly the most realized work to date.
1. Ezra Furman: “Point Me Toward the Real”
Ezra Furman has signed to ANTI- and on Tuesday shared her first single for the label, “Point Me Toward the Real.” She also announced some new North American tour dates. The horn-backed “Point Me Toward the Real” is about someone getting out of a psychiatric hospital. Furman’s lyrics paint a truly vivid picture.
This is one of those records that’s as naked as it can be in emotional terms, and yet still wildly enjoyable and tuneful as well. All of Us Flames, the new one from Ezra Furman, reveals the artist reaching a kind of peak here. The ANTI- / Bella Union release stands above and beyond so much of what’s come out this summer, showcasing a kind of serious rock, that’s still full of the sort of pleasures as the best classic rock or glam.
Ezra Furman appears to be in a constant state of escape. Her brand of soulful punk rock could be described as road music, with lyrics largely preoccupied with finding respite from a hostile world.
When the world was grappling with the anxiety and surreality of Covid in 2020, musician Ezra Furman also had to deal with being locked down with an openly transphobic landlord. “We did not conceal this at all, but he was like, ‘You didn’t tell me that you are trans’ and he was mad at us all the time and undermining,” Furman says solemnly over Zoom from Boston, wearing a pretty scooped-neck top, her hair cut in a bob. It didn’t help that the landlord lived upstairs. “It was just a horrible place to live.”
Never one known for her eagerness to submit to interviews, Kathleen Hanna was happy, she admitted on a recent afternoon, to be talking to anybody at all.
Ezra Furman: All of Us Flames • Julia Jacklin: Pre Pleasure • Muse: Will of the People • Regina Spektor: 11:11 • Stella Donnelly: Flood • William Orbit: The Painter
Why We’re Digging It: Australia has no shortage of great bands with outstanding songwriters, which explains why The Murlocs have and currently are touring with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and have a solid following across the world. Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Cal Shortal, Cook Craig, Tim Karmouche, and Matt Blach are not the types to take shortcuts, choosing instead to use every second to entertain and provoke. With “Compos Mentis”, they deliver a slice of Americana, southern-rock made for road trips.
Inspired by Bob Dylan and the enduring girl groups of the 60s, Ezra Furman’s All of Us Flames is an Americana album for a country on the brink, and the people striving to make a better world out of the ashes.
Melbourne’s 60’s tinged psych-rock punks The Murlocs showcase their softer side with new “Compos Mentis” single & video. Speaking with FLOOD which debuted the track, frontman Ambrose Kenny-Smith explains: “After a long day of truck stop fights, hitchhiking and getting kicked off trains, our beloved rapscallion protagonist decides to spend the night in an abandoned junkyard. Finding peace within the garbage that surrounds him, he begins to question his purpose in life and whether or not he’s in control of his own mind.”
