Archive for the tag "cmj"

This three-song disc is a captivating display of the talents of Ms. Frost.  The ambling, full-bodied "Love Is Real" is an enthused proclamation of love, in which Frost unleashes her strongest voice over a backdrop of guitars and drums, punctuated by chirping keyboards.  Meanwhile, the remaining tracks, "Between Us" and "The Last One," are a return to the loping, country-folk-rock rant for which Frost is known.

If Patsy Cline had lived longer, it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine her today, trading nights of sumptuous standards with Bobby Short at New York’s elegant Carlyle Hotel.  As recently released live recordings of Cline have revealed, despite her hard life and hard living, she was less a hardcore honkytonk gal than a wondrous pop stylist.

Chicago chanteuse Edith Frost gets colored with the country brush as well, and the sad songs and influx of steel guitar on her gorgeous new album Telescopic (Drag City) probably won’t help dispel such typecasting.

<…> A little bit country, a little bit Chairs Missing, Frost wrapped double down comforters of purr and strum around cool waltz and swing beats (tapped out at this show by Archer Prewitt, who’d just wound up his own gently transporting set). <…>

When did Edith Frost discover the power of fuzz? On her last record, Calling Over Time, Frost was just another sweetheart at the indie-folk rodeo; a girl from Texas living in Chicago, collecting cowgirl figurines and singing campfire ballads about loneliness and heartache. The first track on Telescopic has a lead guitar that’s buzzing like crazy and her wispy vocal is effected out the wazoo. Did Suzanne Vega track Frost down and tell her to get a makeover?

Chicago chanteuse Edith Frost quickly follows up her exceptional full-length debut, Calling Over Time, with three more songs of equal quality. Like those on Frost’s debut EP, these new songs are more sparse than those of Calling Over Time, which features a cast of backing musicians. The only other musician heard on these three songs is Kramer (who produced them), who adds a touch of bass and synthesizer to the eerie, hollow sounds of "Ancestors."  "Secrets" and "Cold And On My Mind" are the sort of back porch ditties we’ve come to expect from Frost: simple acoustic guitar-based songs with a touch of blues and a twist of country.

"I sing the blues ‘most every night," sings Edith Frost on her album’s opening cut, "Temporary Loan," and the subdued blue tone of this song glows throughout her debut, which offers a very personal, very solitary version of the blues. Echoing the four melancholy tunes on her EP of last year, these new songs tip-toe in different directions, touching upon folk, blues, country and artier strains, but are always anchored by Frost’s breathy, but confident, voice. While she recalls other plaintive-voiced singers, Frost achieves her own distinctive voice: She has a higher, sweeter sound than Kendra Smith, and an earthier, less ephemeral tone than Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval.

In the finest bedroom-rock tradition, Edith Frost crafts personal, evocative songs that easily transcend the confines of the four walls in which they were spun. The four songs on Frost’s first release, a self-titled EP (Drag City), are demo recordings on which she’s backed only by guitar and Casio keyboard, but they seem to have absorbed a spooky, folk-tinged vibe that can’t have originated in her Brooklyn apartment. On "Blame You" she could be re-interpreting a blues staple, her voice graceful and crafty (not unlike Lida Husik’s), while on "My God Insane" she sounds like Kendra Smith in Opal’s earliest days — a weighty compliment if ever there was one. Frost is currently in the studio recording material for a full-length, which will hopefully surface later this year. But also in the bedroom-rock tradition, it’s hard to know when we’ll be invited in to hear her work.

Every once in a while you see a performance by an unknown artist that makes you immediately want them to put out a record. Edith Frost had that impact last summer so it’s been a long wait for this EP. Though her performance was with a full band, this debut outing indicates that she has been making music in a solo homespun tradition for quite some time. The Brooklyn denizen spent her youthful days in the large state of Texas, an influence that shows in her often blues-y strums. The first two songs are acoustic guitar pieces with an edge of a traditional roots twang, while the other two branch off into a lighter, echo-y realm. The salient element of Frost’s songs is her charming, melodious voice, which is double-tracked and wrapped around itself on these songs. While the EP was worth the wait, it’s still not quite enough to sate our appetites. Until there’s more Edith, play the dejected guitar strums of "Blame You" or the dream-like Casio-tinkering on "Waiting Room."