Niki N. Phaser

A Fine Frenzy is not quite your standard ignored-gold, considering that Alison Sudol’s debut album (One Cell in the Sea - 2007) has been well received and created enough buzz and fans for her upcoming album, Bomb in a Birdcage, to be released this september. Still, it always hurts a little bit when music of great quality isn’t universally acknowledged as value, especially while mediocre stuff is championed all over the place. A Fine Frenzy’s The Rangers is, for me, the perfect song to back up the statements above. Alison Sudol is well-known for her poetic lyrics and in The Rangers she really creates an entire universe within a classical pop-song structure. She talks about hiding, but not alone and that is why, despite the rather dramatic vocals and tearjerking piano, the song is… well, happy. The chorus is just so tatooable as a wedding vow: “and the rangers stream out of their cabins, they are the hunters, we are the rabbits and maybe we don’t want to be found, maybe we don’t want you tracking us down”. Even though there is isolation in all the hiding and getting lost because “the crumbs are gone”, there is also a sensation of empowering from the fact that there is no I in “we are the rabbits” or “they’ll keep seeking but they won’t find us”. The only I‘s we find are “let’s keep living our quiet lives, you and I, you and I”. I can only conclude by recommending A Fine Frenzy’s The Rangers as a fine way to celebrate the power of togetherness, because every good is better and every evil is lesser when you are with someone.

LISTEN TO THE SONG HERE