Review number 471 and this is a little different from the previous Gospel/R&B of Yolanda Adams which I reviewed last. A while back I had bought an album by Thea Gilmore on amazon and was given the usual "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought". One of the albums that was included in this section was "One Cell In The Sea by A Fine Frenzy. I was intrigued as I had never heard of the artist so decided to check her out and did a google search, I was quite impressed so wanted to listen to more of her stuff so as I have Spotify I checked out the album on there.

**Who is "A Fine Frenzy?**

Alison Sudol is a 24 year old musician from Seattle, Washington who is based in Los Angeles, California, At 18 she started a band named Monro as "Alison Munro" but changed back to her real name Alison Sudol for A Fine Frenzy. She is predominantly a pianist but also plays guitar and percussion. "A fine Frenzy" was named after a verse in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream that goes "The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven"

**One Cell in the sea**

This is the debut album from A Fine Frenzy which was released in July 2007 to generally good responses from music critics. The album came about after Alison made a demo tape and sent it to the CEO at Virgin Records and flew out to Los Angeles to meet Alison Sudol and listen to her play live. He was particularly positive about the track "Rangers" and the rest is history as they say as she was signed to Virgin Records.

1 Come On, Come Out Come On, Come Out
2 The Minnow & The Trout
3 Whisper
4 You Picked Me
5 Rangers
6 Almost Lover
7 Think Of You
8 Ashes And Win
9 Liar, Liar
10 Last Of Days
11 Lifesize
12 Near To You
13 Hope For The Hopeless
14 Borrowed Time

**My View**

"Come on, Come Out, Come on, Come Out" opens things with a gentle pace which has a nice flow. This is a good indication of the purity of her vocal as she impresses even with a very relaxed vocal. This track has the feel of a movie soundtrack, very good start. "The Minnow and the trout" is a lovely gentle piano led track which has a beautifully laid back opening which then develops thanks to the gentle percussion and this is a very good track with some great melodies. "Whisper" is up next and is a gentle acoustic guitar based track which showcases the intimacy of Alison Sudol's music. This is one of the best tracks on the album and is just what you should listen for to get a sense of what makes her so appealing. "You Picked Me" brings the album onto a more up tempo feel with a quick opening and then the sound relaxes into a very flowing ballad about when someone you like admits they like you too.

Next up is "Rangers" which is another very fine track, opening with piano and flowing drums this track is one of the more complex tracks musically on "One Cell In The Sea". Now we come to "Almost Lover" which is one of the more stripped down tracks on the album, very gentle piano is joined by Alison's beautifully laid back vocal and soft instrumentation in the background. This is a very good track indeed and shows the emotive feel of her music. This is a brilliant track about saying goodbye to someone who was nearly your partner and the sentiment of the song is about how it could have been if they had have stayed. "Think of you" is up next and has a different opening sound than the others due to the keyboard instead of the piano. This is another very impressive track which has a nice flow and as the drum beat comes in the song develops into a catchy folk pop track. "Ashes and Wine" closes out the first eight here with a very emotive track which features a great taut beat and some gentle piano with her vocals. As this song develops her voice gets stronger and the blend of laid back vocals and the stronger vocals works really well.

"Liar, Liar" is up next and this is possibly the most different song on the album, certainly from the opening which has an Irish feel to it, Moving through the track it progresses very well with the drum beat and the guitars. This is a pretty good track. Next up is the lovely "Last of days" which features a piano opening with a faint electro feel in the background, This is where the likeness to Tori Amos comes in as it does sound a little like her style, Good track with some good piano. "Lifesize" is next and this is a catchy folk pop track with some nice piano and percussion. This track has one of the best flows on the album. Next we have "Near to you" which is up there with the best on the album, a slow piano ballad which again showcases her pure vocal tone which shines here. This is A fantastic track that really sounds beautiful. "Hope for the hopeless" is up next and has an interesting mix which sounds a bit like Gemma Hayes and Fleetwood Mac, This is another very good track with fine vocals and emotive music.

"Borrowed Time" is up next and the opening sounds a little like a more gentle opening of REM's losing my religion. This flows well and the gentle beat blends well with the vocals and other instrumentation to create a good sound. This is a nice closer than continues the feel of the whole album. Very good flowing stuff.

**Overall**

Having listening to the album many times in the last few months I am very pleased I did because this is a very strong album which features around five really great tracks, there are no bad tracks but a couple could be better but let's not dwell on that as this is a very strong album which will please fans of female singer songwriters from past to present. In my opinion One Cell In The Sea was one of the best debut albums of 2007 and you should check out her second album which is out on 8th September which is called "Bomb in a Birdcage" which is available to listen on Spotify so if you have it then go and check it out now.

Also posted on Dooyoo as Lakerfanster