2/13/2004

Sugarplum Fairies

Introspective Raincoat Student Music

by Astrid Harders

There are albums that simply get you. They get your mood, your approach to music and, in this case, your absolute love for simple melodies. On ...Student Music, Silvia Ryder guides these songs with a breathy but dense voice. Even though she doesn't have a wide vocal range, the equivalent of a sunnier Nico (to whom, incidentally, Ryder bears a physical resemblance as well), her power to enrapture is undeniable. Lyrics aren't more than simple word combinations stimulating thoughts you wish you'd had ("Necklines drop on birthdays / and I know she's your kind of girl / sweet but sugar-free.") Among softly strummed guitars, an e-bow, mandolin, piano, glockenspiel and occasional Mazzy Star moments (maybe because MS drummer Keith Mitchell was recruited for this album), this duo from Vienna, stationed in California, manages to represent the complicated stages of being broken-hearted, depressed, funny, hot and spaced out all at once, and without complications. (Starfish Records)