Bird
Girl and a Cello
(Music For Dreams)
True to its appropriately titled promise; Girl and a Cello starts with just that. The calm, café-lobby vocals of Janice Price are accompanied by simple cellos pulsing to a drumbeat on opening track “Sweetheart.” The album doesn’t vary too widely from the tone set by this opening track.
“Bad Connection” adds in some funky bass and harmonized vocals to create a slightly more dance-oriented vibe. “Some Boys” creates a highly suggestive track with the chorus claiming “some boys are bigger than others,” meant to be a double entendre, which falls more on the suggestive side than the innocent. Sounding a bit like Jem mixed with Feist, this track could get her recognized among the same crowd.
“18” plays lyrically as a flashback to Price’s youth and all the things she wished for as an angst ridden teen, set to a very non-angst ridden cello, with several shout-outs to Dirty Dancing. The innocence of youth is soon abandoned for the more adult oriented themes of “High Price,” which claims “Girls don’t want to pay, girls want to be paid.”
The stripped down sound of the album brings the girl front and center, leaving the cello to weave the other various instruments and drum tracks into a tapestry onto which Janice Price can lay her poetry. Overall, the effect works well and creates a simple sound that has more intricacy than some four piece bands, which is impressive given that Price pretty much operates as a one woman show.
“Wind It Up” channels some Music-era Madonna mixing groove-laden beats with mellow vocalizations. One of the more interesting covers of the year comes in the form of Bird’s re-imagination of the Pixies' “Debaser,” although the original still holds the elusive mystic of a classic song that this particular cover lacks.
Girl and a Cello is a solid album worth a listen if any of the above-mentioned bands are already on your play list - Madonna, Jem and Feist for the similarities and the Pixies to hear what Price did with her version. |
