The new record from Ezra Furman is one of the most invigorating things I've heard all summer. Called Twelve Nudes, and out on Friday via Bella Union, the brief album pulses and rattles with a neat blend of fuzzy punk energy and glam rock bravado.
Opener "Calm Down AKA I Should Not Be Alone" is a cry from the heart delivered with the fury of a punch in the jaw, while "Thermometer" is Nineties punk boiled down to its purest essence. Furman here writes in a way that each cut reveals a real love of power-pop and Clinton-era indie, such that a brief cut like "Blown" feels a tiny bit like a Guided By Voices gem from 1994, and "What Can You Do But Rock 'n' Roll" roars like something from a Ted Leo album. And while Ezra turns some attention outward on the sharp and caustic "Evening Prayer AKA Justice", one of the best numbers here on Twelve Nudes, Furman hits a peak on "Rated R Crusaders", a rager that feels a bit like a Ty Segall jam. Still, for all the ferocious power coursing through the tracks here, the tender "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" shows that Ezra Furman is equally capable of crafting entirely unique spins on proto-glam ballads. Twelve Nudes is the sort of record that surprises and pleases, to such an extent that even the most jaded of listeners cannot but help be pulled into the hurricane swirling in these grooves.
Twelve Nudes is out on Friday via Bella Union.
More details on Ezra Furman via the official website, or the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Jessica Lehrman]