Cityzen.tv: Album Review- Crescent and Frost (Open Doors)

I accidentally saw Crescent and Frost play at The Living Room a few weeks back. Though I'd thrown enough drinks back to accuse a completely unrelated audience member of being lead singer Maryann Fennimore – mistakenly, repeatedly and with such gusto I think kind of creeped her out – the band truly did give good show. Unfortunately their stage enthusiasm doesn't translate to their album, Open Doors.

Where do I start? The band name, "Crescent and Frost," conjures the sun-crisp and blandly unthreatening photographs one might find in the pages of a New England catalogue that hawks hand-made twig baskets and blackberry jams. And, frankly, Open Doors might be the most perfectly milquetoast soundtrack to accompany said catalogue as one sits on a freshly painted porch, in a natural fiber caftan sipping iced tea as autumn leaves waft apathetically out of unmemorable trees.

The title song opens the album with inviting, up-beat pop-folk chords and ends in a flurry of strangely misplaced acid-jazz licks. The song is catchy if trite. There's no magic going on here but everyone seems technically proficient.

We move into the song, “Carpenter's Boat.” Karen Carpenter? Christ? Is this a Christian Rock band? Lara, why do you hate me? We've only just met! Is this a song about sinking Noah's Ark? Denouncement of religion? Or just a heavy handed metaphor for the end of a relationship? I'm okay. It's over and I don't even remember what it sounded like.

“Slow Road” begins, as one might expect, slowly. The pace picks up with a chorus of, "You were just a slow road to go down/ After all the best bets had left town" A chorus which I actually find kind of touching -- and I'm going to stop myself there because I think I just gave a compliment and I don't want to ruin this moment.

The album’s fourth song, “Leaving Wins My Heart,” dares to leap out of the catatonia with a jittery banjo. Fennimore sounds committed to what she's singing and varies it up a bit. Traveling and careless love – everyone's favorite blues/folk clichés – are doled out with a sense of humor. This is the most fully realized song on the record.

It's all down hill from here, folks. “Katie”…is the fifth song on Open Doors…

Okay, on “Somebody Somewhere”, I figured out what's really bugging me about these songs. Fennimore's voice, while lovely, is too clean to give the songs any gravity. She sounds emotionally removed no matter what she's singing about. Her lack of emotional involvement with the material leaves me unable to emotionally connect as well.

We're halfway there. “Lonely Man Lullaby” keeps the fire of my previous grievances burning and I'll add the liner notes to the kindling in protest that such obviously talented musicians are subjecting me to such mismanaged work.

“Racing The Rivers” – I like the title.

With “No One There,” the pace finally picks up, but the song dawdles for too long.
The tenth song is “Needle In The Stack.” I think this one's about Eurasia.

“Love Is A Whip,” the last track on Open Doors, finds Fennimore and the other musicians finally sounding like they're having a good time -- on a completely different album, maybe a Bangles album, I'm not sure, but a good time nonetheless.

Despite the band’s name and the album’s content, Crescent and Frost really are worth checking out live and, hopefully, future recordings will more accurately reflect the fervor and chemistry of their live shows.