A review by David Daley that appeared in the December 1998 issue of Alternative Press…

Some of 1998’s best albums have been made by indie-rockers lifting a glass to the end of irony.  Call it a longing for honest emotion, for music that’s simply beautiful and emotionally moving.  Indeed, powerful albums this year from Cat Power, Elliott Smith, David Gedge’s Cinerama, Mike Johnson and Richard Davies, not to mention the Elvis Costello - Burt Bacharach collaboration, may someday make the late ’90s seem as halcyon an era for sophisticated singer-songwriter stylings as the early ’70s seem, retrospectively, with Nick Drake, Tim Buckley, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen.  Add another name to that list, as well — country-tinged Chicago chanteuse Edith Frost, whose second full-length, Telescopic, far surpasses her first-rate debut, Calling Over Time.

Fleshed out from the skeletal fragments of Frost’s first songs with a broader palette of instruments and a breathtaking late-night intimacy, Telescopic is simply stunning.  Cat Power’s Moon Pix might be more chilling, but Frost is positively heart-stilling, her voice tender and true, her melodies evocative and pure.  When she sings, "You’ll be putting my heart on hold," dropping down and fashioning a three-syllable hook out of "heart," she has the emotional intuition of Patsy Cline.  "You can be lonely with someone you trust," she sings in "You Belong To No One," with a deceptive airiness that belies that she probably knows this all too well.  "Bluish Bells" makes its impact with fuzzy bridges connecting ringing verses, Frost calling, simply, "Come running with me darlin’ / I miss your fire." Telescopic is an album of such passion, beauty and grace that it seems certain to become an honored standard.  Don’t wait decades to discover its majesty.