Where have all the saxophones come from? No matter if it’s a more electronical neo-soul/funk/disco/R’n’B, or, like in this case, a retro-driven ska/skiffle/doo wop/honkey tonk/whatever – those things are (yet again) to be heard everywhere! It’s almost unbearable, and still, in most cases they actually sound quite nice, as unthinkable as that was only a short while ago. Especially, since Ezra Furman hardly ever carries the nerve-racking fanfares of shrieking too far. Equipped with a pop-sensitivity comparable to those of her colleagues Mac DeMarco, Ariel Pink Foxygen or Pop Levi, Ezra Furman is meandering through »Perpetual Motion People« a bit more dazed and confused, but always fitting. He covers anything from drunken country-ballads to radio-surfrock, from 50s-reviews to distorted college rock à la Weezer. To take the name dropping even further: It’s as if the singer of the Violent Femmes was joining the Rolling Stones in their »Exile on Main Street«-sessions, accompanied by David Bowie on coke on the sax. Nah, hold on: It’s as if Neil Young (circa »Harvest«) was to bomb Beck’s »Mutations«-recordings with the help of discarded Bob-Dylan-lyrics (also dragging along a coked up David Bowie). Either way – Ezra Furman doesn’t even need the attention arising from him appearing on the cover in drag, wearing shrill make up; his songs will be noticed all on their own.
Car Seat Headrest
The Scholars
Matador