Frames - For the Birds
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Music CD Cover
Artist: FramesEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2001-10-23
Music Label: Overcoat Recordings
Soundtracks:
- In the Deep Shade
- Lay Me Down
- What Happens When the Heart Just Stops
- Headlong
- Fighting on the Stairs
- Giving Me Wings
- Early Bird
- Friends and Foe
- Santa Maria
- Disappointed
- Mighty Sword
Free Music Notes for For the Birds
Free Music Review: Best Frames album so far?
Hit: 5 Stars
In the liner notes, the Frames say that this is the first album they've done where they didn't have to "cater" to anyone outside the band. The result is a brilliant record that maintains the high points of the previous albums, while pushing the envelope a bit with longer songs, less "commercial" arrangements, etc. Their previous album, 'Dance the Devil,' was one of my faves of last year, fitting well under the generic Radiohead/Doves/Coldplay umbrella. With 'For the Birds' they've taken the general feel of the last record and expanded it, making it a bit more adventurous, if less radio-friendly. They've crafted something that manages to be sometimes noisy, sometimes sedate, but always beautiful. In fact, on this record the Frames often achieve a blend of both 'noise' and beauty in the same song, a feat that not many bands can boast of. Several of the tunes start small and gentle, and build to big and strident, but the wonderful thing is that they don't lose their beauty in the process. (This aspect of "For the Birds" reminds me in some ways of Red House Painters, and I think that fans of that band will find much to like here.)
Other tunes start small or big and stay that way. That's one of the fun things about this record -- trying to predict from the opening bars where each song is going to go. In any case, it's a great record and one that all fans of any of the above-mentioned bands, and anyone else for that matter, should give a listen to. The song "Headlong" is one of the best songs of the year, in my opinion, and it alone is worth the price of the album.
For the Birds Poster
For The Birds bears witness to the band's coming of age as an instinctive and integrated playing ensemble, working in service of Glen's open-heart-surgery songwriting. Veering from the warm melancholia of a Will Oldham or Nick Cave to the inspired avant-garde of acts like Grandaddy and Mercury Rev, For The Birds never loses sight of its original intent, being a Frames record. Even when the band stretches out with an almost alt-county feel ('Mighty Sword') or displays a fractious-type dynamic ("Santa Maria") they manage to remain true to themselves, meshing styles and genres seamlessly.The is the first time For The Birds has been available on vinyl in the states!
Few albums are rich enough with a sense of place that they transport you to a different landscape. Engineered by famed producer Steve Albini, the Frames' fourth full-length release, For the Birds, is such an album. But instead of dropping you in Ireland, the band's home, or in any other physical location, For the Birds lures the listener to an interior terrain both familiar and remote. Without a single throwaway track, this album deftly escapes pathos, despite its focus on clichéd indie-pop themes of heartache and loss. A slow pulse-like bass line, rueful violin, mesmerizing guitar, and precise percussion underscore but never underplay Glen Hansard's stripped-bare vocals and lyrics. Hansard asks, "So what happens when the heart just stops / Stops caring for anyone?" He answers, "The hollow in your chest dries up / And you stop believing," a response dispelled as too facile by subsequent tracks. "Headlong" and "Santa Maria" nosedive into torment while "Early Bird," "Fighting on the Stairs," and "Friends and Foe" pull out. You're left in the middle of a swirl of conflicted emotions. What's remarkable is that For the Birds, rife with mental rifts and ditches, somehow convinces you that you want to stay there. --Cintra Pollack
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