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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing To Get Sick Of, June 25, 2003
On her self-released debut EP, actress/singer Majandra Delfino (who goes, simply, by Majandra when recording music) proves that she's not just another TV star with pop ambitions. For one thing, she doesn't sing pop songs. The music on the moody, ambient "The Sicks" is clearly not intended for radio airwaves. And yet, one can't help but hope that there does come a day when this kind of challenging music could make it to a much broader audience. While some may compare Majandra to like-minded artists such as Tori Amos, Portishead, and Bjork, the songs on "The Sicks" (most of which explore love and heartache in the aftermath of a breakup) are decidedly original in tone. True, you can hear a little bit of Radiohead and the aforementioned artists in songs like the lovely "Siren" or "Ski-Ming," but Majandra doesn't simply feltch her material from her influences; she establishes a sound that is uniquely, wholly hers. The EP opens with "Ski-Ming," a particularly juicy number that has Majandra declaring herself as "manipulative" in order to snare herself a man. "I play it like I'm distant/And never really listen/I talk of leaving your life/Right after we've been reminiscing/So all along there is a game/And sometimes I am winning" she sings overtop the lucious electronics of the haunting music. "Bruises" finds her contemplating doing harm to herself in the wake of a breakup with an abusive partner, while on "Oil + Water," she laments that she is probably not cut out for love. "Siren" features some lovely Kate Bush-like vocals, and "Tatu" shows her at her neurotic, heartboken, angry best. "My psychotic vengeance is on a killing spree" she sings. ...The album closes with the lovely, somewhat hopeful acoustic gem, "Hell + Bliss," on which Majandra pleads with her ex to take the risk of returning to her. The song's more uppity arrangement sets it apart from the rest of the darker, more cerebral stylings of the previous tracks, and it provides the perfect capper to a deeply pleasing collection of rich, pensive songs. Delfino played Maria on TV's sci-fi series "Roswell," and also appeared as a privileged, drug-addled teen in Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic," and she showed promise as an actress in those (and several other) performances. Thankfully (and somewhat surprisingly), she displays the same promise with this stellar mini-record of mature, gorgeous compositions. Sadly, the EP is very hard to come by, but most of the songs can now be found on the Internet. Anyone who enjoys electronic-based music would do themselves a favor by downloading those songs or searching high and low for a copy of this nearly perfect debut by a stunning new musical talent. Grade: A
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by Majandra 
