Bomb in a Birdcage A Fine Frenzy

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CD

  • Release Date: 09/08/2009
  • Sales Rank: 3,080
  • Label: VIRGIN RECORDS US
  • UPC: 5099921572128
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Listener Rating: (6 ratings)

Detailed Rating: "Originality" See All

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  • Overview
  • Tracks
  • Editorial Reviews
  • Customer Reviews
  • Details & Credits
Track List
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Bomb in a Birdcage

1LISTENWhat I Wouldn't Do 2:57
2LISTENNew Heights 4:12
3LISTENElectric Twist 4:31
4LISTENBlow Away 4:09
5LISTENHappier 3:30
6LISTENSwan Song 3:43
7LISTENElements 3:24
8LISTENThe World Without 4:15
9LISTENBird of the Summer 3:18
10LISTENStood Up 4:47
11LISTENThe Beacon 3:22

About this Artist

Editorial Reviews

What a difference two years can make. Alison Sudol introduced herself as a piano-playing pixie on 2007's One Cell in the Sea, stuffing her debut album with lilting vocals and fairy tale whimsy. While that combination spawned several upbeat songs, ballads proved to be Sudol's bread and butter, and she soon found herself saddled with the unfortunate task of re-creating the album's intimacy in a live concert setting. Two years after Sea's release, the songwriter returns with a second record, having taken a lesson from the road and fine-tuned her music accordingly. There are still several ballads here, particularly during the album's latter half, but Sudol knows that faster material works better in concert, where both the band and the audience can share in the same catharsis. Accordingly, Bomb in the Birdcage is a lively piece of work, with songs that take flight and arrangements that couch her vocals in tasteful heaps of strings, harmonies, and piano. A Fine Frenzy truly sounds like a band here, with guitarist David Levita leading the group on several numbers and drummer Jesse Siebenberg adding percussive nuance to one of the album's best tunes, "New Heights." Elsewhere, "What I Wouldn't Do" mixes acoustic guitar and handclaps into a summery folk song, the sort of sprightly thing that's appropriate for coffeehouses and campfires alike, while "Electric Twist" flirts with the Bird and the Bee's cool, nuanced electro-pop. Sudol sounds ecstatic throughout the album, her cooing voice often giving way to delighted yelps, and Bomb in the Birdcage is a fitting display of the explosives this songbird now has in her arsenal. Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

One of the year's best!by Anonymous

Reader Rating:
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November 11, 2009: One word review? Unique.

The thin cardboard packaging and simple black and white photo on the front contains one of this year's best CDs.

After Alison Sudol's fantastic voice, the first thing you'll notice is the writing is fantastic. The lyrics are refined and creative. Songs range from folk, to pop, to ballads, to alternative sounding tracks.

Songs like "What I Wouldn't Do" and "New Heights" start things off quickly and lively and feature clapping and piano.

"Electric Twist" is a snappy, clapping, pop/dance track -- one of the album's best. "Stood Up" sounds shockingly different from the other ten songs here, but is a great alternative sounding song featuring big drums and a fantastic sound.

"Blow Away" is the catchy first single (good choice) that has a great video you should definitely seek out and watch.

Ballads like "Happier", "Swan Song", and "Bird of the Summer" start quiet with a guitar and add drums/piano/etc. to build-up songs about break-up, regret, and relationships (respectively). These sound like songs that might've been on their debut CD "One Cell in the Sea", but there is a creative layer of complexity added to these that makes them fit nicely on this CD.

"Elements" is a haunting track that features great writing. "The World Without" is an up-tempo track about a relationship ('We can work this out...').

"The Beacon" is a nice final track that makes you want to hit repeat and start over again at the first song.

Highly recommended.

I Also Recommend: One Cell In the Sea, One Cell In the Sea.

A nice second album, but doesn't quite stand up to One Cell in the Seaby prettypen422

Reader Rating:
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November 11, 2009: I stumbled on A Fine Frenzy sort of by accident 2 years ago when One Cell in the Sea was released, didn't listen to the CD for almost six months, and then fell in love. I was very excited to find out that a second album had come out. As much as I love Alison Sudol's voice, I'm not quite as enamored with Bomb in a Birdcage as I thought I'd be. The tracks present a very different side of her musicality, and definitely vary between soft, whimsical, and what I can't term as anything other than "pop music". I expected another soft, lyrical album, but Bomb in a Birdcage doesn't quite hit the mark. There are several tracks that do hit on the magic Sudol found in One Cell (namely Bird of the Summer, The Beacon and The Swan Song). There are several very whimsical tracks that have grown on me, especially What I Wouldn't Do and Blow Away. The others are somewhere in the middle. I usually skip Electric Twist (it's a throwback to the 1980s to my ear, and it goes on about a minute longer than it needed to), and while I like the lyrics and feel of Stood Up, it doesn't seem to fit in this album. Another thing I liked about One Cell is that the tracks, in their given order, almost seem to tell a story, something I found intriguing. That's lacking with Bomb in a Birdcage. My other big hangup is that there are several tracks where it's very difficult to understand the lyrics. I had to look them up, whereas One Cell's lyrics were much clearer to understand.

So all in all, a nice album, but I wish she'd stayed truer to the sound presented in One Cell.


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