Maurice and I

Flash Girls | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 1, 1995)
• Original Release Date: March 1, 1995
• Number of Discs: 1
• ASIN: B00003ZAN1
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,720 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #45 in Music > Indie Music > Folk > Traditional Folk

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quirky Favourite, June 21, 2001

By 

Lenora Heikkinen "writer" (Winnipeg, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Maurice and I (Audio CD)

I picked up the Flash Girls' First album (The Return of Pansy Smith and Violet Jones, now unavailable) almost by dumb luck. They played acoustic music with standard instruments, yet it was all made new; skewing the rhythm on a jig until it was no longer a jig, talking about death one moment, singing acappella absurdist pieces the next. They were a bit quirky, a bit unpolished, but all the more appealing for it.

Maurice and I is even better.

While the mood slides from serious to humourous are still there, they don't seem to be quite as jarring as they occasionally are on the first album.

It starts with Prince Charming Comes, Jane Yolen lyrics put to music. Like most of Jane's work, it takes fairy-tale images through a rather sharp-edged knife, with a hint of feminism. Musically, it begins with Emma singing wordlessly, rising into a crescendo, her guitar and Fabulous Lorraine's fiddle kicking in a moment later. By the end of the tune, the fiddle has been put through some filters, to echo in a manner that leaves one just a little uneasy - precisely like the words. They follow it with a simple traditional instrumental and some laughter, then launch into the eerie Banshee. The lyrics are by Niel Gaiman this time; some lines are a bit clumsy, but the repeating pattern links well, and the singing is lovely. Listen for the third female voice - the banshee? Actually, just Lojo Russo, a fine folk musician in her own right - far in the background. It's so far back I missed it for several hearings.

The Girls then decide to lift the mood a little with the combination of Niel's Reel, written by Lorraine Garland, the fiddler. This is arguably the best instrumental moment on the album, and shifts smoothly into a cheerful version of Star of the County Down. A Girl Needs a Knife is performed with musical sweetness and lyrical acid, rather Dorothy-Parker like.

Yeti is probably the only truly SILLY moment on the album aside from the close to the instumental Mike's Magic. But it's an appealing tune, the poem's rhyme scheme *very* similar to E.A. Poe's the Raven, the piano-driven music skipping along, the girls singing, not in harmony but one right after the other, running over the ends of each others' lines.

Amaryllis is for me the one track on the album that seems like it would benefit from a different treament. This song begs for a Boiled-in-Lead treament - heavy electric guitar, even more of the Robin 'Adnan' Anders African Drumming (Heck, if the lyrics refer to it...). Instead, the fiddle, which could sing, drones a bit, and the voice seems to be trying too hard to fill in the empty spaces.

Elvira in Paris is a cheerful instrumental, not quite a waltz. Twa Bonny Maidens is the prettiest tune on the album (though the warping of the ending proves it doesn't take prettiness seriously, either), with an off-kilter fiddle interlude of Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring.

The best single track is also the most unique, that being Me and Dorothy Parker; a fictionalized road-movie take on the poet. Choppy fiddle licks under spoken lyrics, until the sweetly sung acid of the chorus - Dorothy Parker's own four-line poem "Comment". (Alan Moore, the lyricist, also had these words published in a comic collection of his short pieces, but it seemed to completely lack the mood of the song, and the art wasn't quite enough to make up for it). The song is witty, sharp, very much like the lady herself was.

November Song makes for a very thoughtful close, a song about desire. Near the end, Emma sings the same wordless lines she sang to open, tying the end nicely to the beginning.

After one good and one great album, I look forward to the release of their third album (finally in the works, after a few years' wait.) If it's half as good as this, it will still be ahead of most music.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These guys are the real thing!!!, June 27, 2002

By 

Elizabeth (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maurice and I (Audio CD)

I got to meet the Girls at the Minnesota Renaissance Faire a few years ago and when I was in an Irish step dance troupe and they graciously let us dance during on of their sets- they are absolutely amazing. I picked up both this and their first album, The Return of Violet Smith and Pansy Jones, and absolutley loved both of them. Their lyrics are insightful and very sharp- the mood of the music ranges from silly to heartbreakingly sweet and beautiful to a little wicked and sinister. At one point during my extensive travels, about 3 years ago, I misplaced both of my Flash Girls albums and have been pining for them ever since as bits and pieces of my favorite songs from them keep running through my head. If you are looking for quality folk, hell, if you are looking for quality music, you've found it!!! Enjoy!!!!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting Folk-Rock, August 4, 2000

By 

A Reader From Los Angeles (Hollywood, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maurice and I (Audio CD)

If you're a fan of Silly Sisters, Steeleye Span, or folk-rock in general, prepare to lose your heart to the Flash Girls, who meld lovely music to unusually literate lyrics. The songs range from the exquisite instrumental "Elvira in Paris," to gorgeous ballads like "November Song," to the weird and wicked "Dorothy Parker and Me," to an enchanting take on "Star of the County Down."

As a bonus, several of the lyricists and one of the singers, Emma Bull, moonlight as prose writers. So if you enjoy the CD, read the books: Emma Bull's fantasy-police procedural "Finder" or her historical adventure "Freedom and Necessity," Neil Gaiman's mythic comic-for-adults series, "Sandman," and Alan Moore's amazing "V for Vendetta."