Music
Perpetual Motion People
Downcast San Francisco singer-songwriter sees the light at the end of the tunnel
“I’m sick of this record already,” Ezra Furman sings midway through his third solo LP. Brutal honesty is a constant in the San Francisco-based singer-songwriter’s lyrics: He’s vulnerable, bitter and flawed, with gritty vocals to match. On this album, though, he’s closer to self-acceptance, as signaled by the dresses he has worn onstage and on this album’s cover. At the same time, the music has gotten more ambitious, with crisp saxophone and percussion framing deep, slurred doo-wop backing vocals. “One September in Boston, I lost the will to live,” he sings. Perpetual Motion People is an album that makes you root for him to pull through.