Parables for Wooden Ears is the debut studio album released by the Australian band Powderfinger. It was released on 18 July 1994 by Polydor Records, after recording at the Metropolis Studios in Melbourne during February 1994. The album was received poorly by critics who complained about its poor imitation of Americana, as well as its overuse of complex riffs. In a 2004 interview, Powderfinger lead singer Bernard Fanning said, in reference to the album, "God knows what we were on then." Three singles were released from the album, all of which failed to chart. History In a 1996 interview, Fanning described Parables for Wooden Ears as "big and presumptuous", and stated that it had "a pretty massive sort of sound". He said that the band somewhat regretted this, and did not intend to do so again on future releases. On Parables for Wooden Ears, Powderfinger worked with the producer Tony Cohen, whom Fanning described as having a huge reputation, and thus being expensive to work with. However, because of the "lack of an obvious single", the album sold poorly, despite the effort put into production. Parables for Wooden Ears contained references by Powderfinger to Aboriginal rights, with a song written by the drummer Jon Coghill discussing the idea that the band's generation was the first to reach out to the concept of reconciliation. In 1998, the guitarist Ian Haug described their third album Internationalist as a moderation between the band's last two albums, calling Parables for Wooden Ears a "complicated beast". In a 1999 interview, Fanning said that the band "were sorting out our sound" on the album, and that despite it not working well they still thought it was "a good record". Juice commentator Simon Wooldridge noted in 2000 that Parables for Wooden Ears contained "million"s of riffs, and thus the band were not able to produce a simple sound on the album. In a November 2004 interview with the Melbourne newspaper, The Age, Fanning recalled that the head of Polydor Records had described the album as "awful" and remarked that "God knows what we were on then". He also said that in making Parables for Wooden Ears, Powderfinger "went through this weird stage of trying to be something [they] weren't." Fanning also told Australian Musician that the album, a "spectacular failure", was a result of the band feeling "forced" to play like other bands that were popular in