Wednesday, March 12, 2008

A Fine Frenzy

I've been listening to A Fine Frenzy's album One Cell in the Sea a lot lately. A Fine Frenzy is a 22 year old girl named Alison Sudol from the West Coast of the US, born in Seattle and raised in LA. She graduated high school at 16 and has been working on her music ever since. With the red hair, poetic lyrics, and girl-at-a-piano style, she reminds me a lot of another favorite of mine, Tori Amos, but as far as I know, Tori's not one of her inspirations. My favorites off the album are Rangers, Last of Days, Hope for the Hopeless, and Come On, Come Out. Her writing is great, but it's the music and harmonies that makes these songs stand out for me.

Some of my favorite lyrics:

watching the sky, you're watching a painting
coming to life, shifting and shaping
staying inside, it all goes all goes by

a blanket unfolds,
a blanket to lie
the pieces of gold
they light up your eyes
and now we're alone
and now we're alive

-Come On, Come Out

like an apple on a tree
hiding out behind the leaves
I was difficult to reach
but you picked me
like a shell upon a beach
just another pretty piece
I was difficult to see
but you picked me,
yeah you picked me

-You Picked Me

melancholy phantoms eye our skins
poisoned apples falling with the wind
hear the sigh of the trees
those who enter here never leave

...

further in and on we go
sightless creatures tugging at our clothes
cutting through the twilight, sword in hand
strangers once, united against the land

-Rangers

through wars and harvest moons
I will wait for you

-Last of Days

2 comments:

My Inner French Girl said...

Dear AS, she has a gorgeous voice. Reminiscent of the whole Lilith Fair trend from fifteen (!!!) years ago. And I love her lyrics. Very evocative and poetic.

I just checked out a video of hers on YouTube, Almost Lover. A little depressing, but as a musician and artist she's impressive.

Salut,
Marjorie

Anonymous said...

I like her voice too, and I think her style and poetry keeps her from sounding like the other girls-at-a-piano that are on the radio today. Some of those songs are really annoying me. :/

Almost Lover can be depressing - sometimes I skip over it but sometimes I'm in the right mood for melancholy. :)

James Blunt's song Goodbye My Lover is like that to me too. And there's a Sigur Ros song that I just simply cannot listen to - I can't even describe how sad it makes me. I don't know if anyone has heard it, but it's the first track off the () album. It's a beautiful song but so sad to me.