Plumbiferous Media

Bomb in a Bird­cage, released on Vir­gin, is the sec­ond full-length by A Fine Frenzy (for­merly Ali­son Monro), the solo project of Ali­son Sudol. Sudol has used the two years since releas­ing her first album, One Cell in the Sea, to good effect, and it shows on Bomb in a Bird­cage. Her newest album is an improve­ment on her ear­lier works, as well as a strong album on its own.

On much of Bomb in a Bird­cage, Sudol sep­a­rates mood from musi­cal com­plex­ity, allow­ing her to cre­ate tracks such as the open­ing track, “What I Wouldn’t Do.” “What I Wouldn’t Do” is a sim­ple track. Or more accu­rately, its sound is sim­ple, and the musi­cal lines are actu­ally quite detailed. This abil­ity to pro­duce active intri­cacy and result in a rel­a­tively relaxed track serves Sudol quite well. In fact, the least com­pelling tracks on the album are those that either get overly clut­tered or overly sim­plis­tic, pre­vent­ing high lev­els of detail.

Ali­son Sudol hasn’t lost any of the ele­gant strength which ran through her voice on One Cell in the Sea, and, on her newest album, has in fact added a new level of energy - par­tially thanks to the more active instru­men­tals on Bomb in a Bird­cage, but largely due to a sim­ple evo­lu­tion of Sudol’s singing style. This devel­op­ment con­tributes to the truly engag­ing style of A Fine Frenzy’s new album, as the swoop­ing sound of Sudol’s voice approaches sub­lim­ity. Alter­nately whis­per­ing and cry­ing joy­fully, Sudol’s impas­sioned voice brings together the ele­ments of Bomb in a Bird­cage while pro­vid­ing an appeal­ing base for them all.

Much of Bomb in a Bird­cage is lyri­cally akin to A Fine Frenzy’s debut album, One Cell in the Sea, full of the image-laden romance of songs like One Cell’s “You Picked Me.” But while tracks such as “What I Wouldn’t Do” and “Swan Song” fit this well-crafted mold, with lines such as “It was now and we were both in the same place / Didn’t know how to say the words / With my heart tick­ing like a bomb in a bird­cage / Left before some­one else got hurt,” some of the most ener­getic tracks on Bomb in a Bird­cage are rather sim­pler lyri­cally, tend­ing towards a poppy aes­thetic. While these tracks don’t quite approach the depth of the for­mer type, they’re catchily filled with lines like “You give me the elec­tric twist / And it kicks / And it kicks like a pony.” With this mix­ture, added to Ali­son Sudol’s seem­ingly never-ending sup­ply of energy, Bomb in a Bird­cage doesn’t cease to be interesting.

Per­haps more eas­ily done because Sudol her­self plays almost all the ele­ments of the album, both the lyrics and vocals are expertly woven into the instru­men­tals, whether this requires con­trast or immer­sion. On the cap­ti­vat­ing “Elec­tric Twist,” the gui­tar (which pro­vides most of the tonal instru­men­tals on the track) and voice inter­act per­fectly, alter­nat­ing between semi-unison and a melody-countermelody rela­tion­ship. Later, “The World With­out” per­fectly matches lyri­cal con­clu­sions with musi­cal swells, “Bird of the Sum­mer” rep­re­sents the track title’s bird by a flute play­ing in the back­ground of the track, which also serves to pre­vent the track from grow­ing repet­i­tive, and “Stood Up” acts as proof that vocals are always a true addi­tion to Bomb in a Bird­cage’s tracks. They never make the rest less inter­est­ing or sit limply on top, but instead keep the rest engag­ing while adding another ele­ment to the track.

Bomb in a Bird­cage is a log­i­cal pro­gres­sion from One Cell in the Sea - a more per­fected sound, but with the same vocal and lyri­cal ele­gance that made A Fine Frenzy stand out from the teem­ing mass of indie-pop groups. With her newest album, Ali­son Sudol has taken her musi­cal strengths, com­bined them with a lib­eral dose of energy, and cre­ated an inter­est­ing, cre­ative piece of work. It’s not per­fect, some parts could use fur­ther inno­va­tion, and it occa­sion­ally seems to be just a bit too processed, but it’s good.

This post is tagged 70-79, A Fine Frenzy