Customer Reviews

One Cell In The Sea

5 star:		(111)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I can't remember what prompted me to order ths album. I had never heard of A Fine Frenzy or Alison Sudol, but something in the Amazon marketing machine suggested it to me-- whether it was recommended or a "deal" if I bought two, I don't know. I am sure a listened to the 30 sec. teasers, and gave it a shot.

I think Alison Sudol may have the loveliest voice I have heard since Sarah McLachlan and/or Eva Cassidy. That is a major concession from me. I am a lyrics lover to the core, and so far I am impressed. Maybe I am easy, but you will have to decide for yourself.

Lately we've been greeted with a king's court full of singer/songwriters. I don't review their music too often and when I do, I can only draft a few terse sentences. For my part, I find many of them to be musicians, not artists. Musicians merely recite their compositions and, after a few repeat plays, I'm left hollow, finding little of themselves, their vulnerability, in the work. The artists, however, paint, weave, and sculpt with music, and you know what dangerous creatures they can be, cleverly lacing the notes with their aspirations, their fears, their essence. You can sense it in their voice, every syllable of the lyrics as they slip into you.

Such is the case with A Fine Frenzy. When I heard their album, One Cell in the Sea, I was struck by its dimensionality. With her vocal and writing talents, singer/songwriter Alison Sudol folds our hand into hers and guides us through her mysterious wonderland, conjuring picturesque landscapes with "Come On, Come Out", the excellent "Rangers", "You Picked Me" and "The Minnow and the Trout" and ensnaring us in sumptuous wine-dark woodlands with her intimate offerings "Almost Lover", "Hope for the Hopeless", "Near to You" and "Ashes and Wine".

By the time the final track, "Borrowed Time", concluded, I found myself in a well of thoughts and emotions, albeit delightedly so. Sudol has not only crafted an outstanding and bravely personal album, but a magical world I look forward to visiting time and again.

I've always felt that the ability to write gorgeous songs with memorable hooks is a vastly underrated skill in the contemporary music world. It seems there is a premium placed on music that's bombastic, atonal, ironic, or in some way "inaccessible" to the masses. If most people can't hum it, that means it's authentic - at least that's the impression you get from reading most music criticism these days. Alison Sudol (aka A Fine Frenzy) has the gift of writing songs that hook you almost immediately with their soaring melodies, and her thoughtful lyrics belie her relatively young age. She may not yet be at the level of a Fiona Apple or Tori Amos when it comes to soul-baring confessionals, but for someone who's self-taught on the piano she is truly a remarkable talent. "One Cell in the Sea" is an impressive debut in many respects, and it's one of those records that gets under your skin the more you listen to it. You can clearly hear the influence of bands like Keane and Coldplay in spots, and at times her voice reminds me of Harriet Wheeler of the long-lost Sundays. If you're not one of those people who's allergic to beautiful, shimmering pop music (you know who you are, White Stripers) you should definitely check out A Fine Frenzy.

A Fine Frenzy is actually one woman. You know, just like nine inch nails is Trent Reznor? A Fine Frenzy is the amazingly beautiful 22-year-old Alison Sudol who was born in Seattle but raised in Los Angeles. OK, OK. Let's get this out of the way so I can move on with the review. So where does she get a name like A Fine Frenzy from? Well, it comes from a quote in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream: "The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven..." Sounds pretentious, doesn't it? Well, thankfully, you won't find any pretentiousness on Sudol's new debut album, One Cell in the Sea. Of course, being a woman who plays piano and sings with a flittering, angelic voice, she's bound to be compared to the likes of Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan and Fiona Apple. However, Sudol is not as pretentious and weird as Amos (in case you couldn't tell, I don't like Tori Amos), nor is she as bluesy and full of bravado as Apple. I guess the best comparison is McLachlan, but there is still something different about Sudol that sets her apart from even that comparison. I think McLachlan sings more directly about relationships and doesn't have as many songs about simple storytelling like Sudol does.

In the first track, "Come On, Come Out," Sudol sounds most like Canuck Chantal Kreviazuk as she simply sings about life in a poetic metaphor. It's a wonderful intro to the album but doesn't dig too deep into what this album holds. "The Minnow & The Trout" delves more into Sudol's songwriting capabilities as she sings about two completely different things helping each other out. The piano on this track, like most of the album, reminds me of the likes of something you might hear out of Coldplay or even Philip Glass. This is a great song and the lyrics are very good in storytelling, which makes A Fine Frenzy stand apart from McLachlan, like I stated earlier. The third song, "Whisper," begins with gentle guitar before she opens with her angelic voice singing about living up the weariness of living up to others expectations and finding solace in a particular loved one. Strings open up and the song subtly soars to a soft end.

It's by this time that I've realized that A Fine Frenzy's album is hauntingly melodic and Sudol is using those same fairy tale-style ideas that she read about as a kid in her music; stories from E.B. White, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen. In fact, Austen could have greatly influenced the following track, "You Picked Me," which has Sudol singing the stuff that romance novels/movies are made of: a girl who's not noticed much by the world but, despite all the other pretty girls out in the world, a man chooses to fall in love with her. It's clear that Sudol doesn't realize how stunningly pretty she is, and that makes her all the more cooler. The fairy-tale comparisons continue with "Rangers," a song that sounds like something Keane would record. Luckily, though, Sudol wrote this metaphoric gem about two lovers wanting to hide away from the world. The next track is the first single I heard from this album, "Almost Lover" - and, after seeing the music video for this song, featuring Sudol in what looks like a montage of home movie clips at a beach, I fell in love. The most haunting song on the album, "Almost Lover" has beautiful piano with Sudol's voice in top form as she sings a torch song about that person who almost was her lover and with whom she held a special bond but their relationship ended in heartache. The dizzying strings add extra emotion to this heartbreaking tearjerker of a song as Sudol sings of her breakup woes.

"Think of You" has A Fine Frenzy playfully singing about either a former crush/lover/friend and how just thinking a person like him/her is in the world helps her to live her life with ease and joy. Again, this song has Sudol sounding greatly like Kreviazuk but is a lot catchier than any of Kreviazuk's latest releases. Track eight is "Ashes and Wine," a lament of a recently broken relationship that is brilliantly written in unabashed truth. This song is one of the few latest break-up songs that sticks true to how one feels after a break-up. Verses like "Don't know what to do anymore/I've lost the only love worth fighting for/I'll drown in my tear storming sea/That would show you/That would make you hurt like me" and "Is there a chance/A fragment of light/At the end of the tunnel/A reason to fight/Is there a chance/You may change your mind ...?" are the only evidence you need to know that this song is masterfully poignant. The next song is "Liar, Liar" and it starts off with an unexpected accordion and is about falling for someone who you know lies but you still can't help but still fall for them. It's an OK song and has a catchy chorus but this isn't the strongest song on the album. But props for using an accordion!

Philip Glass-style piano notes feature heavy on "Last of Days" and contains lyrics about a loved one dying and how life will never be the same. Although it sounds depressing, "Days" isn't as weepy as it sounds because of its blend of piano and Sudol's bittersweet voice that has her admitting over and over, "I'll be lost without you/Until the last of days." OK, so it's weepy. But it's still a good song and the tempo doesn't go along with the sad lyrics. Fortunately, "Lifesize" comes next and this song is a testament to how when we're the object of someone who loves us. It's a quick, sweet song with a happier message compared to other tales Sudol tells in her storybook. Song twelve, "Near to You," is one of the best written songs on the album. While listening to it, I could only imagine how difficult it must have been for Sudol to put these emotions to music. This is a song about a woman's difficulty of transitioning from a past troubled relationship (part of which she's still emotionally stuck in) to a presently healthy, loving relationship. The way she sings to this person she's currently in love with, the listener can tell that this issue is causing much stress between the two and the singer pleads for a bit more understanding and patience as she works through her emotions of the situation. This is the stuff that great Joni Mitchell songs are made of. In short: A brilliant song!

"Hope for the Hopeless" is probably my least favorite song on the album even though it's the most uplifting. While the message about not giving up and always finding hope is great, the song lyrics aren't anywhere near as imaginative and creative as the ones found earlier in this album and it left me sort of disappointed. I can hear it now (as well as a few other songs from this album) on episodes of "Grey's Anatomy," its spinoff "Private Practice," "Smallville" and maybe even "Bones." The last song on the album is "Borrowed Time" and it has Sudol backed by more guitar than piano as she sings about the end. The end of what? A journey? Life? Both? Who knows for sure, but even though "Borrowed Time" has the same lyrics, it's a bit of a nice way to end the album because of its change in format from piano to guitar. By the time the song ends, I could start to already hear the opening of "Come On, Come Out" in my head and don't mind giving the album another go. And that's a good sign of an effective album.

"One Cell in the Sea" altogether took me three listens to completely hear the lyrics and love it. Sudol can be compared to Amos, McLachlan, Apple, Kreviazuk, hell, even a female Chris Martin! Anyone can be compared to other musicians and, even though their voices sound similar, that doesn't mean the music will be good. Well, you don't have to worry about that with A Fine Frenzy. It's not heavy music I would listen to when going out for a night on the town or an album to pop on when partying with friends, but it is a great introspective, haunting album that highlights those relationship woes and little triumphs of life that we all experience, whether seldom or in abundance. With her down-to-earth personality, model beauty and poignant songs that feature so prominently on "One Cell in the Sea," Sudol will take A Fine Frenzy to great heights!

Admittedly, my expectations for this album were through the roof, given its five-star rating here and other places. It's just that while I liked it fine, I was in no way blown away. She's talented and her voice is very pretty, certainly, but alas, she suffers from overproduction throughout most of the album, lending a frustratingly similar sound to each of the tracks -- each song is almost the exact same tempo, with her lovely voice obscured by needless drums and instrumental trickery. It's wholly unnecessary, and is very likely the fault of her producer, not the songstress herself. The result is an unfortunately homogeneous mix of what could be a sea of wondrous potential -- with the exception of "Almost Lover," which is lovely, haunting and appropriately spare, it's unlikely that I would be able to distinguish the songs with a 20-second browse through each.

Again, while she's got armloads of talent, I see little that distinguishes her from her contemporaries -- Anna Nalick, Brandi Carlile and even Vanessa Carlton bring a more unique sound than Sudol. Sara Bareilles would also be a good choice, if only for the tone of her voice. The second coming of women's music, Sudol is not. (And Tori Amos is such an unfair comparison and sets her up for failure in a big -- no, HUGE -- way)

In short: I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be, and given the ridiculously effusive reviews here, it seems only fair to temper them with someone who felt differently (though I see I have already been crucified with the "unhelpful" votes, which always cracks me up, because it usually means you disagree, which: great. Except that it's not really what that button is for).

I will, however, not leave you empty handed for making it this far in the review -- if you'd like to be thoroughly blown away, please run off and listen to Jesca Hoop's "Kismet." There, you will find a wonderfully original singer-songwriter with amazing instincts and incredibly unique tracks. That's what I expected to find with A Fine Frenzy, but didn't get.

A Fine Frenzy broke on the music scene just recently; indeed this is her debut album that came out on 7/17/2007. Well, it is easy to see what all of the hubbub is about! This young lady has an excellent singing voice that really gives her songs a haunting, soulful sound. The music is excellent with piano and other instruments. And as for the songs - pure poetry!

OK, do you think I am going too far? Well, it's true, this is excellent music. Ever since I got the album I have listened to it over and over again - in my car, and at work. Yep, I like it that much.

My favorite songs are The Minnow & The Trout, Liar, Liar, and Almost Lover. But, I love them all. I think that this is a great album, and I really believe that A Fine Frenzy has a great career ahead of her. I look forward to her next album, and I highly recommend this one!

I don't usually write reviews, and I have no intention of making an essay out of it. I just want to say that this CD came out of nowhere, and it's fabulous and completely underrated. I only happened to hear about A Fine Frenzy because of an iTunes sample. I bought it immediately and have never regretted it, because both her voice and lyrics are gorgeous. I even wrote to author Stephenie Meyer, telling her that this CD was essentially a soundtrack to her Twilight series, and that she should check it out. So it stands to reason that you should too. I want this CD to sell well enough that Alison Sudol will come out with a second album!

I'd like to start by saying I more or less stumbled across this artist while looking and listenting for others, mostly as a simple stroke of luck. After listening to many of the songs multiple times on YouTube, I was mildly positive but mostly addicted to the song "Almost Lover" simply because it is enchantingly beautiful as well as catchy. I bought the more headline-strong Lenka album as well, which was my initial main interest. However... the more I have listened to this album, the more I have become enchanted and addicted to its compositions.

On the first passive listen, most of the songs are slower, seem to be passingly good, but have nothing overly special. Given more of a chance, this has become one of my favorite albums, and every single song on it is solid, well written, and well addicting.

I would best describe the overall feel as a (somewhat) subtle, quiet, and breath-takingly honest outpouring of one's heart. Mildly sad but hopeful.
The words and melodies slowly etch themselves into your subconscious and you find yourself singing or humming or just thinking of the songs running through your head-- And the best part is, it's not just one or two songs that do this... it is every single song on the album.

Piano, guitar, and orchestral accompaniament are all a sublime and entrancingly subtle medium to accompany her lovely voice... I should add that it is not any one of these skills that stand out more than the others-- sure there are better and more practiced (and showy) singers and pianists and guitarists... but I find it rare to find any better overall composition than this, as it is stunningly and perfectly balanced and arranged.

If you want one-hit wonders, search elsewhere. This is one that lasts.

There are so many female singer/song-writers out there, of 'this variety', so why should you listen to Alison Sudol's A Fine Frenzy? Well, I don't have one reason in particular...as everyone has different tastes, but me personally... I am just really in awe of her at the moment. I don't know what it is, because typically I like stuff that is a bit more edgy- i.e. some favorites include P.J. Harvey, Fiona Apple, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ani Difranco, etc. But when I heard AFF's Almost Lover, I was captivated. Actually it was seeing the video, then seeing her do a live performance that sold me. I heard it at just the right time (or perhaps wrong time) in my life- I was dealing with a tumultuous situation; trying to say goodbye to someone I thought I was in love with...and anyway, all those pangs I was feeling were so appropriately emphasized in this song. The way she sings, you know they are HER songs and not some 'hitmaker's'. It was something that I haven't seen in any of these other artists in a long time. Not even among my favorites. Genuine passion and emotion-- conviction? When this girl is singing, she's not just reciting pretty lyrics she's memorized, and playing notes. There is just such a great amount of feeling behind her voice, and it makes you hang on to every word while you're listening. There are plenty of great voices out there- I love Cat Power, and Feist off the top of my head. Alison Sudol's isn't anything out of this world, but it's just got that certain something that sets her apart. I love her fluttery, whispering quality she adopts a lot of the time, and the way she knows just where to boom her voice up at the right moments. At first listen, this album might seem just average, or perhaps too similar to others in her genre...but if you give it the chance it deserves, hopefully you'll discover that its much more than that. Certain artists have been described as having an 'ethereal' sound, or of being 'haunting' - and the latter is the perfect word to describe A Fine Frenzy. Her songs are simple, but they find a way under your skin and end up staying with you. If you're still unsure, I'd go to YouTube and look up some live performances. A Fine Frenzy is the real deal in a sea of phonies and studio-manufactured "talents".

as an ardent reader of mojo,Q,and uncut magazines,i normally compare my own best of list with theirs,and with the odd exception,most pundits agree on what was hot and what not on the music scene the year gone by.yet,glaringly absent from the best of list for 2007 by all the said magazines,was a fine frenzy.this once again raised the question what makes for an album to be so special that it appeals across various musical tastes and ultimately,has enough quality(and staying power to make it one of the best releases for a specific year?).I do not propose that there is one answer to such a question or that i indeed have the answer,but,of one thing i am convinced,and that is that all three the above quoted authorities on music have it wrong this year.Regardless of one's musical preference a fine frenzy's debut album is one of the finest moments in music.a sincere, serene effort that never let go.one is hard pressed to find amongst all the tracks any lesser ones.it is beyond doubt however that the standout tracks(which comprise most of the album)would fit comfortably on any acclaimed artist's "wish i had done that" list.so,to summarise,if you really want to hear one of the greatest albums of 2007,which will still sound fresh and alluring at the end of 2008 ,buy this album.you will be richly rewarded.