The Tower Recordings, Furniture Music for Evening Shuttles (side A)

When Furniture Music for Evening Shuttles came out in 1998, its strange blend of classic outsider folk with naïve primitivism resembled little else at the time. In the years since, the notion of "freak folk" has become something of a genre, so what stands out about this album has morphed, even as the record itself sounds the same. The primitive construction, from the awkward songs to the recognizable cassette recording medium (and budget mastering job), is all a bit too extreme to fit into today's "freak folk" micro-genre. Furniture Music for Evening Shuttles sounds less daring, but no less distinctive, than it did on its release.