Edith Frost - Wonder Wonder
(Drag City)
Five or ten years ago it was hard being country. Now, things are different. There was that whole No Depression movement as well as Will Oldham and all his imitators, and now everyone is a little bit country. Edith Frost has always been country, though, even before she was signed to Drag City when she was in several country-style bands in New York City.
Don't believe Edith Frost has enough country cred? Well, she's happy to remind you on her third album, Wonder Wonder, that she's really from Texas. She was born in San Antonio, brother, so don't go around questioning whether Edith can really be country if she lives in Chicago. She's as country as the Alamo or Pace picante sauce. On the album's most pop song, "Cars and Parties," with its horn section and marching band beat, Frost finds that everything about Chicago brings back fond memories of her old home in Texas. Only, in Chicago, there are far too many more "Cars and Parties."
Frost probably needs to remind us she's really from Texas because Wonder Wonder finds her moving more towards country ballads, a bit different than the folk brooding on her first album Calling Over Time or the electric fuzz guitar of its follow-up Telescopic. Perhaps it is wrong to call these ballads though, as few songs have any frothy washes of sound. A better way of putting it is that Edith is hardly brooding any more. Some of you are probably thinking, what's the use if there's no brooding, but Edith has just found way too much love to brood. What she's doing is more of a celebration.
The title track to the album finds Frost in a playful mood, the complete opposite of the "brood," as she is considering whether to let herself fall in love. The instrumentation of this song is quite silly, an odd organ sound combined with a bellowing bassoon to create something almost better suited to children's music. The emotion of the song is similarly light-hearted--we know, if not from the later songs on the album that just from general knowledge of human love, that Frost is going to go for the guy no matter what; her thoughts on what others have said about the man are there only to show she knows what she's getting herself into and is ready to jump in anyway. "Dreamers" is a snapshot of that first figurative jump into the relationship--a first embrace, giving into each other--as minimal piano plays in the background with whole notes from a violin and crackling acoustic percussion, highlighting Frost's voice as it creates a soothing, dreamy atmosphere.
The fiddle gets the marquee spot on "Further," one of several great, true country songs. She calls herself a "little girl," telling herself not to "blow out the candles" on another birthday and not to "pull up the garden" so that the young flowers grow--both metaphors for trying to keep the passion of a young love strong. Then Frost sings of her "brave fireman" who will reach out to protect her. The main thoughts behind the song seem to be worrying whether this "fireman" will be there to reciprocate her love when they are reunited. However these thoughts are lost on the initial images of a little girl in need of protection--perhaps too much metaphor in an otherwise excellent song.
On the other end of the spectrum, though, is "Easy to Love" where Frost creates a ballad of the sort that Patsy Cline would have sung 40 to 50 years ago. The title tells the whole song, but it is beautifully sung and incredibly sappy. Another callout to Cline is "Merry Go Round" which is quite similar in theme to "Walkin' After Midnight," as Cline walks around after midnight away from everyone else, wishing her beau was there with her.
Wonder Wonder is Frost's most solidly crafted album. While it covers all the aspects of her new love, warts and all, in soft, gentle, welcoming songs, you can tell that even the occasional wart is more of a beauty mark. If you were to see Frost relate these emotions in person, each one would be done with a smile.
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