Customer Reviews

Bread & Jam for Frances

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Well, I haven't been a fan of Switchblade Symphony that long. I bought Serpentine Gallery first and then read reviews of this CD. They mostly said that this one sucked. So I waited for their new CD which I bought immediately when it came out. It was great so I was:"O well let's buy Bread And Jam too to complete my collection" I wasn't expecting much from it but after listening to it I was amazed. This is really a very cool album. Okay it's very different than Serpentine Gallery and maybe that's why most people hate it but musically speaking it is a very cool CD. My favorite songs on the album are Sleep, Harpsichord(great guitar), Funnel and Fractal(great noise and opera-like vocals). Also I rather like the Situation #58 track. All other songs rule too ofcourse but these are my favorites.

What I do find odd tho is that the tracklisting on the CD is wrong. Maybe it's just my CD, but track 2 and 3 are switched around. On the listing it says that Rollercoaster is 2 and Dirty Dog is 3 but on the CD itself it's the other way around. I noticed this too on Three Calamities. (altho a bit different. They didn't list Track 9 on the listing there. It goes 7, 8, 10, 11) Maybe this is intentional.. I dunno.. O well.. I'm drifting.

In closing I'd like to say. Don't be put of by negative reviews of Bread And Jam. Listen to it first before you make your decission about this CD. It's really very good.

This album has it all really. Hard to locate items this good without the heady critisism that often escorts experimental artists. Switchblade Symphony's often revered "Serpentine Gallery" showed us a very "goth" band and for fans of "Goth" imparticular find themselves fleeing to thier 'Christian Death and 'London After Midnight albums after hearing this one. You wont find a genre that this album obeys and when you decide music is simply either good or bad you'll most likely truley enjoy it.

Excellent dark melodies, eerie and childlike vocals, grooves remniscent of trip hop and rock psychedelia meet at a circus... a few small filler tracks... Yea this album does not sleep at all and is so very complimentary of what these girls can do. This album and thier follow "Three Calamities" are just about perfect albums. Very very rare indeed. These ladies of experimental mind have created some entirely outstanding music.

To begin with, the track listing they give you on Amazon is incorrect. When the CD was first released, "Dirty Dog" and "Roller Coaster" were switched around, and "Harpsichord," a non-existent track, was listed as #7. The final track listing ends up being 1) Witches, 2) Dirty Dog, 3) Roller Coaster, 4) Situation #58, 5) Soldiers, 6) Sleep, 7) Funnel, 8) Insect, 9) Rampid, 10) Situation #9, 11) Sheep, 12) Fractal, 13) Sick Mary, and 14) Episode G15.

Now that I've made that clear...

Personally, I like "Serpentine Gallery" and "The Three Calamities" more than BAJFF. Switchblade Symphony added trip-hop type beats and experimented with completely new sounds with this album. It is still good, and lyrically and vocally it isn't much different from SG. Actually, on tracks like "Fractal" and "Soldiers" Tina's voice soars high enough to make it seem as if the windows are going to break.

Musically, as I already said, SS experimented with new sounds on this album. Gone are the lush soundscapes and complex keyboarding from SG (which reappear on TTC) and instead, trip-hop beats are added with an actual drummer and it sounds as if a DJ is lurking behind the music. If you're looking for SG or TTC type soundscapes, the only tracks on this album that offer this are "Roller Coaster" and "Sheep." In addition, they have added heavier guitars, most notable on "Fractal," "Insect," and "Funnel," in which case it seems as if for a time, SS was experimenting with the possibility of writing metal music.

In my opinion, all of the tracks are about equal to one another in quality and originality. I don't really have any favorite songs on this release and usually simply listen to it from beginning to end, although "Soldiers" is good for a laugh if you play it in front of someone who has never heard of the band before.

'Bread and Jam' is nothing like the previous album, 'Serpentine Gallery'. Gone are the dreamy layers, gorgeous vocals, and industrial beats. On this album, they are replaced by scratches, cutesy-girl singing and trip hop percussion. However, the album is somehow still spooky, its subjects being mainly childhood fears and nightmares. Unfortunately Tina Root's operatic voice isn't really showcased here, except in the wicked track 'Soldiers', which alone earned them an extra star in my review! All in all, 'Bread and Jam' alternates between excellent and irritating, but it's worth it for the good moments if you're an SS fan.

Very creepy in its own way. I love this album. Some fans of Serpentine Gallery have said Bread and Jam For Frances is disappointing. I disagree, but that's of course subjective.

People think that a band has to keep the same sound from album to album, but I think Switchblade shows that they can change their sound and still stay the same band. Not as gloomy as Serpentine, but just as good and gothic in a new way. As long as Tina is singing and Susan is playing, they will always be Switchblade Symphony and always be a great band.

Switchblade Symphony's second album, Bread and Jam For Frances, soars through the night air like a roller coaster ride in a nightmarish carnival. This L.A. industrial-goth band has once again breathed life into a fading genre. Taking their stronger elements from Serpentine Gallery, Tina Root and Susan Wallace have created an adorably dark album full of candy coated synth-hooks and perfect vocal stylings. The first track "Witches" is probably the defining song for Switchblade Symphony. It has their rhythmic drum beats and electro-melodies placed behind Root's phenomenal voice. The lyrics on this album are pleasantly threatening, making them oddly hypnotic. "Roller Coaster" and "Sheep" have a similar sound to "Witches" due to the fact that they have a nursery rhyme sound to them, reminiscent of Serpentine Gallery's "Cocoon" and "Gutter Glitter". Despite the albums more playful sound, there's a few dark tunes embedded in the floor boards. Tina Root pulls out her operatic singing ability to add a desperate tone to "Soldiers" and Susan Wallace programs in a thunderous roar, accentuating Root's apocalyptic question "will the sun explode/ destroying everything?" in "Rampid". On its first listen, "Bread and Jam for Frances" seemed almost disappointing, but after its fifth or sixth listen it becomes clear that this is Switchblade Symphony's defining album and that it is nothing short of a triumph.

This cd changed the way many people looked at one of the fore runners of the gothic/darkwave scene. Switchblade Symphony changed the way they did things on thier Serpentine Gallery release and calmed thier sound. The drums that were more electronic sounding previously became replaced with a live drummer and an attempt to bring the instruments out more like thier live shows. The result became the Bread & Jam for Francis release. The over all feel of the cd is often slow & melencholy while the vocals remain to be operatic & haunting. The songs Witches,Roller Coaster & Dirty Dog let the listener know that they have been taken further through the dreamscapes of the previous release only to be taken further into the spirals with songs like Insect, Harpsichord & Fractal. Go into this cd expecting nothing and open your mind up. This disc isnt as haunting as the previous release but a must if you are collecting thier cd collection. If just starting I Highly recomend buying Serpetine Gallery first to show the music progressions. Also I recomend The 3 Calmities release to show how the band continues to grow. This cd is definatly one to buy but because of it missing that dark feel the band first opened with I am giving it a slightly lower rating...

First let tell you that I am a 35 year old male. I have very eclectic musical tastes. 1200 CD collection and growing all the time. My favorite band of all time is hands down Jethro Tull and I'm a Parrothead (a Jimmy Buffett fan for those of ya that don't know). Switchblade Symphony's Bread and Jam for Frances is a perfect album. Every track is spot on the money. I am more impressed with this album than most albums that are released today. Every single track is an absolute gem. Very moody, well written and well produced. I have purchased Switchblade Symphony's other works and this is by far their best effort in my opinion. The other recordings are good but Bread and Jam for Frances is top of the heap! This is a listen to all the way through album at it's best. "Your dreams are filled with blood and gore. Now they're right outside your door. They're gonna get you!"

I would have given it five stars, but there doesn't seem to be enough songs here... alot of filler for such a highly anticipated sequel... Alot of people are afraid of this one, growth has always been hard for the common people to swallow...especially in the highly-anal, goth scene...Momma, don't let your babies grow up to be Vampyres....but definitely, let them listen to this...good stuff...