Ezra Furman & the Harpoons Inside the Human Body album review
Playboy.com
by Tim Lowery

It's easy to mention fellow wunderkinds like Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Beirut's Zach Condon when talking about Ezra Furman, who's barely into his 20s. It's easier still to play the name game with Furman's voice. Throughout Inside the Human Body, he floats between the crackling high-pitched yelps of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's Alec Ounsworth, the quick-tongued ramblings of Freewheelin'-era Dylan and the angry growls of Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano - though if supersensitive Furman penned the Femmes' "Add It Up," he'd likely change the line "Why can't I get just one fuck" to "Why can't I get just one hug." In spirit - and especially during live shows, where he's all oddball storytelling and wide eyes - he's reminiscent of Jonathan Richman when he fronted the Modern Lovers. With a similarly keen ability to color the mundane - "The Dishwasher" is about (duh) washing dishes; "Springfield, IL" chronicles a bus ride through the depressing capitol - what works for Furman and his band (all fellow Tufts University students) is what worked for virtually every band mentioned above. The territory they play may be nothing new (Richman had his Lou Reed, Clap Your Hands their Talking Heads, etc.), but the results can, at points, be inspired. And frontloading an album with your three best, catchiest tracks? That's an old move, too. Not that we're complaining.