''Gallowsbird's Bark'' is the debut studio album by

The Fiery Furnaces The Fiery Furnaces are an American indie rock band, formed in 2000 in Brooklyn, New York.. - ''In 2000 they moved Brooklyn... and began playing as the Fiery Furnaces late in the year''. - Allmusic The band's primary members are Matthew and El ...

released by

Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis, who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. It is currently run by co-managing directors Travis and Jeannette Lee and ...

in 2003.

Additional information

"Inca Rag"/"Name Game" is actually two songs that blend into each other, this being an indication of the direction the band would take on the following album '' Blueberry Boat''. "Tropical Ice-Land", "Rub-Alcohol Blues" and "We Got Back the Plague" share the same tempo, are grouped together on the album cover track listing and could for this reason be construed as a three-part song. "Rub Alcohol Blues", credited to William E. Myer is most known for being performed by (and written for) the folk

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

player

Dock Boggs Moran Lee "Dock" Boggs (February 7, 1898 – February 7, 1971) was an American old-time singer, songwriter, and banjo player. His style of banjo playing, as well as his singing, is considered a unique combination of Appalachian folk music and A ...

. " Crystal Clear", "Tropical Ice-Land" and "We Got Back the Plague" have all appeared on singles, "Tropical Ice-Land" also appearing on the 2005 compilation '' EP''. These single versions of "Tropical Ice-Land" and "We Got Back the Plague" however differ significantly from the original album versions.

Reception

''Gallowsbird's Bark'' received favorable reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 77, which indicates "generally positive reviews," based on 15 reviews. Heather Phares of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

wrote that despite the songs "Crystal Clear" and "Two Fat Feet" sounding "dizzying and jumbled at first, eventually their gleeful chaos settles into something a little more orderly, but no less mischievous", and she called the album "a fantastic debut album that only gets richer and better with more listens." Writing for ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'',

Amanda Petrusich Amanda Petrusich (born c. 1980) is an American music journalist. She is a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'' and the author of three books: ''Pink Moon'' (2007), '' It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American M ...

described the album as "accessible, but skewed and peculiar enough to keep you peeking nervously over your shoulder every couple of minutes."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' gave the album a two-star honorable mention rating and quipped that the album contained the "most intriguing use of roots riffs in an eclectic context nobody comprehends (including them)", citing "Worry Worry" and "Up in the North" as highlights.

Legacy

In a 20th anniversary review for ''

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...

'', Natalie Marlin called ''Bark'' "an auspicious but unassuming debut" and complimented the band's fusion of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

and

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

that gave it an "idiosyncratic sound all its own." She dubbed ''Bark'' one of the 2000s' "strongest straight

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre, genre and form of rock music, rock and blues music that relies on the chords/scales and instrumental improvisation of blues. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electri ...

albums."

Track listing

All songs composed by

, except where noted. # "South Is Only a Home" – 2:42 # "I'm Gonna Run" – 2:24 # "Leaky Tunnel" – 3:33 # "Up in the North" – 2:21 # "Inca Rag/Name Game" – 3:56 # "Asthma Attack" – 2:08 # "Don't Dance Her Down" (Lyrics adapted from "Big Jim in the Barroom") – 3:17 # "Crystal Clear" – 2:10 # "Two Fat Feet" – 4:04 # "Bow Wow" – 3:47 # "Gale Blow" – 2:15 # "Worry Worry" – 2:04 # "Bright Blue Tie" – 2:06 # "Tropical Ice-Land" – 3:30 # "Rub-Alcohol Blues" (William E. Myer) – 2:03 # "We Got Back the Plague" – 4:14

Personnel

* Eleanor Friedberger – vocals, guitar * Matthew Friedberger – vocals, piano, synth, bass *Ryan Sawyer – drums

References

{{Authority control 2003 debut albums The Fiery Furnaces albums Rough Trade Records albums