Winter Women and Holy Ghost Language School

Infobox Album
Name = Winter Women/Holy Ghost Language School
Type = Double album
Artist = Matthew Friedberger


Released = August 8 2006
Recorded = 2005/2006
Genre = Indie rock
Length = 108:53
Label = 859 Recordings
Producer = Matthew Friedberger, Bill Skibbe
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:1t63mpza9f2o~T1 link]
*Pitchfork Media (5.0/10) [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/37684/Matthew_Friedberger_Winter_Women_Holy_Ghost_Language_School link]
*The Onion A.V. Club (B/C-) [http://www.avclub.com/content/node/51475 link]
*"Rolling Stone" (3/5) [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/10892112/review/11111773/winter_women__holy_ghost_language_school link] |
This album = "Winter Women/Holy Ghost Language School" (2006)|

"Winter Women" and "Holy Ghost Language School" are two albums by Matthew Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces recorded, unlike The Fiery Furnaces records, without his sister Eleanor Friedberger. Though two separate albums, they were released together as a double album by 859 Recordings in August 2006.

Track listing

Winter Women – 62:44

#"Under the Hood at the Paradise Garage" – 4:06
#"The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co. Resignation Letter" – 3:43
#"Up the River" – 4:29
#"Ruth vs. Rachel" – 2:51
#"Her Chinese Typewriter" – 4:21
#"Big Bill Crib and His Ladies of the Desert" – 3:21
#"Don't You Remember?" – 3:45
#"Becha Don’t" – 2:54
#"P.S. 213 Mini"-School – 3:54
#"Theme From Never Going Home Again" – 2:44
#"Motorman" – 5:58
#"Quick as Cupid" – 3:47
#"I Love You Cedric" – 4:39
#"Servant in Distress" – 3:28
#"Hialeah" – 2:56
#"Wisconsin River Blues" – 5:40

Holy Ghost Language School – 46:09

# Seventh Loop Highway – 3:57
# Holy Ghost Language School – 4:13
# The Cross and the Switchblade – 3:54
# I Started Using Alcohol at the Age of Eleven – 3:57
# Do You Like Blondes? – 2:50
# Azusa St. – 4:24
# Topeka and San Antonio – 3:40
# A Mystical Preparative to Lewdness – 2:47
# Ship Scrap Beach Business – 2:18
# First Day of School – 2:50
# Things Were Going So Well – 4:07
# All in Vain or the Opposite – 5:05
# Moral and Epilogue – 2:00

Additional information

Despite the solo albums The Fiery Furnaces will continue releasing new material as a group. When asked by Pitchfork Media about the reason for them being recorded/released separately Matthew, who writes most of the music and lyrics for The Fiery Furnaces responded with:

"Eleanor's on vacation, We have a logjam of records, so [this is] the only way to have something come out relatively quickly. And I don't have to bother Eleanor to get her to sing all this crap, so...that's the advantage. It's an act of mercy." [http://pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/2006/01/27]

Winter Women is also stated in the liner notes as being dedicated to Eleanor.

While Winter Women is a more conventional collection of songs, the second record Holy Ghost Language School is a narrative based concept album, although it has sufficiently fewer lyrics.

Matthew Friedberger played the majority of the instruments on the records and did most of the production work but John McEntire from Tortoise and Josh Johannpeter from Mahjongg helped out by providing some of the non-synthesized drums.