The Rosebuds, Night of the Furies

reviewed by dave heaton

The new Rosebuds album Night of the Furies tells similar stories as their last album, the great Birds Make Good Neighbors, but in a different language. Where Birds' starcrossed lovers exist within a Southern Gothic, Night of the Hunter/Huck Finn adventure tale, in Night the story of love against the odds (plus guilt, murder, community) comes with a different mythology: a fantasy milieu where gods exist to watch and punish, and occasionally fall in love with, humans. The concept seems more completely fleshed out, with a liner-note background story, even, but for the listener it'll still exist mostly as a framework for melodic song-stories, with catchy tunes, vivid descriptions, and overall themes of searching for connection and unity.

It's fitting both for that community theme ("Get up get out and fill the streets / let's dance in the ash of the big chimneys") and the fantasy genre that the Rosebuds have moved away from gritty rock styles, towards atmospheric pop music, with an emphasis on mood and beat. Dance grooves and big pop hooks are one side to the LP – and a welcome one, giving it a robust, colorful style. But there's also a sense of foreboding that grows especially strong over the last few songs. The album starts triumphant and gets sad, but still with a sense of striving to it.

It's inspiring how different this album is from the duo's last one, and inspiring how similar it is, how they're growing their knack for telling stories within pop songs. They're writing romantic, colorful kids' adventure storybooks, album by album, and finding new genres, musical and literary, for each.

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