Frivolous Laura – A Lullaby
Do songs titled Lullaby, which include lines about goblins, make you just a little bit wary? Yes, me too, but don’t worry because I promise you that this is really good. What it recalls for me the most is perhaps a much more minimal, less electronic version 0f Goldfrapp’s breakthrough Felt Mountain, and this is a very good thing.
The music isn’t so much frivolous as seductively flighty. It recalls the deceptive innocence of Barry Adamson’s wonderful song Vermillion Kisses, where the impression of childish simplicity is never so convincing as to fail to convey its own sense of menace. I wouldn’t say that this EP is quite so macabre as all that, but it nevertheless generates a close relative of that particular atmosphere of playfully tantalising darkness.
It manages to be be quite cute without ever being annoyingly cutesy, and this is a pretty difficult line to tread in this kind of an area, particularly as recent music has given us quite a lot of fairly dismissive tags we could easily apply to someone whose style ticks a number of quite familiar boxes. Music in this kind of territory can annoy the shit out of me, quite frankly, but throughout this record Frivolous Laura never tries to be too twee or too giggly, so all of the common failings of bands like this seem to have been quite deftly avoided – it’s delightful where others in the past have been grating.
The fact that the last three tracks on this EP are more akin to three movements of the same song makes it a little difficult to draw many conclusions other than ‘Hmm, very promising indeed’ so I think I might leave it at that, but I’d certainly say that I am very much looking forward to more where this came from.
Frivolous Laura – The Worker’s Song
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Barry Adamson – Vermillion Kisses
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See, I’m somewhat befuddled by this & your affection for it over, say, for example, someone like Anna Ash & The Family Tree who, (although musically black to Laura‘s white – pun intended), in terms of technicality & invention, is leaps ahead & has a far, far better singing voice.
Don;t you hear how bland & samey this is?
I find this tres boring & say the likes of Shenandoah Davis, Miss Emily Brown, Anna Ternheim, Winter Took His Life, Dear Euphoria & a host more do this kind of minimalist/musicbox symphonia far better.
I honestly would say the same thing in reverse. There’s nothing in Anna Ash that jumps out at me at all. It’s just decent folksy/jazzy songstrel stuff but no more – I honestly don’t hear any invention in it at all.
This isn’t massively new or anything, you’re right about that, but it’s got a nicely playful/macabre atmosphere and I like both her voice and the pace of it. Sure, if she records an album, I can imagine ways in which it might be dull, but I can also imagine that it might be really good.
Sometimes stuff which is ‘of a type’ is stuff you just take to and sometimes not, I guess.
This one track certainly lacks the musical ambition and accomplishment of my current iPod belle de jour, Shenandoah Davis, who DC referred to.
I found this one track almost Disney-esque in its theatricality. Theatricness. Theaterity. Theatability.
Drama.
I guess I’m just surrounded by this musical approach in a fair amount of bands/artists & can see/hear flaws in such a bolt-on endeavor.
As for Anna Ash – man, at 20yrs old she has an astonishing voice &, if you compare it + musical output to the likes of Trembling Bells there’s no real difference in terms of derivation of sound BUT it’s what they both do with their respected sounds that make them extremely fresh & innovative.
What we also have to remember is Anna had been around a good couple of years before I found her in the wildernet (her album was a year & a half+ old), so she did get the jump on a number of the soul-folk exponents out there style-wise. For someone do young I’d say that was fairly innovative.
*so young, clearly.
& Mr. Dyran – your obsession with Shenandoah is hotting up, n’est pas? Have you befriened her on facebook yet? Or Twitter?
I would hardly say I was less inundated with this kind of stuff, although I do still get a fair bunch of haircut bands, so maybe it stands out more in that company. I doubt it though – I think I just like this.
Anna Ash has a decent enough voice, sure, but erm, well ‘astonishing’? Nah. It’s good, and I wouldn’t criticise it, but I don’t think it’s all that special. And the music is just, well, from the absolute middle of a road which is incredibly familiar to everyone at the moment. There’s nothing whatsoever added to what, even a couple of years ago, was already a very tried and tested template.
Sorry, I don’t mean to go slagging someone off unkindly, but I can’t hear anything at all in her music to write home about.
If anyone else is wondering what we’re on about, go here to try it all out for yourselves:
http://www.myspace.com/annaashmusic
She’s a talented and entertaining young lady, DC.
That is all.
pffft.
Mr. Dyran, just for you:
http://tinyurl.com/8kxcyv
That’s lovely. Thanks DC.
Neat! Anna Ash is from my home state. Although, this doesn’t really surprise me, because this band is pretty indicative of the Michigan bands I’ve heard of in the past few years. We Michiganders seem to have a thing for folksy themes.
As for Frivolous Laura, I quite liked it even though the ep sounds like it could double for a Tim Burton soundtrack.
This Frivolous Laura tune sounds a lot (perhaps too much?) like Singapore by Tom Waits. Is it just me?
No, it’s definitely not just you. As for too much, well it doesn’t bother me particularly, but I’ve certainly noticed it.
Well actually, not just Singapore. God’s Away on Business is well represented as well.
Oh, and Dylan will be pleased to know that I am trying to get Shenandoah Davis to play here in August, which would be excellent if it can be arranged. So there. Yer welcome.
(THREE-POST MENTALISM!!1!)
Did someone say “Toad Session”?
Well so far all that’s happened is that she has an empty patch in her tour diary that she needs to set up UK dates to fill, so I emailed and suggested that we’d put her on up here if she’d like to play in Edinburgh. Whether this ends up fitting into her plans or not is a totally different question, but I thought it was worth a try.
Definitely. Well done. Keep up the good work.
I don’t want to show too much enthusiasm because DC thinks I’m stalking the poor girl already. (I only bought her CD for fuck’s sake!)
He’s projecting.
I am only going on the comments on this site & facebook left by one Mr. Dyran proclaiming a love for her. That’s all…
I have certainly had far worse stalkers than one Mr. Dyran.
It looks as though I shall be coming to Edinburgh, Matthew. I’ll email you more about it, but consider this a formal announcement.
Erm, might you like to do a Toad Session? Or am I pushing my luck now?
of course!
will mr. dyran be photographing it?
Yes, but I can promise you that he will behave.
I merely stated how much I was enjoying Miss Shenandoah’s splendid music, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
It’s ridiculous to suggest that I’m rash and irresponsible enough to have “proclaimed a love for her” on here or on Facebook.
Aww, so schweeeeet!
Mind you, we’d better stop or we’ll scare her off her Edinburgh gig and her Toad Session, and then we’ll all feel like idiots.
I’m actually beginning to feel sorry for poor old Frivolous Laura.
This is the most outrageous bit of thread hijacking we’ve seen in a long time!
All in a good cause though!