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.”
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
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.
There is no artist out there making music quite like Ezra Furman is. Her latest single, “Poor Girl a Long Way From Heaven,” Furman takes her trademark unique blend of indie rock and pop and injects a little bit of gospel or spiritual music into it. Furman’s music combines a vibe that is hers and hers alone with sounds that are almost familiar.
In today’s music world there are interesting acts coming out. The artist who has our interests lately is Ezra Furman. The trans artist is flowing forward on her new release, and writing songs that extend across people of all types.
In a press release, Furman elaborates on the new single: “The spiritual life ain’t all pious platitudes. This song is about how weird it gets, when you’re in love with the Source of Being and She’s not texting you back. Ever since it hit me that I was never going to be loved and accepted on the scale of my pop star heroes, me and my bandmates have started to work on a different vision of pop, one more our own, one that gestures at the stranger truths of the human mind. Here we are in thrall to verbally adventurous nineties music like Bjork and Beck and the Silver Jews and them kinda non-linear geniuses.”
The latest single from Ezra Furman’s new album All of Us Flames is “Poor Girl A Long Way From Heaven.” “The spiritual life ain’t all pious platitudes,” Ezra says.
Ezra Furman has shared a new single/video, “Poor Girl A Long Way From Heaven,” off of her forthcoming album, All of Us Flames, out August 26th via ANTI-/Bella Union. On “Poor Girl A Long Way From Heaven,” Furman recounts a childhood encounter with God, a gesture of spiritual yearning that flows into the album’s biblical facets.
Ezra Furman présente un nouvel extrait de son album All of Us Flames prévu pour le 26 août prochain. Il s’agit du morceau Poor Girl A Long Way From Heaven.
Ezra Furman releases a new single/video, “Poor Girl A Long Way From Heaven,” off of her forthcoming album, All of Us Flames, out August 26th via ANTI- / Bella Union. On “Poor Girl A Long Way From Heaven,” Furman recounts a childhood encounter with God, a gesture of spiritual yearning that flows into the album’s biblical facets. Her voice resonates over building instrumentation, bolstered by layered vocals.
More notable August 26 releases: Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982, Bret McKenzie: Songs Without Jokes, Eyedress: FULL TIME LOVER, Ezra Furman: All of Us Flames, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith: Let’s Turn It Into Sound, Laufey: Everything I Know About Love, Marcus King: Young Blood, Muse: Will of the People, Pantha du Prince: Garden Gaia, Pianos Become the Teeth: Drift, Tedeschi Trucks Band: I Am The Moon: IV. Farewell, Valerie June: Under Cover
Ezra Furman poursuit sur sa lancée. L’artiste ne dérougit pas et continue de livrer avec une régularité impressionnante de nouvelles compositions. Et comme pour le reste, Lilac and Black respecte le standard de qualité.
As always, we feature new song releases from independent musicians and up-and-coming artists, as well as those widely revered in the underground and indie music scenes, with a couple big names or two.
New albums are getting announced and released constantly. It’s tough to stay on top of it all. So that’s where we come in. Pitchfork is tracking notable new music releases with our guide to upcoming albums. In the coming months, there will be big new releases from Arctic Monkeys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dry Cleaning, Built to Spill, Sudan Archives, the 1975, Brian Eno, Ezra Furman, Julia Jacklin, Shygirl, and plenty more artists.
Electro-shocked glam-rock walks bittersweet glitter-swept runways in triumphant comeuppance and bruised ruminations while introspective pep-talker and hindsighted night-stalker Furman turns messy confessions into redemptive adventures.
Keeping track of all the new albums coming out in a given month is a big job, but we’re up for it: Below is a comprehensive list of the major releases you can look forward to in August. If you’re not trying to potentially miss out on anything, it might be a good idea to keep reading.
The latest from Ezra Furman is what we’ve come to expect from the artist. “Lilac and Black” is a virtually genre-less song that borrows from many different styles while sounding entirely unique. There are elements of folk, pop, dance, punk, and all the multi-hyphenate genres in between, but it doesn’t truly sound like any of those.
Australian psych band The Murlocs will release new album Rapscallion on September 16 via ATO.
“Lilac and Black” is Furman’s empowering call to arms for the trans community, reflecting on the toll of their embattled existence while rallying for a unified front against cis bigots.
Ezra Furman is releasing a new album, All of Us Flames, on August 26 via ANTI-/Bella Union. Now she has shared its fourth single, “Lilac and Black,” via a lyric video. Listen below, followed by her upcoming tour dates.
A press release says “Lilac and Black” concerns “a revenge plot where she and her ‘queer girl gang’ drive out their oppressors and claim a hostile city for themselves.”
Ezra Furman unveils a new single “Lilac and Black” off her forthcoming record, All of Us Flames, out August 26th via ANTI- & Bella Union. Produced by John Congleton, All of Us Flames unleashes Furman’s songwriting in an open, vivid sound whose boldness heightens the music’s urgency.
For some reason Ezra Furman’s reputation as a more folky indie rocker persists to this day, certainly among people who checked out of the songwriter’s career during the period with The Harpoons. And then perhaps transferring that impression onto Furman’s early solo albums. But this performance wasn’t the kind of thing you leave with any impression other than Furman is a fiery and charismatic singer and guitarist whose passion and conviction is imbued with an irresistible righteousness of purpose and deep compassion for the tender and vulnerable sides of anyone that has ever had to deal with the persecution of a society and culture that too often denies full humanity to various groups of people that are dismissed as a minority group.
Ezra Furman once told me that living as a trans person in the world is constantly rattling a cage. The reoccurring themes of running away, getting in a car and driving away from everything, that escape to freedom is something that she longs for.
Ezra Furman headlined the Fine Line Music Café in Minneapolis on May 31.
The opening of the show was that of Melbourne Grace Cummings. She joined on stage her brother on guitar, Tyler on drums, Lino on bass (she also thanked her driver, “Chef”). The group appeared in good shape, happy to be in Minneapolis this summer.
