''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 Eleanor ...

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. Having successfully promoted and sold records by punk rock and early post-pun ...

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 ''Blueberry Boat'' is the second album by American indie rock band The Fiery Furnaces. It was released on July 13, 2004, just over ten months following their debut album, '' Gallowsbird's Bark''. ''Blueberry Boat'' polarized music critics due to ...

''. "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 usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

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 Af ...

. "

Crystal Clear Crystal Clear may refer to: Music and film * ''Crystal Clear'' (Jaci Velasquez album), 2000 * ''Crystal Clear'' (David Dunn album), 2015 ** ''Crystal Clear'' (EP), a 2014 EP by David Dunn * "Crystal Clear", a 1988 song from '' World Without E ...

", "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 a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, 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 music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

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 (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'',

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 well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' 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.

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 Eleanor Friedberger (born September 2, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She is best known as one half of the indie rock duo The Fiery Furnaces, alongside her older brother Matthew Friedberger. In the band she co ...

– vocals, guitar *

Matthew Friedberger Matthew Friedberger (born October 21, 1972 in Oak Park, Illinois, United States) is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work in the indie rock duo The Fiery Furnaces with his sister Eleanor Friedberger. B ...

– vocals, piano, synth, bass *Ryan Sawyer – drums

References

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