Listening Post

Blue October's Justin Furstenfeld is a melodramatic, self-loathing lunatic whose emotional diarrhea can be as exhilarating and revelatory as it is obnoxious and indulgent. When we last heard from him and his band, he'd written an entire album about his break-up with his wife and the ensuing custody battle over his daughter. In the hands of someone not quite so meticulous and determined when it comes to relating his pain, this could've been really powerful subject matter to mine, but Furstenfeld of course just had to tell the story in such detail that almost no one other than himself could ever relate to it. He's not about universal themes; he's about cutting his own wrists and bleeding all over the audience simply for the sake of the release.

That said, when he's good -- and when he does write as much for the listener as for himself -- he's very good.

Yeah, this is an amateur recording but it's an impressive one, done at a live show in Vegas. The song is from the new Blue October record, Sway, which is surprisingly good.

Here's Not Broken Anymore.

Listening Post

There's no one in rock and roll more self-indulgent than Blue October's Justin Furstenfeld. Maybe it's the fact that he comes from a region where the country-western ethos dominates music, but there's never a damn thing subtle about his songwriting; he eschews things like allusion and metaphor to just come right out and say that he means. On the one hand, it's occasionally gripping stuff as it gives you a window directly into his psyche -- on the other, it's almost impossible to 100% identify with anything he writes since he's writing it about his own personal experience exclusively.

With all of that in mind, I have to admit that this song had an effect on me -- and for reasons you'll understand almost immediately. Blue October's latest record is all about the crash of Furstenfeld's very troubled marriage, told in vivid detail -- and while I've very much moved on from my own, the songs that deal with his relationship with his young daughter do have a pretty visceral impact and likely will for any man separated by time, distance and circumstance from his child, in particular his daughter.

Here's The Worry List.

Listening Post

These guys are always hit or miss for me. Some of their stuff is brilliant, some of it's kind of average. This brand new single falls somewhere in the middle, but I give the band credit because frontman Justin Furstenfeld really is a semi-functional loon, and that's refreshing these days.

Here's new Blue October -- The Chills.

Listening Post

Because if you don't like this, Justin Furstenfeld will try to kill himself (again).

Here's Blue October -- Into the Ocean.

Listening Post: The 20 Best Singles of 2009 (14 & 13)

14. Blue October -- Dirt Room

Justin Furstenfeld has issues. The frenzied frontman for Blue October ended the year by having a near-mental breakdown that forced the band to cancel a large part of its American tour -- and one listen to the incendiary first single from Blue October's 2009, Steve Lillywhite-produced album Approaching Normal might help explain why. What makes Dirt Room so good may not be the song itself so much as its relation to the political and cultural climate it happened to be released into: While Furstenfeld claims that the song's vicious storyline was written with an old manager in mind, it could easily be translated as a revenge fantasy for anyone who's recently been laid off or found him or herself forced to struggle while the obscenely wealthy remain that way -- especially with a furious chorus like "you think you own me/you should've known me/you took the future and the food off my family's plate/you think you'll use me/I'm stronger than you/you take my money but it's useless when you see what I do to you." It was a powerful statement, and one that might've made Dirt Room, intentionally or not, the anthem of 2009.




13. The Sounds -- No One Sleeps When I'm Awake

A lot of bands from Central and Northern Europe are amusing because they seem to either A) be stuck in a perpetual time-loop that keeps them 20 years behind the rest of the civilized music world, or B) be a bizarre amalgam of styles and elements from various musical genres all pureed into one slightly cartoonish final product. How else to explain Black Metal -- or The Sounds? Hailing from Sweden, The Sounds have spent the past several years doing a slightly updated take on 80s new wave. Occasionally their penchant for unabashed nostalgia has translated into good music, occasionally not -- but the lead-off single from their 2009 album Crossing the Rubicon was entirely new territory for them: a song that leaped out of the speakers and grabbed you by the throat. Highlighted by frontwoman Maja Ivarsson -- who sports a Debbie Harry-meets-Farrah haircut and sings kind of like Dale Bozzio in her heyday -- No One Sleeps When I'm Awake was immediately captivating and an all-around blast of a song: fiery, fierce and danceable as all hell. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else on the album that rose to its level of greatness, but as a one-off single it was tough to beat this year.



Tomorrow: 12 & 11

The 20 Best Singles of 2009: 15. Jay-Z (w/Alicia Keys) -- Empire State of Mind; 16. Company of Thieves -- Oscar Wilde

The 20 Best Singles of 2009: 17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- Heads Will Roll; 18. Doves -- Jetstream

The 20 Best Singles of 2009: 19. Mos Def -- Quiet Dog; 20. Florence + the Machine -- Kiss With a Fist

Listening Post

Conventional wisdom has it that this song is a revenge fantasy about a guy who ties up and tortures the wealthy boss who fired him and left his family without a provider. If this is true, then say hello to the song for our times -- and what a hell of a song it is.

Here's Blue October, with Dirt Room.