Album Review: A Fine Frenzy – ‘One Cell in the Sea’

By Jeff Swindoll Jul 23, 2007, 18:14 GMT

A Fine Frenzy is actually just a fine young singer-songwriter from Seattle, born Alison Sudol. A self-taught piano player, on her debut album she pairs sweeping orchestral arrangements with dreamlike lyrics inspired by the classic works of fantasy writers like CS Lewis, EB White, and Lewis Carroll. Add to that a propensity for frilly shirts and cryptic song titles such as "The Minnow & the Trout" and you half-expect to ...more

A Fine Frenzy is the stage name of singer/songwriter Alison Sudol.  I don’t know about the frenzy part, but she is a redheaded looker so the fine part holds.  She was born in Seattle but moved to Los Angeles with her mother after her parents divorced.  She taught herself to play piano and is a fan of classical music, Motown, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Louis Armstrong, amongst others. 

‘One Cell in the Sea’ is her debut album and you can hear each of those influences in the haunting songs within.  I get the impression that she’s using her songwriting, piano, and songwriting skills to deal with what ails her (her parent’s divorce?) but what artist isn’t to some degree.  There are some grand songs here with some sweeping orchestrations, but there’s also a sense of sadness paired with an Alice in Wonderland quality. 

“You Picked Me” features some fine lyrics as well as an upbeat piano and strings quality.  “The Minnow and the Trout” features the lyrics that the album is titled from, “I know that we’re different but we were one cell in the sea in the beginning.” 

An interesting lyric and thought in the same song.  Such a good voice as well, here’s hoping to hear more from this fine new voice, however frenzied it may be.

‘One Cell in the Sea’ is now available at Amazon. Visit the music database for more information.