Send "Frazey Ford " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 For 10 years now, Frazey Ford has been harmonizing sweetly and trading verses with the two other members of the Be Good Tanyas, whose easygoing vocals and rustic folk-pop have made them mainstays on Vancouver's music scene. In going solo, she's carving out her own niche while proving that she can anchor a full album on her own. Perhaps because she has taken the step of recording under her own name, or perhaps because like all new solo artists she has something to prove, the slow-burn Obadiah sounds more ambitious than her work with the Tanyas. She gingerly stretches and reshapes her band's sound to include new styles and genres and to place the weight squarely on her own carefully observed songwriting.And yet, even as Ford tiptoes between soft jazz, smoky soul, and austere country, Obadiah is defined as much by what she doesn't do as by what she actually does. Without the powerhouse voice of Neko Case or Kelly Hogan, she never belts or hollers, never raises her voice or grasps for high drama. Picking her words apart by the vowels, she keeps her vocals relatively low, slows her tempos, and soft-sells these songs. Her dried cornhusk of a voice sounds like she's channeling her interior monologue, even if she's singing from other points of view-- such as the seen-it-all rogue featured in "Firecracker" or the regretful parent remembering better days on "Lost Together". Even without her harmonizing Tanyas, Ford proves a sure presence through Obadiah, inhabiting these songs comfortably and conveying smirking sass as naturally as simmering lust or downhearted regret. "I can't think, I can't use my brain," she sings on "I Like You Better", "I can't think no more." It's the album's catchiest hook and a telling moment not only because she exudes such romantic abandon, but because Ford actually sounds like she singing without thinking....full text |
| Independent |
| You may be familiar with the Be Good Tanyas: charming, literary all-female Canadian retro-folkies. Frazey Ford is the one who sounds as if she has blancmange in her pants. Tremulous. And this is a tender (often incomprehensible) essay in the poetics of Southern soul, as shaped in the fug of, say, Willie Mitchell (see Solomon Burke review), Al Green, Ann Peebles 'n' all. It lacks raunch, of course, but that doesn't mean Ford's missing the point. She's just interested in a different point. A chilly, soft, wobbly, sweet one....full text |
| Sonorika |
| For years The Be Good Tanyas have been touring and making a solid name for themselves on the Canadian indie twang scene. Now band member Frazey Ford has stepped out on her own with the release of her debut solo album Obadiah. The album is not far from what you'd expect. It's a collection of introspective, at times far too introspective, songs build on a bed of roots music inspiration. It's rare that the arrangements on Obadiah are of any note. Most of the interest is generated by Ford's vocals. On tracks like "If You Gonna Go" she lends a soulful touch to an otherwise straightforward Americana tune. Too often though, Ford's vocals don't lend that touch. In those instances, such as "I Like You Better" and "Lost Together" (not a Blue Rodeo cover), the songs seem to lack an engine to drive them. When the tempo picks up, so does one's interest in the songs. "Hey Little Mama" and "Bird of Paradise" add a catchy pop sway to the Americana while the album opener, "Firecracker", boasts a plucky banjo that would have been welcomed far more often on the album. In the end Obadiah may have it's moments, but there just aren't enough to keep you coming back time and again....full text |
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