For Your Consideration: Ezra Furman’s Twelve Nudes as Multifaceted Depiction of What It’s Like to Be Trans

This piece was originally published as part of the Indieheads forums’ annual Album of the Year write-up series, where users write about their favorite albums from the year that passed, on December 14, 2019. In this piece, Co-Editor Nat talks about their personal link to local Boston-area musician Ezra Furman‘s thunderous Twelve Nudes and how it resonated with her experience living as a nonbinary transgender person.

For Your Consideration: Young Fathers’ Cocoa Sugar as 2018’s Soundtrack of Mournful Rage

For Odd Blue Fruit’s “End of the Year” coverage, our writers will discuss in detail albums that meant a great deal to them in 2018 along with their “best of” lists. In this write-up, Co-Editor Nat Allais discusses Young Fathers’ incredible latest album Cocoa Sugar, its place in the band’s career, and how the album fits into 2018 at large.

For Your Consideration: Algiers’ The Underside of Power as 2017’s Soundtrack of Resistance

For Odd Blue Fruit’s “End of the Year” coverage, our writers will discuss in detail albums that meant a great deal to them in 2017 along with their “best of” lists. In this write-up, Co-Editor Matt Marlin discusses how Algiers’ sophomore release The Underside of Power deftly captures the myriad of ways the oppressed expressed and channeled their pain in the face of injustice throughout 2017.

For Your Consideration: Sampha’s Process as 2017’s Soundtrack of Grieving

For Odd Blue Fruit’s “End of the Year” coverage, our writers will discuss in detail albums that meant a great deal to them in 2017 along with their “best of” lists. First up, Co-Editor Nat Marlin writes about how British singer/songwriter/producer Sampha’s long-awaited debut Process piercingly soundtracked a year of pain, grief, and processing of trauma.

For Your Consideration: Blueberry Boat by The Fiery Furnaces

 

It starts with a simple percussive rhythm. It keeps booming, setting the stage – soon joined by piano and electronic effects that continue piling up – without vocals for a full two minutes. This intro to album opener “Quay Cur” sets up an expectation of regularity the more it repeats. This opening is a red herring for the rest of the album. What follows is anything but regular, or predictable, or conventional.