One Cell In the Sea

 (沧海一粟)

One Cell In the Sea专辑介绍

★本名为Alison Sudol，充满文采诗意首张专辑，建构出充满想像的唯美世界。
★ 星巴克Starbucks Coffee娱乐副总赞誉：「音乐界里的稀有品种，藉由她的音乐，你将立即前往一个温暖且萦绕的诗意天地。」
★ 收录席卷欧洲排行，MTV真人实境节目The Hills、电视剧Big Shots话题单曲〈Almost Lover〉

她，无师自通一手好琴艺！她，饶富细腻感受的创作文采，大多于她喜爱的深夜时分之中完成。来自于美国西雅图，锺爱文学本名为Alison Sudol的「美丽瞬间A Fine Frenzy」，摘下莎士比亚知名作品《仲夏夜之梦》书中的一个字词「A Fine Frenzy」，自在地迈开她充满诗意的音乐之路。在成长的过程当中，A Fine Frenzy自然地呼吸着Classical、Motown、Swing、Rock、Folk…等不同类型音乐。无论是从经典大师Aretha Franklin、Ella Fitzgerald、Elton John、Louis Armstrong、The Beatles，或是到新世代的音乐人Radiohead、Coldplay、Sigur Ros，「美丽瞬间A Fine Frenzy」全都在他们的身上，寻觅到各式各样的灵感养份，「贪婪地」灌注在自己的创作土壤里。

2006年，藉由一张自己寄出的demo，这个全身围绕着文艺气息的音乐创作人，立刻获得了EMI唱片合约。再发行几张颇受好评的单曲，以及参与无数现场表演的历练之后，创作力惊人的A Fine Frenzy终于带着她的首张专辑《沧海一粟One Cell In The Sea》，找来两大製作人Lukas Burton（Paul McCartney、James Blunt 、Dido），以及Hal Cragin（Iggy Pop、Rufus Wainwright），以大量钢琴音符、空心吉他线条、以及无重力的嗓音，建构出一个充满想像画面的唯美世界。创作里散发独树一格的音乐氛围，立刻抓住众多好耳朵的关爱，美国星巴克娱乐副总为之深深着迷，并公开赞誉：「A Fine Frenzy是音乐界里的稀有品种，藉由她的音乐，你将立即前往一个温暖且萦绕的诗意天地。」美国权威娱乐杂志Paste Magazine也大力称许：「A Fine Frenzy的首张专辑，美丽又神秘！她过人的丰采，绝对是文字创作世界里的下一个明日之星。」专辑开场曲是一首赞叹生命色彩的诵歌，〈Come On, Come Out〉画出A Fine Frenzy世界里的最出感动；琴音跳动着Coldplay式的诗意曲线，〈You Picked Me〉以最哀伤的方式沉溺在宿命的无助里；18岁当时有感而发所创作的〈Almost Lover〉，是这张专辑里的首发单曲，这首爱恋挽歌除了在欧洲引起广大迴响，更在斯洛维尼亚Slovenia夺下冠军宝座，更被MTV真人实境节目【The Hills】，以及知名电视剧【Big Shots】，不约而同地选作配乐；强大的想念轻易地超越距离的限制，〈Think of You〉传递着温暖的坚定，美国ABC电视台人气影集【Wildfire】，也将此曲网罗于电视配乐当中；在感情世界里的无尽回廊之中，〈Near To You〉来回不断自我辩证，寻找不到出口。
国际版封面


by Marisa Brown

After a relative dearth of female singer/songwriters (this was, of course, following the outpouring of them during the whole late-'90s Lilith Fair craze), slowly, slowly, women started making their way back into the limelight. Artists like Michelle Branch and KT Tunstall, even Avril Lavigne and Ashlee Simpson found success with their clean, sentimental poppy songs, and young Alison Sudol follows in this direction, even if she claims to have been influenced more by Radiohead and Sigur Rós more than Sarah McLachlan or Paula Cole. The truth is, Sudol, who chooses to go by the name A Fine Frenzy here, is much closer to the adult alternative sounds of radio-friendly rock than anything even bordering on experimental. A self-taught pianist, she trudges through the 14 songs on her debut, One Cell in the Sea with a kind of laboriousness that distracts from her sweet soprano and tales of love and friendship. Sudol's a decent lyricist -- her main weakness is that she tries much too hard to be profound or interesting -- but her heavily affected piano, the guitars and strings, force a kind of poignancy into the songs that ruins any kind of actual power they might have (the last track on the record, "Borrowed Time," which employs an acoustic guitar instead, displays Sudol's voice and songwriting abilities infinitely better). But worst of all, and probably what makes all this stand out so much, is that the songs on One Cell in the Sea are boring, with melodies that go nowhere, the choruses and verses blend into one another, the whole thing is an hour-long exercise in arpeggios and natural imagery ("I know that we're different/But we were one cell in the sea in the beginning.../We're not that different after all," Sudol coos in "The Minnow and the Trout"), hanging on for too long to Coldplay-esque rises and falls that do nothing, never capture the emotion like Chris Martin can. She certainly tries hard, and nothing ever comes out awfully, but she never takes off, never does anything memorable, and so despite her attempts, A Fine Frenzy ends up being unremarkably dull.