Archive for September 2001

Edith Frost’s voice reminds me of crisp shadows and evening air: composed and cool. There’s also a soft crackle to her vocals, like the burn of a tinder-caught spark. Add the rustic twang of strings, the moody linger of guitar, piano, and considered percussion, and you have Wonder Wonder, Frost’s follow-up to Telescopic. Whether sadly introspective or quietly joyful, the songs on her latest album still exude a gentle acoustic grace. During the lilting saunter of "Hear My Heart", Frost sings, "Can our hearts decode / all the text implies / can I look into your hardened old eyes?" On Wonder Wonder‘s last tuneful and unconsciously affecting track, she intones, "as long as you’re decided, I can’t stay mad at you."

Album number three from this Chicago-via-Brooklyn-via-Texas singer/songwriter.  Though she’s not really covering any ground that wasn’t trod upon on 1999′s Telescopic, she does what she does and she does it with remarkable understated charm.  Picture Lucinda Williams torching her way through the Bacharach/David songbook and you’ll have an inkling of the depth and breadth of Wonder Wonder.

Chill factor: Windy City singer-songwriter Edith Frost nips at our ears and hearts with two new albums

Her voice overflows with an earthy sweetness one typically encounters on dusty country records, yet singer-songwriter Edith Frost ignores distinctions between old and new, city and country, art and kitsch. Her Chicago apartment is loaded with Hello Kitty tchotchkes and cowgirl memorabilia; 15 feet of vinyl eat away at her living room while her hard drive swells with MP3 files. She bought her first modem in 1982, launched her first website in 1994 (it was devoted to cowgirls) and currently maintains a site about her music so thorough that it lists crummy reviews alongside raves and even highlights the portions of her interviews that she deems most embarrassing.

In a world where the airwaves are hijacked (I know, sorry) with cookie-cutter singer-songwriters of the fairer sex (Sheryl Crow, Shawn Colvin et al.) who seem to put more of a premium on sex appeal than originality, it’s good to know there’s someone like Edith Frost to take us away from it all for a little while.

Chicago chanteuse Edith Frost moves between the Windy City’s alt-country and indie-experimental music axes. Her third album, "Wonder Wonder" (Drag City), is a reflective, shrewdly produced affair that makes deft use of strings and horns where appropriate. Frost’s distant-yet-emotive voice is sounding more and more like that of fellow Chicagoan Liz Phair these days, but her self-possessed songs of heartache are full of a gentle wistfulness all her own.