Archive for the tag "magnet"

A charming torch-song masterpiece from this non-chirpy chanteuse, Wonder Wonder recalls the golden days of the pre-Lilith era — think incandescent albums like Cath Carroll’s True Crime Hotel and Jenny Mae’s There’s A Bar Around The Corner… Asshole and even lesser lights like Lida Husik and you’d be on the right track.  Edith Frost is the possessor of a dusky pair of pipes, and she knows a thing or two about arrangements, making songs like the title cut absolutely irresistible trinkets of new-wave bumpkinism.  Supported by delicate underpinnings of guitar and piano, Frost’s sweet voice proves itself a dynamic vehicle for either the weepy backporch lament of "Hear My Heart" or the waltz-like dirge of "The Fear."  Throughout, she warbles with implacable richness and beauty and the kind of unaffected charm that’s as soothing as a mouthful of warm honey.  Wonder Wonder is the album Liz Phair should’ve made after Exile In Guyville; its genuine maturity trumps high-gloss AOR over and over again.  Don’t miss it.

As long as people fall in love and feel insecure about it, there will be a need for songs like "Love Is Real."  Frost rides a gliding, instantly memorable melody borne by a swinging mid-tempo rhythm to lay it on the line to a potential lover.  "Between Us," which is underpinned by a lonely harmonica, carries its torch more quietly.  Deny her and it’s your loss, chump.  "The Last One," a brief C&W tune accompanied only by Frost’s acoustic guitar,*  is about guys like you.  These songs are produced with more clarity and less of a woozy, psychedelic aura than the material on her last album, Telescopic, and are better for it.

Critics lined up to praise Calling Over Time, singer/songwriter Edith Frost’s star-studded 1997 debut.  Thus were hopes high for the follow-up from this "country-Midwestern" queen.  And Frost doesn’t disappoint.  With co-conspirators Ryan Hembrey (Pinetop Seven), Amy Domingues (Tsunami), Rian Murphy (Royal Trux) and others, Telescopic is as good a slice as you’ll savor this year.  Frost’s low, confident voice lies somewhere between Bliss Blood’s and Liz Phair’s, and on Calling Over Time, her guitar and vocals often tumble into minor keys and themes.  With Telescopic, though, the melancholy oeuvre is balanced with poetic metaphor and savvy philosophy, resulting in an immensely personal journey by an artist who feels and understands much around her.  On "Falling," Frost invites her lover to plunge with her, explaining, "The pleasure is worth the fear."  The title track examines the inequality between what we receive from the heavens (starlight, dreams, inspiration) and the white noise we pump into them.  Sonically, Frost melts strings and occasional electronica into her folk; her band sounds live and organic.  The result — innovative music paired with meaningful lyrics and strong songwriting style — is celestial.

If a female cross between Skip Spence and Nick Drake could be imagined, the result would be somewhere near the sound of Edith Frost. On this four-song EP, our heroine sets off the melancholy meter with a ghostly combination of her voice and sparse, acoustic guitar. However, this isn’t any sort of insipid Liz Phair / Mary Lou Lord jive-fest that finds the protagonist moaning and whining over poorly played guitar in an attempt for indie-rock cred. Nor does Frost seem to have any sort of tolerance for either folk or country music. As such, these four songs exist in that sort of uncomfortable ether occupied by musicians like Kendra Smith (who is evoked on the echoey "My God Insane") — musicians who make music that sounds ilke, well, music. That its lone musical accompaniment is guitar (except for the weird drum machine on "Waiting Room"), that it’s sung by a woman and that it’s released by Drag City are all irrelevant when it comes to the perfect simplicity of these genre-less songs. They are simply songs, and that, in this day of rampant pigeonhole-over-quality thinking, is a refreshing reminder that there are actually people out there who still care more about the music they play than the description they fit. Simple is good.