splendid > reviews > 4/24/2004

Sugarplum Fairies

Introspective Raincoat Student Music

Starfish Records

Format Reviewed: CD

Soundclip: "Tomorrow's One Day Too Late"

For most of my friends, words like "fucking" and "bitchassshit" function as commas or colons -- breaths between more communicative, socially acceptable words. You don't even hear the curses after a while. But I know one guy who has made swearing an art form. He does it rarely, saving it up for months at a time, until finally something makes him so mad that he lets loose a solitary "hell" or "fuck". The world seems to shake before him every time -- quite an achievement, considering he's a computer programmer.

The Sugarplum Fairies know this trick, and they use it to great effect, albeit in modified form. Their brand of quiet, gorgeously-rendered, pop-infused rock is so delicate and subdued as to make each slightly unusual touch, every unexpected twist, no matter how small, feel like magic. It's a delicate balance to walk the line between convention and boredom, but the Sugarplum Fairies maintain it beautifully, periodically stepping off into strange, electrifying realms. It's not that these fairies are so amazing, and it isn't that my friend has a special technique for saying the word "fuck"; there is pretty much one way to do what the band and the friend, respectively, are doing, and we've seen a lot of both. But my friend and the Sugarplum Fairies are so smart about their shock value that they can shock where others would be protected by whatever part of the brain filters out boredom and linguistic monotony.

Take, for instance, the lethal combination of "Tomorrow's One Day Too Late" and "Sticky Summer". The former, a subtly country-inflected showcase for Silvia Ryder's deep, breathy vocals and multi-instrumentalist/composer Ben Bohm's unlikely musical restraint, lulls listeners into a warm, comfortable state of relaxation. Then the latter comes along, with its deep, deep, unsettling bouncing brass and subliminal percussion. Ryder sings, embittered, "Sticky Summer and forever tired / I'm getting number every time I'm lied to." Creepy and vaudevillian in his showy, waxed-moustache way, Georg Altziebler invades the song with mocking words: "Wearing brand new clothes without a date now / There's an amateur in every trade though." Surprisingly, Ryder seems to embrace him. They sing a warm and unsettling duet. "Memories like dead bouquets wrapped around stale clichés / There's a reason that you try to wish upon the moon..."

"Sticky Summer" is the album's standout track; it's a welcome surprise that the band had the wisdom not to dull the strange juju of Altziebler's one and only appearance by asking him to do more for the album. But then, wisdom is the final and most important adjective to associate with the Sugarplum Fairies. It would be great to see them really cut loose some day, but for now they have the restraint, calculation and general coolheadedness required to be an oddity in this decade's notoriously histrionic scene. Most bands will abuse your time, but this one has the good manners to earn it.

-- Mike Meginnis