One year on from their critically acclaimed debut Banging Down the Doors on Minty Fresh, Boston’s quirky folksters Ezra Furman and the Harpoons have returned with what can best be described as their coming-of-age party album. Inside the Human Body still has its number of excellent Neil Young-esque stripped-down indie-folk tunes awash with whimsical observations and plaintive, meaningful fun. Yet this time around, it’s the band’s newly discovered tumultuous punk-pop joy that makes your ears prick up and puts a smile on your face.
On the album’s opener “We Should Fight”, frenetic drumming helps propel Furman’s nasally vocal assault — bringing to mind Eamon Hamilton, lead singer with British band Brakes — from a breathless rasp to a scrawny scream. Hopelessly catchy, “Big Deal” makes the most of its unrestrained opening tirade “In a trance in France I learned to dance.” Furman declares on the band’s Myspace page that their music “will most likely be government-mandated listening for all legal adults within the decade.” Hope burns eternal.