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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I love this CD!, March 13, 2003
By A Customer
I haven't fallen in love with a band like this since I discovered Mogwai! The moment I heard Queen of the Meadow I went out and bought it -- and then I bought La Mer Enfortunata, which isn't an EF album but was made by the band's two main contributors, Jennifer Charles and Oren Bloedow -- and then I went out and tracked down Bleed Your Cedar. Wow! I rarely even write reviews, I'm just writing this because I love it so much. Really!This music is very svelte -- kind of jazz meets alternative meets symbolist poetry meets pre-Raphaelite painting. Baudelaire would have loved this. Jennifer Charles has the sexiest, smoothest, velvetiest voice I ever heard. The music is intelligent, eclectic, at times bordering on genius. There's nothing like it. Some people seem to prefer Bleed Your Cedar, but I think Queen of the Meadow is the better album. Cedar still shows derivative traces of pop and rock, IMHO. Queen is more understated musically, but I think it's a more complete or evolved statement of the band's aesthetic. There are one or two clunkers on the album -- like Fright Night -- but those are easy to forget alongside Black Acres (definitely the best track on the album), Dream Within a Dream (the Poe poem set to luscious jazz lounge music), and Cities Will Fall. The best way I can describe my feelings about this album is like this: most music I listen to while doing other things -- working, eating, driving, etc. This album I love so much that I don't profane it by giving it half my attention. I only listen to it at night, alone, when I can give my whole attention to it. It's that good -- that pleasureful -- that great.
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by Elysian Fields 
