dith Frost’s newest opus is the most straightforward of her albums to date. She continues to write amazing pop songs that straddle genre after genre of style, but, before where you could sense her own apprehension in experimentation, on Wonder Wonder Frost has become startlingly self-assured and sure footed. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Miss Frost has assembled a crack supporting cast of musicians and guests (Archer Prewitt and Rick Rizzo), as well as having long time collaborator and producer Rian Murphy (who produced Frost’s Calling Over Time as well as a few Will Oldham LPs) back to man the boards for Wonder Wonder. There is a chemistry between her collaborators, who are not so coincidentally her friends, and it shows. Wonder Wonder is a warm, glowing little album which reflects the love the musicians had for the material.


“True” starts the album out politely enough, a gently plucked acoustic guitar comes in gently over atmospheric cello and percussion. And then that voice. If you weren’t paying attention, you could almost mistake Edith’s voice for another deep, rich, cello tone. Having lost none of her propensity for songs about lost love/unrequited love/bad love/etc, Edith sings true to form, “True, I could hold a torch for you/ Though you’d never love me true/ I could rush to reach you/ every single morning”. Lovely.


Next, for sharp contrast, we’re offered the bittersweet, “Cars and Parties”. Peppered with ringing bells and a staccato beat, “Cars and Parties” skips along with eyes wide as Edith laments, “and oh it's gettin' so cold 'round here/ there's too many cars 'round here/ and though I want to open up my heart/ there's too many parties.” It’s the first of one of the more whimsical numbers on the album. The second being the title track. Add a clip-clop beat, lots of strings, wind instruments, and everything-but-the-kitchen-sink percussion to a song about torn emotions for a lying lover, and you’ve got the catchiest love-gone-wrong song since Nick Lowe sang “Cruel to Be Kind” over a jangly power pop guitar line. It's a definite highlight on the album.


And then there’s that voice. As mentioned earlier, Edith seems to have become much more comfortable with her musical self on this album. Her voice is no exception. On previous albums, most notably, "Walk on the Fire" from Telescopic, Edith’s voice was overdubbed several times and then buried under layers of guitar noise and static. It was an effective tool, and an amazing song, but didn’t really do much to let her voice shine. Calling Over Time, used a more simple, girl with guitar approach. Though it didn’t mask her voice, Edith is far more reserved and shy in her performance. The happy medium is finally struck full in the face on Wonder Wonder. Letting the atmospherics take a back seat, Frost shows off her range this time. On “Who”, she lets her voice plunge into the lower registers, with an almost rumbling baritone. Throughout the rest of the album, she lets her voice drive the melody. Sometimesshe keeps the style aloof; nothing but lilting tones and sing-song phrasing, making every note sound so damn easy. And sometimes she sounds like every note hurts. But it’s in that good, “ooh, it hurts so good.” way. I’ve heard her voice compared many times to Liz Phair’s voice. And while it’s a pretty fair estimation, Edith tends to succeed where Liz has failed recently. She nails the sensitive, gloomy, pop singer part down pat, while Liz has been stuck trying to reconcile her past of rock songs about blowjobs and one night stands with her new mellowness.


But I digress... Continuing her road trip over the musical map, Edith stops off with a creepy organ dirge, “The Fear”, the airy violin folk of “Further”, and the country torch of “Easy to Love”. To top it all off, each and every one of these songs is a killer pop tune. Jealous yet?


This is a good, strong, solid 9.0. Not a, “well, this is pretty good, but I wonder if I’ll still be listening to this a year from now” 9.0. A beautiful record for those of you who like your pop on the atmospheric side. Tastes great with headphones.