The Fiery Furnaces

One of the more ambitious and adventurous indie rock bands to have come out of the '00s, The Fiery Furnaces are the brother/sister duo Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, who released six studio albums between 2003 and 2009, each one crammed with songs and each song crammed with ideas, Then they went on an extended hiatus until 2021. The music on these albums was challenging in the best sense: they were filled with sudden shifts that introduce a catchy melody in the midst of another one, or a totally new groove, or just disrupted the melodic flow to create fractured segments. Their songs were highbrow collages of down to earth pop pieces stitched together with Eleanor Friedberger's acrobatic and melodious speak-sing vocals. As a band, they constantly changed the whole feel and texture of their songs in live performances, reconstructed each tune with a different take, as captured in their 2008 live album, Remember.