High Bias

Listening with extreme prejudice

April 25, 2004

Album Reviews

SUGARPLUM FAIRIES

Introspective Raincoat Student Music

(Starfish)

With a name like Sugarplum Fairies, I expected either a twinky pop band or some hopefully bizarre psychedelia. Singer Silvia Ryder and instrumentalist Ben Bohm do neither, however, instead playing a sort of slightly tweaked triple-A roots pop. Contrasting with the enticingly melodic folk rock, Ryder sounds too obsessive and disturbed to be the sweet thing pining in her bedroom. Occasional cabaret influences and creepy guest vocalists (see the excellent "Sticky Summer" for both) help enliven what might be mistaken for something normal. Michael Toland