Customer Reviews

Liverpool Sessions

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This was her first (I believe!) release on Cherrydisk records, and she comes out of the gate with an amazing voice and sound that takes you by surprise. Even though it's an EP, it made an impression on me so great that I've been a fan ever since! Songs like Dandilion are still on my playlist, years later. This is a great start for any collection of her CDs, but make sure you check out the Burdens of Being Upright as well.

Tracy Bonham's precociously oddball songwriting and her unusual electric violin backing won her enough support to issue this debut EP, which was re-released by her label after she hit it big with "Mother Mother." Her inexperience is evident on this uneven collection of early tunes that mostly favors a focus on loud guitars, but also evident are the elements that would make her debut album so widely-appreciated.

Of note is "Sunshine," a peculiar lullabye libelling a peculiarly sociopathic acquaintance of the titular name. But, the best-in class here are a pair of raucous rockers. Punk-paced "I'm Not a Waif" is the first of many tunes to match Tracy's sardonic lyric wit with a surge of distorted guitars and unusual Eastern-European-tinged violins ("I'm not a waif, but oh i am tired ... who cares if i'm hungry?"). "Dandelion" is a modern rock hit never landed - Tracy locks on to her "The One" loud-to-quiet ratio, but with clever lyrics that match her youthful indecision ("All my life i thought if i was the one to save the world it would come easy, but now i'm old enough to piss and moan instead").

An interesting glimpse into Tracy's perhaps too-quick early development as a songwriter, but "Sunshine" and "Dandelion" prove the chops that lead her to getting signed.