Situation

Album Review

Gee, another year, another great album by French-Canadian chanteuse Lily Frost. Situation is perhaps not the career high point that 2006's Ciné-Magique proved to be, but that's only because now Frost's fans expect such strengths from her. Frost is working the same general side of the stylistic street as any number of other artists: the reverb-washed Francophone opener "Les Vaisseux Nocturnes" sounds for all the world like a late-era Saint Etienne ballad as remixed by the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie, and the Ennio Morricone guitars, flamenco accents and plaintive vocals of "Where Is Love?" wouldn't sound out of place on an album by Emiliana Torrini, although Torrini likely wouldn't slip this song's gorgeous '60s-inspired pure pop chorus into one of her tunes. But Frost is such a gifted songwriter and arranger, in addition to having one of the sweetest voices this side of the late Kirsty MacColl, that Situation doesn't just compare favorably to any number of other similar albums, it actually subtly underscores their relative flaws. Lily Frost's music is perhaps too subtly low-key to offer her any sort of mainstream breakthrough, but there is no reason why she shouldn't be at least as appreciated as the likes of Emily Haines or Feist.