Ezra Furman - All of us Flames

 

Ezra Furman remains first and foremost the kind of Rock & Roll star that doesn't exist any more. Bowie or Reed in the early Seventies. Loud, proud and unapologetic, at the point of realisation.

Now a transgender woman and currently training  to become a Rabbi, her own narrative is just as intriguing as her records. Latest album All of us Flames is at first, one blazing, fist aloft queer anthem after another though by the end of the record, it becomes something else.

More Bruce than Lou or Dave in terms of its tone. Virtually every song builds and builds though there is occasional time for contemplative nuance, notably Ally Sheedy in the Breakfast Club which immediately made me want to watch the movie again.

There's also Come Close, the elegaic final track of the record, Ezra's Walk on the Wild Side so good I had to listen to it again immediately The lack of enormous variation, particularly in the early part of the record. means this surely aint no Hunky Dory or Transformer. I'd like to have seen a little more gear change but that's not to say this doesn't work.

I'd imagine Ezra is such a point of inspiration for many going through their own journeys of discovery and becoming. All of us Flames is a particular  record, not quite like any other you'll hear this year and it's brilliantly realised.