Edith Frost - "It's A Game"

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It comes out on November 15! This is the thread for it.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000BEZOV0.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― gear (gear), Monday, 7 November 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

I just mentioned this on the Cat Power thread, but I've heard about half of it, and I like it a lot. I keep playing "Emergency" over and over. Can't wait until her release show at HotHouse on the 19th.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 7 November 2005 23:22 (twenty years ago)

I haven't heard anything from it. I love the cover, glad it's coming out on LP.

― gear (gear), Monday, 7 November 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

The first 4 songs are gorgeous. Can't compare it to the masterpiece that is "Wonder, Wonder" until I've fully soaked it up. But I have high hopes. She is such a tremendous songwriter.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Monday, 7 November 2005 23:25 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, the cover is cool: she took the photo herself, at an angle, while perched atop the horse. Eazy (from ILE) took the photograph on the back cover.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 7 November 2005 23:27 (twenty years ago)

beautiful cover. not crazy about the font though.

― bird-person-person (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 7 November 2005 23:30 (twenty years ago)

This is a lovely lovely record.

― snotty moore, Monday, 7 November 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

I didn't think Wonder Wonder was half as good as Telescopic and Calling Over Time; so I hope this one is more like those records

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 00:28 (twenty years ago)

I didn't like Calling over Time very much (the only album of hers I've heard), so I was hoping this was different, b/c I could always somehow foresee liking her stuff, if slightly different. That's definitely a nice cover. I think the font is really interesting-not sure I like it either though.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 00:36 (twenty years ago)

Please count one "Pro" vote for the unique, bones-y, Abominable Snowman font.

― Caught Red Handed at Sam's Hofbrau (Bent Over at the Arclight), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

I like it so far. Haven't listened that much, so pretty though.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 04:11 (twenty years ago)

Laura Park hand-drew the cover lettering -- the CD has a really pretty accompanying booklet with plenty more of Laura's drawings (and the LP has something even nicer). The standout songs for me are 'Playmate' and 'A Mirage', but there are quite a few other strong ones, too.

― Eazy (Eazy), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 04:48 (twenty years ago)

i think the lettering is a font called "edith frosting."

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 07:47 (twenty years ago)

"What's the Use" is up at Gramophone today.

― sean gramophone (Sean M), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 09:20 (twenty years ago)

Top record

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 10:26 (twenty years ago)

too many nice records in the world. this is one of them

― rizzx (Rizz), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 10:34 (twenty years ago)

Absolutely great record; perhaps her best since Calling Over Time (which is a singular work of genius). Much sparser than Wonder2, which in my opinion is a good thing. "Playmate" is actually an ancient track - I remember hearing it at her NYC shows circa '96.

― mike a, Tuesday, 8 November 2005 14:49 (twenty years ago)

I disagree that this record is merely "nice." It's an emotional rollercoaster underneath the pretty melodies.

― mike a, Tuesday, 8 November 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

I'll take nice over absolute doo doo anyday.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 16:41 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

This is a gorgeous and heartbreaking record. It's almost TOO crystallized to warrant heavy repeated listening, but that's not a bad flaw to have. Almost reminds me of Stina Nordenstam in that respect.

Her blog is kind of funny too.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 29 December 2005 03:12 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

is brian howe the new douchebag of pitchfork?

http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/f/frost_edith/its-a-game.shtml

― gear (gear), Monday, 16 January 2006 22:27 (twenty years ago)

Eek. Howe complains about how the record is one song after another of the same-old same-old, but his critique goes beyond "it gets boring after a while" into "jeez, why won't she just get over it?" And what's offensive about that is his presumption that the record is constructed as an unfortunate result of Edith's emotional inadequacies rather than as a conscious choice. Truth is, she writes songs like this because she's good at writing them, and she puts a whole bunch of them on a record because there's a nice thematic unity in doing so.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 16 January 2006 22:40 (twenty years ago)

i always like repulsive near-personal attacks masquerading as record reviews. and as if the bread and butter of many a musician through the years hasn't been this sort of lyrical content.

― gear (gear), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 00:02 (nineteen years ago)

In the Pub in NYC in February; stop by for an artist sanctioned free MP3 to chew on.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 07:05 (nineteen years ago)

This record is really great. Just thought I'd weigh in with this very controversial opinion.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 07:37 (nineteen years ago)

it's pretty amazing how the only musical reference point howe uses is friggin' leslie feist.

― danielle the animal steel (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 07:56 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

Excerpts from the Brian Howe review: It's a Game, then, is a country-folk tribute to co-dependency, one lacking the acerbic wit, unexpected joy, and newfound resolve that elevate such music beyond the maudlin. Instead, it's track after track of self-effacement and emotional panhandling, seemingly oblivious to the fact that there's a lot more to life than waiting on a man to let you be happy.

God. Has Frost ever heard of self-fulfilling prophecy?

Likewise, God, has Brian Howe ever heard of the blues or just about ALL American music since the first tape record hummed to life? It's all heartbreak kid. Just cause you ain't in the mood for it doesn't mean you can wish it away with your fancy reviewlet.

I also read one of Mr.Howe's Leonard Cohen reviews in which he wrote:

"Ascribing a numerical value to Cohen feels like rating a sunrise or a religion"

Boy, if only Edith were a man maybe her sadness could get upgraded to eligiac and she really blow his socks off.

Eh, everyone knows it's a game.

― archival janitor, Sunday, 19 February 2006 23:08 (nineteen years ago)

She has a slow song, from the late 1990s maybe, with a piano part that I like a lot: it is worthy of Lloyd Cole.

― the bellefox, Monday, 20 February 2006 12:34 (nineteen years ago)

True?

I know nothing whatsoever about Lloyd Cole, but it's got a lovely tumbling piano part. I'd listen to it right now, but i lent a few CDs to a friend, who claims that he's given them back to me :-(

― Ben Dot (1977), Monday, 20 February 2006 22:44 (nineteen years ago)

I've ended up chatting with Edith a bit due to our mutual love of Lida Husik's music, so for that alone I'd say she rules!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 00:24 (nineteen years ago)

six years pass...

http://www.maura.com/288/listen-to-distant-correspondents-merge
saw edith's new band's first show in colorado this week, about a minute away from where i live. turns out the guitarist/songwriter lives down the street from me...
this sounds good! kinda shoegazey/4AD-ish.

― tylerw, Friday, 18 January 2013 20:54 (twelve years ago)

I like!

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 18 January 2013 21:59 (twelve years ago)

glad she's back! I thought she mostly just knitted and tweeted these days :P

that song's pretty good, but I never would have guessed it was Edith if I heard it of context. I hope the vocals are less whispery/more emphatic on their other material. I really just wish she'd record a covers album of obscure old country songs, since she seems to be a big geek for that sort of thing.

― naadje draadje (unregistered), Friday, 18 January 2013 22:17 (twelve years ago)

I still love her stuff. Telescopic has remained in the current rotation pile of lps for a long time.

― city worker, Friday, 18 January 2013 22:59 (twelve years ago)

seven years pass...

Three new songs on her Bandcamp:

https://edithfrost.bandcamp.com

Reviving this because the other thread isn't great.

― by the light of the burning Citroën, Monday, 4 May 2020 17:36 (five years ago)

Wow, that's a name from the past for me. Glad she's still doing stuff

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 6 May 2020 04:30 (five years ago)

two years pass...

she got banned from twitter for impersonating Elon Musk

also saw on her twitter (pre-banning) an older tweet where she suggested that Brian Gray Howe pitchfork review from upthread basically played some role in her quitting the music game.

― omar little, Thursday, 1 December 2022 18:02 (three years ago)

impersonating elon *and* making elon poop jokes! (i feel it's important to give full credit when full credit is due!)

― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 1 December 2022 18:12 (three years ago)

^^ David Berman said the same about that critic.

― The self-titled drags (Eazy), Thursday, 1 December 2022 20:33 (three years ago)

i hadn't seen a tweet from her in years, even though I followed her.

― akm, Thursday, 1 December 2022 21:29 (three years ago)

Wow – that review, complaining of her "unattractive desperation," must be one of the worst on Pitchfork (at least that hasn't been scrubbed from the site).

― "Mick Wall at Kerrang!" (morrisp), Thursday, 1 December 2022 21:44 (three years ago)

She's on Mastodon now and of course I immediately followed her. (Kindly, she followed back.)

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 2 December 2022 04:23 (three years ago)

one year passes...

With Albini's passing, remembered this one (Glenn Kotche on drums):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMzF9YBxzqM

― paisley got boring (Eazy), Friday, 10 May 2024 05:31 (one year ago)

nine months pass...

https://edithfrost.bandcamp.com/merch/in-space-listening-party

In Space listening party on Bandcamp today

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 26 February 2025 14:06 (ten months ago)

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